2 hours ago, erskblue said:

I'm sure it was Admiral, Bukta, Gola and Umbro who were the big manufacturers in Britain in the initial replica strips.

From reading,the kits were aimed at younger supporters and the largest size at the start was a medium mans.

Pretty soon they realised what the demand was for replica kits.

Funny how fashions come round again, the 80's you wouldn't see match going fans in football shirts very often, it was very much the casual designer sports wear look, then the 90's came and it was very much the replica shirt brigade, now it's very much the 80's casual retro look, at Stoke last week there weren't many replica shirts in the Chelsea end, as there weren't that many for the arsenal game in the Mathew Harding lower. I think it does depend on what club and the fan base as well though. As Arsenal fans for instance will prance around in the shirts, scarfs and hats and to be honest look total clowns. What there Mrs must say when they leave the house for a game dressed like they do god only knows

3 hours ago, erskblue said:

I'm sure it was Admiral, Bukta, Gola and Umbro who were the big manufacturers in Britain in the initial replica strips.

From reading,the kits were aimed at younger supporters and the largest size at the start was a medium mans.

Pretty soon they realised what the demand was for replica kits.

Adidas started to get business around 78. And some clubs were a surprise thinking about it now. Forest, qpr, Fulham, Middlesbrough. 1-2 years later more clubs like Palace, Manure, Notts County!

ITV did a documentary earlier this year about Admiral. It interviewed ladies who used to sew the kits and they even had say on design and colour!! They talk about the dreaded chocolate kit of Coventry city!!

Edited September 29, 20178 yr by Richard P
Wrong TV channel posted

Get shirty is the name of the documentary it was on itv. The full film is on Vimeo but I can't seem to post a link. A great watch whether you are young or old. Couldn't be done like it in 2017!

4 hours ago, Andy North said:

My dad used to drive us from Twickenham and we parked by Eelbrook Common. He would walk across the park and I had to run. We used to stand in the Shed end about 30 yards in front of the café and when the final whistle blew I would often be squashed in the crowd. We would exit via the tunnel and just as you enter that exit the squash was sometimes quite scary. I remember on more than occasion as I stepped off the large terrace step into the gangway my feet didn't actually make it to the ground and I was carried along by the crowd with my feet off the ground.

I think the biggest squash I ever experienced was in the Clock end Highbury. It was the early seventies and a mid week cup replay. It could have been an FA Cup quarter final. The crowd that night was huge and the whole of the clock end was rammed full and the atmosphere electric. I remember feeling quite sick. Maybe someone can remember exactly which game that was. I think we lost unfortunately. Maybe that was why I felt sick.

Arsenal v Chelsea, 20 March 1973

Score	2-1 to Arsenal
Competition	FA Cup Quarter-final replay
Venue	Highbury
Attendance	62,746   Worst crush I have even been in at a football match, gates were locked with thousands outside. After the match feet never touched the ground from entering Arsenal station until platform level my programme disintegrated with heat and sweat in my inside pocket, how there was no fatalities is a miracle. There was also the case of Arsenals dodgy penalty.

11 hours ago, chi blue said:

Funny how fashions come round again, the 80's you wouldn't see match going fans in football shirts very often, it was very much the casual designer sports wear look, then the 90's came and it was very much the replica shirt brigade, now it's very much the 80's casual retro look, at Stoke last week there weren't many replica shirts in the Chelsea end, as there weren't that many for the arsenal game in the Mathew Harding lower. I think it does depend on what club and the fan base as well though. As Arsenal fans for instance will prance around in the shirts, scarfs and hats and to be honest look total clowns. What there Mrs must say when they leave the house for a game dressed like they do god only knows

Good points. I think that the retro football shirt and t-shirt market has taken off, particularly in the last few years. I have a couple of retro home tops and a 1978 retro tracksuit top.

As you say,not many wore football tops to games in the 1980s. It was Fila, adidas, nike, Sergio Tachini tops. Lyle and Scott and Pringle jerseys.

Ah memories!

1 hour ago, erskblue said:

Good points. I think that the retro football shirt and t-shirt market has taken off, particularly in the last few years. I have a couple of retro home tops and a 1978 retro tracksuit top.

