The Away Kit Mentality

The Twentieth of June Two Thousand and Eleven. Monday.

A small insight into my personality.

Yes, I want to be 'quirky' and perhaps a little bit 'alternative'. But I've always enjoyed doing this in a low key and pointless way. For instance, the few Man City shirts I've had over the years have typically been away ones. My very first one was the seventies one that looked like this:

only instead of the League Cup winners crest it had the traditional circle badge, thus:

 

I even had a No 8 on the back for Colin Bell - ah, Nijinsky, I never got to see you in your prime, but at least I saw you a few times after you returned from injury (Martin Buchan, hang your head in shame).

Over the years, I've gone away more than home, the red and black stripes being a regular fave (they're back again next season) with the odd maroon version, or that navy and white Kappa job from the 90s. Although I have fond memories of this:

which I had in the early 80s and am tempted to get from a retro shop. It's rubbish polyester mind, so the 70s one at the top in cotton's probably the better bet.

Anyway, I'm straying from the point somewhat - which was that given a choice I'd always go for the second option. On Airfix kits I'd choose the paint job and decals that were different from the picture on the lid. I've always illustrated this by saying that when I bought a Lockheed Starfighter I went for the Royal Canadian Air Force livery instead of the Luftwaffe camo version on the box, but imagine my horror when googling to try and find a picture I discover this:

On the orginal issue of the kit, the Canadian version was the cover star! Kind of undermines what I was saying, but also illustrates the satisfyingly arbitrary nature of it all. Ah, here's the one I had:

but my assertion is looking increasingly flimsy as it seems there was another Canadian version:

Although I did go for the 'Dogfight Double' of a Dassault Mirage III vs a MiG15 so I could get them in the Israeli Air Force and Egyptian Air Force markings instead of their regular ones so I think that says something -

Other examples: I had a white Stylophone

I got Stock Car Classy Crashers instead of the regular Stock Car Smash Up

(that orange one always seemed to lose) and I have a thing for White Maltesers. Although you don't see them quite so much these days.

So stick all that on your personality test, Mr Scientologist. Ha!

More soonliest.

Ossie's Dream

The Tenth of June Two Thousand and Eleven. Friday.

The Flat's quite tidy at the mo. It's quite pleasant, really. So this is why people keep their homes clean. Nice, but I don't think it'll catch on.

Oh it was the last episode of series 3 of The Mentalist tonight (or as it is known in the MH family El Mentalista) and it was a good one. Yes, faithful viewer, this is my Seventh Telly Recommendation.

Now the creator of El Mentalista is a chap by the name of Bruno Heller. He's British, the brother of novelist Zoe Heller and I have a feeling he's a Spurs fan. Why?

In tonight's episode there were 5 possible suspects for the bad guy. One of whom was named Osvaldo Ardiles. A perfectly ordinary sounding name among the Hispanic population of California, but to those of us who remember our 80s footballers more famously the Tottenham and Argentina midfielder.

Of course, 30 years ago Ossie helped Spurs to win the FA Cup. Oh, that hurt for a long time. In fact it's only this year that the pain has subsided. Oh, Tommy Hutch scoring at both ends - that's still one of the fate's great injustices. I don't know if there is such a thing as Karma but surely some was reclaimed by the way that this season Peter Crouch, the man whose goal effectively prevented Man City from making the Champions' League last year, scored the own goal that helped us on our way to Europe this year. Is that a bit of a stretch? I don't think so.

(Last minute edit: and I've just realised that one of the scorers from the 1981 replay was Garth Crooks, born in the Potteries and a successful Stoke City player before joining Tottenham. Is this why Stoke were the sacrificial lambs to Man City's victory this year? Well, is it? Think about it...)

I had some vague notion that Ossie wore the No1 shirt in the Argentina squad that won the World Cup as hosts in 1978 - unusual for a player other than a goalkeeper to wear that number. I was 9 during that World Cup - of all the things to stick in my mind. A bit of Googling reveals that's not quite right. Ardiles was No2, but No1 was worn by an outfield player: midfielder Norberto Alonso. I can't ever recall seeing that anywhere else.

Right. Always end on a song. Here's Ardiles and the rest of the accursed 81 FA Cup squad along with Chas and Dave. May their shells be blighted.

More soonliest