This is the third time I've done the tangerine and graphite away kit of 1994-96 (see Gullit and Peacock). Terry Phelan joined Chelsea in November 1995, and left just over a year later. During that time he made 15 appearances, mostly during his first season at the club.
Billy Dodds will be best remembered for his career in Scottish football during the 1990s and 2000s. However, he actually began his footballing life at Chelsea.
His debut came in a 3-0 defeat at Blackburn in the Full Members Cup in 1986. He soon made his home debut as a sub against Arsenal in a 1-0 win. That was it for the 86-87 season, and the a year on he was sent out on loan to Partick Thistle. The 88-89 season saw three more substitute appearances before he moved on to Dundee.
The 1986-87 season was a strange one for Chelsea kits! It was the only year that the Chelsea Collection was used as a kit sponsor! During the season the club had three sponsors on the shirt, though a lot of the time there was none at all, like the one Dodds is wearing on the repaint.
Simod, the Italian clothing manufacturer was the sponsor for a number of games; Bai Lin Tea for a few more, and also Grange Farm for a couple! Believe it or not, Grange Farm was an actual farm that was owned by chairman Ken Bates! The sponsorless shirt is demonstrated by Micky Hazard below:
The 1993-94 season was a big year for Chelsea - we reached our first major cup final in 23 years! The champions Manchester United were our opponents, a team we had beaten both times in the league that season. Gavin Peacock had scored the winner in both games.
It looked as though Chelsea might notch up their third win over United, as they had most of the first half. Gavin Peacock came closest hitting the bar with goalkeeper Schmeichel stranded off his line. However, the game changed after 60 minutes when a penalty was deservedly given after a foul by Eddie Newton. Just six minutes later the game was over after another penalty was converted by Eric Cantona. This one was definitely not a foul and referee David Elleray later admitted his mistake.
The damage had been done though and United went on to score a twice more, winning 4-0. Fortunately for Chelsea they would go on to win the FA Cup just three years later, though Peacock had departed by then.
This is my first Soccerstarz repaint. Shane Long was released as a West Brom figure, before his move to Hull City in January of 2014.
Long only lasted at Hull until the beginning of the following season, before he moved to Southampton, but in that time he managed to score 4 goals in 17 games. This coincided with the club's highest league position and points total in the Premier League, and an FA Cup Final.
The 2010-11 season started so well for Chelsea, and Drogba. In the first game we won 6-0 against West Brom with Drogba scoring a hattrick, having also done so in the 8-0 thrashing of Wigan in the last game of the previous season. Therefore, going into the next game, away at Wigan, he had the chance to become the first Premier League player to score hattricks in three consecutive games. Unfortunately for him he didn't score at all, but we did win 6-0 again meaning we had scored 12 goals in the first two games of the season, and 20 goals in our last three Premier League matches!
Such incredible form had the supporters dreaming of, and believing in, more record breaking seasons, and domestic dominance, all achieved whilst playing the best football of the Abramovich era! However, as tends to happen at Chelsea, the incredible high was followed shortly by an unfathomable low, as we collapsed during the late autumn and early winter.
A late revival was not enough to secure any silverware, and it ultimately cost Carlo Ancelotti his job. In hindsight, that decision, and the sacking of Ray Wilkins which seemed to cause the collapse, put the club back years in terms of title winning potential. It sparked a return to the quick turnover of managers that had followed Mourinho's sacking in 2007, with Andre Villas Boas, Roberto Di Matteo, and Rafa Benitez all failing to last a year in the job.
Drogba failed to replicate his form of the Double winning season, scoring just 13 goals in 37 games - 24 goals fewer than the previous year.
Alexei Smertin joined Chelsea in 2003, but was loaned out immediately to Portsmouth. Upon the arrival of Jose Mourinho in 2004, Smertin was one of six players to make their debut on the opening game of the season - a 1-0 win over Manchester United.
Smertin was used sparingly throughout the season, clocking up most of his appearances early in the campaign. After Christmas, he was predominantly on the subs bench and played in domestic cup games.
Smertin scored his only goal for Chelsea in the Champions League, hence I've used the fonts used in Europe that season on the figure.
The obvious reason for Smertin's lack of game time is the remarkable success of the 2004-05 side. The season had begun promisingly, going unbeaten up to mid-October, but there were questions over the scoring ability of the side. However, the defeat at Manchester City, and the emergence of a previously injured Arjen Robben, sparked the team into life and four goals were put past all of Blackburn, West Brom, Charlton, Fulham, Newcastle and Norwich before Christmas.