As you say,not many wore football tops to games in the 1980s. It was Fila, adidas, nike, Sergio Tachini tops. Lyle and Scott and Pringle jerseys.

Ah memories!

I'm not sure if I'm all retro this morning or just old fashioned, i'm sitting here in my Lyle and Scott t shirt and in a minute taking my daughter to swimming lessons and I'll put my ellesse tracksuit top on, I still think it's 1984, mind you one difference, I haven't got my hair Permed at the back, like 1984 though!      Mid life crisis don't you just love it

Slits at the bottom of " your" jumbo cords or bleached Lois jeans with maybe in my case a nice pair of Dia Dora trainers.

8 minutes ago, Richard P said:

Slits at the bottom of " your" jumbo cords or bleached Lois jeans with maybe in my case a nice pair of Dia Dora trainers.

Forgot about the slits up the seams !

On 29/09/2017 at 16:24, Andy North said:

My dad used to drive us from Twickenham and we parked by Eelbrook Common. He would walk across the park and I had to run. We used to stand in the Shed end about 30 yards in front of the café and when the final whistle blew I would often be squashed in the crowd. We would exit via the tunnel and just as you enter that exit the squash was sometimes quite scary. I remember on more than occasion as I stepped off the large terrace step into the gangway my feet didn't actually make it to the ground and I was carried along by the crowd with my feet off the ground.

I think the biggest squash I ever experienced was in the Clock end Highbury. It was the early seventies and a mid week cup replay. It could have been an FA Cup quarter final. The crowd that night was huge and the whole of the clock end was rammed full and the atmosphere electric. I remember feeling quite sick. Maybe someone can remember exactly which game that was. I think we lost unfortunately. Maybe that was why I felt sick.

Might have been 1973 FA Cup Quarter Final Replay was locked out that night we lost 2-1 disputed penalty

On 29/09/2017 at 19:48, chi blue said:

Funny how fashions come round again, the 80's you wouldn't see match going fans in football shirts very often, it was very much the casual designer sports wear look, then the 90's came and it was very much the replica shirt brigade, now it's very much the 80's casual retro look, at Stoke last week there weren't many replica shirts in the Chelsea end, as there weren't that many for the arsenal game in the Mathew Harding lower. I think it does depend on what club and the fan base as well though. As Arsenal fans for instance will prance around in the shirts, scarfs and hats and to be honest look total clowns. What there Mrs must say when they leave the house for a game dressed like they do god only knows

If you wore a shirt in the early 80s you increased the probability of getting a good kicking 

Also made it a bit harder getting in the away end 

 

Remember a game against the pikeys at their ground in early 80s. Queuing up outside and everyone dressed the same, kept kicking off as no-one knew who was Chels and who was a pikey. At least at Leeds in was obvious who was who, They dressed really weird

Edited October 1, 20178 yr by Shug

Not sure who this is against think it's Sheffield Wednesday they had a massive open end. 

Edited October 2, 20178 yr by bluehaze

On ‎01‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 18:12, Shug said:

If you wore a shirt in the early 80s you increased the probability of getting a good kicking 

 

For me the early ninety's were like that. We only wore them at Wembley.

5 hours ago, bluehaze said:

Not sure who this is against think it's Sheffield Wednesday they had a massive open end.  A different match when we played them in 1973 in the cup --

 

Sheffield Wednesday 1 v Chelsea 2 we played in Red Green and White - Only seems like yesterday !

 

https://www.owlstalk.co.uk/forums/topic/232566-sheffield-wed-v-chelsea-fa-cup-1973/

Info from Owls talk

Lots of Chelsea in the KOP, one of the first outings for my Union Jack flag.

Edited October 2, 20178 yr by Nitro
Check link

3 hours ago, Nitro said:

Sheffield Wednesday 1 v Chelsea 2 we played in Red Green and White - Only seems like yesterday !

 

https://www.owlstalk.co.uk/forums/topic/232566-sheffield-wed-v-chelsea-fa-cup-1973/

Info from Owls talk

Lots of Chelsea in the KOP, one of the first outings for my Union Jack flag.

I went on the Wednesday forum weird that reacted to instead of liking a post.

Jack Cock Chelsea Circa 1921

 

Edited October 3, 20178 yr by Boyne

20 hours ago, Scott said:

Jack Cock Chelsea Circa 1921

 

That pic looks like he had a 'decent one' to match his name!

