“What is the most number of clubs a player has played for which all have the same basic colours on their home kits?” mused Ahmer Naqvi in October 2013.
Quinten Taylor was moved to spend a lunchtime trawling the web, and came up with Frank Worthington, who, he said, “donned blue and white at least eight times, for six league clubs.” We reckon it’s actually 11 times, with a list that includes Huddersfield Town, Bolton Wanderers, Leicester City, Birmingham City, Leeds United (if we’re allowed a dash of yellow), Brighton, Tranmere Rovers, Preston, Stockport County, Stalybridge Celtic and Guiseley. “He was also player-coach at Halifax Town,” said Quinten. They had a sky-blue and white kit at the time. “But sadly he didn’t get any playing time.”
Quinten also nominated Glenn Cockerill, who played almost 300 times for Southampton but was rarely to be found out of red and white in his 22-year career. Lincoln City were kitted out in red and white stripes in the late 1970s, while Swindon Town welcomed him in red shirts and white shorts. Sheffield United, his next club after another stint at Lincoln, hadn’t been out of red and white stripes since 1891. Cockerill’s three-year stay at Leyton Orient coincided with a particularly bad set of home shirts (here he is wearing the Akklaim shirt of 1995-96, for instance). Cockerill finished his career at Brentford, back in the familiar red and white vertical stripes and black shorts. We make that six different clubs.
Another player with a predilection for red and white stripes was Danny Higginbotham, nominated by James Murton, having turned out for Southampton, Stoke, Sunderland and Sheffield United. “Additionally, if we’re talking basic colours and not identical designs,” said James, “he has also had loan spells with Royal Antwerp and Nottingham Forest, both of whom of course play in red with white as a secondary colour.” This also surely allows Manchester United, where Higginbotham began his club career, as well as Altrincham, where he finished it. The defender even came out of retirement to don the red and white of Gibraltar, making a grand total of eight clubs and one country.
Paul Vickers suggested Steve Claridge: “In a long career, Claridge played for four teams in blue: Birmingham City, Leicester City, Portsmouth and Millwall.” Given that Claridge played for 8,293 different clubs, it seemed odd that he only four times ended up in blue, so we did a bit of digging. Strictly speaking, Brighton were in stripes when he was there, but we’re pretty sure he made his one appearance for Gillingham in a solid blue kit, which would make it five. No upgrade for Tony Cottee, though. He played in the blue of four clubs: Everton, Leicester City, Birmingham City and Millwall.
A couple of other league journeymen worth a mention are Marcus Bent, who also played for four blue-clad clubs – Ipswich, Everton, Birmingham and Leicester – and Wigan, although that was in their blue and white striped phase. Bent is put in the shade by Trevor Benjamin, who has racked up seven different blue kits, albeit only three of them at Football League sides. The full list: Leicester, Gillingham, Peterborough United, Gainsborough Trinity, Kidsgrove Athletic, Wroxham and Glossop North End.
Nick Hailstone put forward Rory Delap, naming the same three red-and-white clubs for whom Ian Maguire put forward Kenwyne Jones: Southampton, Sunderland and Stoke City. By our reckoning, Delap has four, having also appeared in the current red shirt and white shorts combo of Barnsley, while Jones has continued his love affair with the colour red, adding Bournemouth and the controversially red-attired Cardiff City in recent years.
Staying in the modern age, Nicolas Anelka could offer an exotic range of blue shirts, having turned out for PSG, Chelsea, Shanghai Shenhua and Mumbai City. You could add Manchester City, Fenerbahce and West Brom as other blue-tinged teams the Frenchman played for, but that may be pushing it.
Gervinho is on a run of four straight teams that play in a shade of red: Le Mans, Lille, Arsenal and Roma. Former team-mate Robin van Persie, meanwhile, will end a 14-year run in red and white by joining Fenerbahce, having turned out for Feyenoord, Arsenal and Manchester United since 2001.
In this modern era of ever-changing shirt styles, you’d be hard pushed to beat the record of Luca Toni. The Italian veteran striker may not top Worthington, but he has played for seven clubs whose predominant colour is blue – Empoli, Lodigiani, Brescia, Genoa, Al Nasr and Hellas Verona – not to mention the famous Azzurri of the Italian national team.