This heavy goalscoring period was followed by a record breaking Christmas, where the defence was not breached for ten games (1025 minutes - a Premier League record at the time), lasting up until March. By the end of April the league had been sewn up for the first time in half a century.
What a season! The Chelsea of 2004-05 are statistically, at least, the best ever of the Premier League era. They still hold the following records:
Highest points tally - 95
Most wins - 29
Most away wins - 15
Fewest goals conceded - 15
Fewest away goals conceded - 9
Most clean sheets - 25
Chelsea have done a brilliant feature on the title winning season here.
We only lost one game in the league that season, and finished with five more points than the "invincible" Arsenal team from the previous season.
This is the third time I've painted someone in this kit. The previous two being Mark Hughes and Dan Petrescu figures.
I've varied it slightly this time by painting the socks in the change colour - usually worn in matches against teams with white socks.
Laudrup joined in the summer of 1998, but got injured in pre-season meaning he didn't make his debut until the third game of the season. He came on as a sub in the UEFA Super Cup against Real Madrid which Chelsea won 1-0. However, it took until the famous 4-3 at Ewood Park for him to show his quality, coming off the bench to set up Tore Andre Flo's equaliser.
Things quickly turned sour though, when Laudrup complained about manager, Gianluca Vialli's rotation policy after a 0-0 draw against Helsingborgs. By the time the next round of the Cup Winners' Cup had come round, Laudrup was complaining of homesickness, and a tie against Copenhagen was the perfect opportunity for him to return home. A 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge was shortly followed by the announcement that upon the completion of the tie, Laudrup would stay in Denmark and be transferred to our opponents in exchange for Bjarne Goldbaek.
Ironically, Laudrup scored the winner in the second leg, his only goal for the club, to knock his new team out of the competition.
The second Eto'o figure I've done. This time in the away kit of his only season at the club. There is no particular sentiment for painting Eto'o in this kit - he failed to score away from home all season!
This was the cursed away kit of 2009-10! Chelsea lost six games in domestic competitions that season, and four of them came wearing this kit! In fact, the kit was only worn on five occasions - away league defeats at Wigan, Aston Villa and Man City; a defeat on penalties in the League Cup at Blackburn; and a 1-1 draw in the league at Blackburn which lost us control of the title race!
In the end it didn't matter too much as we won the league with a record number of goals scored. It was lucky we generally favoured the white third kit towards the end of the season though!
This is one of three repaints I've done for a Hull City fan recently. It shows Michael Dawson in their home kit from last season.
Hull were promoted via the playoffs, with Mo Diame scoring the winning goal.
The kit was interesting enough to do - this is the first time I've painted pinstripes on a shirt. I wasn't sure if they were going to be too thick, but I'm relatively pleased with the end result.
This was a somewhat ambitious project I undertook at the end of last year, before my winter break. I have taken the head and base of a Terry Venables manager figure, and attached it to a body in a playing pose (I believe it was Ian Durrant - sorry Rangers fans!). I was inspired to attempt this after seeing something similar on a Chelsea repaint Facebook page (shown below).
Unfortunately, on their repaint they have used the wrong Chelsea badge for the time!
As you can see, my attempt has not gone perfectly! The first thing you notice is that the figure has quite a pronounced lean! Combined with the huge smile on the face of Venables, it looks like he might have spent the previous night in the pub! Although, perhaps it is fitting as Venables left Chelsea after an argument with manager Tommy Docherty, over being sent home for breaking a curfew.
The second thing that is noticeable is the attachment of the head and base. The removal of these from the original Venables manager figure (using a saw) was not easy and left uneven surfaces on both the figures. This meant that when placing the head onto the body, there wasn't a simple flat surface to glue it on.
To combat this I initially used a wall filler to cover the cracks and jagged edges, and then superglue to ensure the head and base remained in place. It is this filler that can be seen on the neck and base of the figure. Whilst not perfect, I am relatively satisfied at the final result, even if it does look like Venables has a wrinkly and/or diseased neck!
Venables played for Chelsea way before my time, but he is still remembered fondly by supporters (even if he did leave us for Spurs!). He was one of the members of our great youth team in the early 60s, and quickly became captain of a first team which was on the up, competing domestically and on the European stage. Victory in the 1964-65 League Cup (our second major honour) was backed up with a great run in the Inter Cities Fairs Cup the following season. Chelsea really was the place to be in the 60s, both in football and culturally too.
Chelsea have done a good short bio of Terry's time at the club here.
This is a repaint I did from one of the figures of the England Euro 96 collection. I was looking at Sherwood's clubs and was surprised to find Portsmouth on the list!