14 hours ago, Boyne said:

Morata reminds me of Ossie.

On ‎02‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 22:36, bluehaze said:

I went on the Wednesday forum weird that reacted to instead of liking a post.

This was one comment there some will like:

In reply to where were the chelsea fans well they did have most of leppings lane as I was above them . On the video it's shows owls behind there as well but believe me most were chelsea it was packed that day and they made some noise too . They were singing osgood osgood born is the king of Stamford bridge . If anyone else was in the west upper would like there account . Wednesday has majority of the upper west tho

http://www.chelseafc.com/news/latest-news/2017/10/fitting-memorial-for-former-player-whitley-unveiled--.html

Jack Whitley’s place in Chelsea history was not forgotten but until recently, our former player and trainer’s grave in nearby Brompton Cemetery had been.

That is no longer the case however and on Saturday, prior to the match against Manchester City, fundraising efforts by Chelsea supporters came to fruition with the unveiling of a new memorial stone for Whitley on his previously unmarked grave. It was a ceremony attend by the fund organisers and supporters, Chelsea’s chairman Bruce Buck and descendants of Whitley.  

He was a major figure for the club from our early years of existence up until the Second World War. In the wake of the short but colourful Chelsea career of the behemoth Willie ‘Fatty’ Foulke, he was our second significant goalkeeper and made his debut 110 years ago last month, keeping our first clean sheet as a top-flight club in the process.

Whitley went on to play 138 games before becoming the first team trainer, which in the days when the manager’s job was filled with administration, meant he was responsible for all areas of coaching and fitness, with a big role in player liaison and transfer negotiations. He was also the trainer of the England team on several occasions.

He continued to work for Chelsea until 1939 and died in 1955, shortly after our first league championship triumph. He was buried in Brompton Cemetery just to the east of Stamford Bridge, a fact that became lost over the course of time until rediscovered by Chelsea’s club historian Rick Glanvill. 

Jack Whitley's great grandson Andy and great great grandson Harry unveil the stone

The cemetery is also the final resting place of significant figures in Chelsea’s birth, including Henry Augustus Mears, who built Stamford Bridge as a football stadium and founded the club, and our first chairman Claude Kirby. Bobby Campbell, Chelsea manager in the late 1980s and early 1990s is also buried there.

However, Whitley is the only known former Chelsea player there so the Chelsea Supporters Trust, who are already involved in a project to maintain graves with assistance from the club, launched a crowdfunding appeal for a fitting stone memorial for the rediscovered grave.

‘We had to raise £5,500 for the stone and to pay for the plot and the licences, and we set ourselves a target of three months to do that,’ said Chelsea Supporters Trust chairman David Chidgey.  

‘We raised it in a month, and that shows the generosity of Chelsea supporters and also the affection we have for former players. None of those who donated would have seen Jack play but the fact he wore a blue shirt was enough.

‘We had Bruce Buck here for the unveiling and it was fitting as Bruce recognises the importance of Whitley being the only Chelsea player buried in the cemetery next to Stamford Bridge.’

 

Chelsea FC chairman Bruce Buck and Chelsea Supporters Trust chairman Dave Chidgey lay wreaths

Whitley’s great grandson Andy attended the ceremony along with his nephew Harry on behalf of the family and spoke of pride in the occasion.

‘This is the culmination of two-and-a-half years of research and work,’ added Glanvill, ‘and we are absolutely delighted to finally put a memorial on here, crowdfunded by supporters from Chelsea and from other clubs such as Everton and Man United as well.

‘We would love Chelsea supporters if they are walking down to the ground through the cemetery to take a left turn into the north-east corner and have a look at Jack’s grave. Working with the Chelsea Supporters Trust on this has been so satisfying, including tracking down the family so we could get permission to put a stone on the grave, and Andy who is here at the ceremony is a lifelong Chelsea fan though he is from north Lincolnshire.

‘Jack Whitley’s role at Chelsea was hugely important and for a former footballer to go unmarked in Brompton Cemetery was an anomaly we had to clear up, and it is thanks to the supporters that we have. Supporters remember.’

-          Click for information on a self-guided tour of the Chelsea-related graves in Brompton Cemetery, produced prior to the new memorial for Whitley