PRE-SEASON DUCK
“Notts County striker Lee Hughes missed the start of pre-season training after getting a mild case of the bends scuba diving on his honeymoon,” wrote Daniel West back in the good old days of 2011. “Are there any similarly outlandish reasons for footballers avoiding the annual punishment of the pre-season fitness regime?”
Croatian striker Milan Rapaic once missed the start of Hajduk Split’s season when he managed to stick his boarding pass in his eye in an airport. Not the sort of aim you’d want from a striker. Josh Clarke is also on hand to help out. “Hearing about Lee Hughes and his holiday incident instantly made me think of two Sunderland players injuring themselves in recent years,” says Josh. “In 2004 Julio Arca got stung by a jellyfish while on Roker Beach. Then in 2008 Paul McShane broke his knee whilst ‘on holiday’ – the cause was not stated.”
Dave Bailey also has some answers. “I remember checking www.physioroom.com at the start of one season, and was amused by some of the excuses injuries ruling out Everton players from pre-season. One of my favourites was Tony Hibbert, who had come down with a case of the horrific sounding ‘Cryptosporidium Parasite’.”
But if you think that’s bad, you’ve heard nothing yet. “Last summer Port Vale’s Lewis Haldane got bitten by an insect and not only missed pre-season but also the first three months of the season,” says Nigel Stubbs. Meanwhile Liverpool’s woes at left-back become a little clearer after reading this. “Fabio Aurélio managed to injure himself before pre-season,” says Tim Hill. “He managed this feat by playing beach soccer with his children and was out for a good three months returning around six weeks into the season.”
Keith Moss is on hand to remind us of a famous story. “This is probably my favourite injury of all time,” he says. “In 1993 Dave Beasant missed a good chunk if not all of pre-season training for Chelsea after dropping a bottle of Salad Cream on his foot at home. It’s all the funnier considering he was a goalkeeper and what’s more, had been responsible for some atrocious howlers during the 1992-93 season, particularly a game against Norwich City when Chelsea lost 3-2 at home as a result of two woeful blunders by Beasant.”
It may not count as an injury, but Wayne Rooney has admitted to summer excess affecting his early season form. In the classic tome, My Decade in the Premier League, Rooney confessed to turning up for pre-season training seven pounds overweight in 2009. The reason? “I drank a few bevvies while I was away.”
PREMIER LEAGUE ABSENTEES
“With the first Premier League matches ticked off my list, an old sinking feeling revisited me as I realised that, again, the league would not be dazzled/enriched by the presence of at least one Indian/Indian-origin player,” wrote Vivek in August 2012. “This got me thinking – apart from India, is there another country that has never been represented in the Premier League by its players?”
The good news, Vivek, is that India are far from alone. Only 99 of the 209 nations currently listed in the Fifa world rankings have managed to produce a Premier League footballer.
India are also not the highest-ranked country without a Premier League player to their name. That hotly contested honour goes to Panama (ranked No62) who just edge out Equatorial Guinea (No63). You have go all the way down to No156 in the world to find India.
Now for the bad news: India are still keeping Vivek waiting almost three years on. In fact, in that time only three Fifa-ranked nations have joined the Premier League party: Kenya (represented by Southampton’s Victor Wanyama), the Gambia (Swansea’s Modou Barrow) and Venezuela (Fulham’s Fernando Amorebieta – born in the South American country, but Basque enough to play for Athletic Bilbao).
Also worth a mention are Gibraltar (represented by – him again – Danny Higginbotham, but not yet a member of Fifa) and Cape Verde. Cabral became the first Cape Verde-born player to grace the Premier League when he made his first, and indeed last, Sunderland appearance in the 2013/14 opening day home defeat to Fulham. Cabral followed plastic Cabo Verdean Pelé, who was born in Portugal and turned out for West Brom in 2008.
India is also both the biggest and most populous country to have failed to churn out a Premier League player. Indonesia, No4 on the population list, and Kazakhstan, world No9 in terms of size, are India’s nearest rivals in those regards. When it comes to GDP per capita, however, Qatar and Luxembourg are the countries who come off worst. Or best. Depending on your point of view.
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