Sherwood played for Pompey towards the back end of the 2002-03 season, when they won the First Divison (now the Championship), and then the beginning of the following season, in the Premiership.
I'm really happy with the final outcome of this repaint. It was recently sold on Ebay, so someone else must've liked it too!
Juan Sebastian Veron joined Chelsea in the summer of 2003 as one of the first signings of the Abramovich era. Having been disappointing for Manchester United, who had signed him for an English transfer record fee at the time, it was a risky move.
Despite his poor performances in England, both Alex Ferguson and Claudio Ranieri rated him very highly. It looked like they were to be proved right when Veron netted the winner at Anfield on the first game of the 2003-04 Premier League season.
However, injuries soon took their toll and Veron missed out on most of the season. When Jose Mourinho arrived the following season Veron was loaned out to Inter Milan. It was the beginning of some the club's bizarre transfer policies of loaning out experienced players for years on end before eventually selling them for next to nothing. I'm particularly thinking of Hernan Crespo, Yossi Benayoun, Marko Marin and Victor Moses. The latter two haven't been sold yet, and could still play a part for Chelsea, but it wouldn't be at all surprising if both we moved on for small fees.
Veron stayed for two years at Inter Milan, before spending a further year on loan at native club Estudiantes. He eventually departed to them on a free transfer at the beginning of the 2007-2008 season. In all he spent four full seasons as a Chelsea player, of which three were spent on loan! He only made 14 appearances, which equates to just over £1m a game (£15m fee), plus several years of wages for time he spent at other clubs.
Unsurprisingly, you will often find Veron on lists of the most expensive flops of all time! As if that's not embarrassing enough, he usually appears on the list more than once!
As promised, here is my third Rooney figure, this time in the England away kit for Euro 2016.
England are yet to wear this kit in the competition, and I'm not sure they will in the final group match against Slovakia. Hopefully, they wear it later in the competition - a winning Rooney goal against Germany would be nice! Unlikely though!
With the Euros starting soon (tonight!) I've painted two Wayne Rooney figures in the new England kit.
I'm really pleased with how the repaints have turned out, even if I'm not a huge fan of the kit itself!
Both of these are available on Ebay to purchase, just follow the link!
I decided to put them both on Ebay as early as soon as the tournament starts to ensure a demand for them! It was too great a risk to leave it later with the likelihood of England exiting the tournament within a few days of it beginning (again!). That being said, I hope to produce one of Rooney in the away kit over the next couple of weeks.
This was a very simple repaint thanks to the very simple kit design of Real Madrid! The trickiest part was fitting all the transfers on! I decided to do the kit worn by Real in the Champions League this season.
Ronaldo played a major role in Real winning La Undecima, scoring twice against Roma; a hattrick to turn the tie around against Wolfsburg and then the winning penalty in the final against Atletico.
This is another repaint in the famous tangerine and graphite kit! The other one I've done in this kit is of Gavin Peacock.
This one was a bit more awkward to do as the original painting from Corinthians (in the 95-96 home kit) was very sloppy! This meant I had to repaint a lot of the arms and legs where the blue from the original figure was sticking out.
The stance in which Gullit is in is also quite difficult to paint around. There are a lot of body parts attached to one another, and it is hard to tell the difference between shirt, shorts, socks and skin! Nevertheless, I think the repaint has come out really nicely.
My only gripe is the shade of Gullit's skin, which is far darker than in real life. This is the opposite problem to the George Weah figure I painted last year!
Another one of my earlier repaints, which I sold recently. This one is of David Batty in the Leeds United kit of 1991-1992 which is when they won Division 1 - the final season before the inception of the Premier League.
Despite the rivalry between Chelsea and Leeds, I, and a number of Chelsea supporters, would love to see them back in the Premier League.
Torres will take part in his second Champions League final this evening - the first being with Chelsea in 2012. Torres played a crucial role in that final despite only coming on with five minutes to go. It was of course him who won the corner from which Didier Drogba equalised! This sent the game to extra time and penalties, which Chelsea famously won!
Torres' more famous contribution in that European campaign was to score the second goal against Barcelona in second leg of the semi final, made all the better by Gary Neville's hilarious reaction to it!
The goal itself wasn't actually that important to the game, Chelsea were going through at the time, and with just a minute left to play would probably have seen the game out. Especially considering that they had done so for the previous 45 minutes with just 10 men!
As a Chelsea supporter I don't believe that performance gets the credit it deserves. Gary Cahill was taken off injured early in the match, joining David Luiz on the sidelines following his injury against Spurs in the FA Cup semi the previous week. Then John Terry was stupidly sent off for kneeing Sanchez meaning that both regular right backs, Branislav Ivanovic and Jose Bosingwa, had to play in central defence and central midfielder Ramires had to play right back!
When Barcelona scored two quick goals at the end of the first half to take the lead on aggregate (2-1) it prompted Alan Green to exclaim "standby for the floodgates to open"! In fairness it wasn't without good reason, Barcelona were known for destroying teams (they still are!) and were touted by many as one of, if not the, best teams ever to have played club football. Chelsea meanwhile were struggling to an eventual 6th place in the Premier League!
Even a wonder goal by Ramires on the brink of half time left many feeling that it was only delaying the inevitable. It certainly looked that way early in the second half when Drogba "fouled" Fabregas in the area, but incredibly Messi missed the penalty (he is still yet to find the net against a Chelsea side!). From there Chelsea soaked up wave after wave of attack as the minutes ticked by. Torres replaced an exhausted Drogba with 10 minutes to go.
Chelsea looked like holding on, but then they had done three years earlier only to be denied at the last. Then, in the last minute, the ball was hoofed up field and Torres found himself through on goal. He rounded Valdes and stroked the ball into the empty net, leading to massive celebrations in the gods of the Nou Camp and pubs in the south west London area! The goal wasn't important to the result, but it confirmed it and went some way to repaying the £50m transfer fee and the "Scandal of Stamford Bridge" three years earlier!
This is a figure I did a while back, you can tell because I've painted on the Umbro logo instead of using a transfer.
It seems the perfect time to display it with Hull taking place in the playoff final today, just as they did eight years ago. Hull won that final against Bristol City and will be hoping for a similar result today against Sheffield Wednesday.
Neil Sullivan signed for Chelsea in 2003 after Jurgen Macho had picked up an injury during preseason having just signed himself. He was perhaps one of the lower profile signings that summer; the arrival of Roman Abramovich led to a spending spree which exceeded £100m! Sullivan was signed from rivals Spurs for a paltry sum of £500k.
Sullivan may not have expected or been expected to play that season, but several injuries to Carlo Cudicini and Marco Ambrosio ensured him some game time. In total he played 7 games that season, keeping clean sheets against Reading, Charlton and Portsmouth (x2).
I'm reasonably happy with this simple repaint. I remember the kit fondly having dived around the garden in one plenty of times all those years ago! The unique aspect of it is the net illusion on the back of the shirt which I have attempted to replicate.
This one is less of a repaint than my previous figures! Almost the entire shirt is created using transfers!
The figure is of Ryan Giggs sporting the Manchester United away kit of 1990-92, around the time Giggs made his first team debut for them. I have seen a lot of United repaints but never one in this kit before, probably because it is almost impossible to paint! I feel the transfers really work though.
I did this figure recently and it is available on Ebay now! If you are interested, or know of someone who might be, visit the link above!
I feel a bit guilty about this one in all honesty! Mark Schwarzer is a rare Corinthians figure and was only released in the Middlesbrough League Cup winners pack. Therefore, in order to obtain a Schwarzer figure, I had to purchase the pack and then split it up so I could obtain the ones I wanted (Zenden is also part of it too). Sorry purists!
Today seemed like a good time to show this figure as Schwarzer returned to the Bridge with Leicester. Remarkably he has won consecutive league titles at the age of 43! I also believe he is the first player to win consecutive titles without featuring in the any of the games in either season!
Schwarzer was one of the first signings made by Jose Mourinho upon his return to the club. Throughout the season he provided cover for Petr Cech and ended up playing in some crucial games towards the end of the season when Cech got injured.
During the season he kept clean sheets at Arsenal, Liverpool and Atletico Madrid as well as becoming the oldest debutant in the Champions League and the oldest Chelsea player to play in the Premier League. The clean sheet away to Liverpool, which stopped them winning the league (Slippy G), took Schwarzer's Premier League clean sheet tally to 150 - only the third player to do so (Cech and David James are the other two).
Schwarzer stayed on for a second season, but found himself third in the pecking order behind Cech and Courtois - surely one of the strongest set of goalkeepers ever assembled! However, when Leicester needed cover for the injured Kasper Schmeichel in January 2015, he was allowed to move on.
This is by far the earliest repaint I've done so far. Dennis Wise has been painted in the home kit worn between 1989 and 1991.
Wise joined Chelsea from Wimbledon in 1990 and helped the club to 11th position in his first season. I don't have any memories of the season as I was yet to be born!
