Once in a while, a shirt comes out that defines a generation and remains cult among the fans forever. This is not one of those shirts.
Season: 2012-13
Finished: Championship 23rd (relegated to League One)
Style: 6/10
Popularity: 3/10
Quality: 7/10
Collectibility: 5/10
Estimated price replica: £40
Estimated price matchworn: £200-250
Estimated value matchworn by Jamie O’Hara or Roger Johnson: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bathroom-Thicker-Warmer-Stretchable-Washable/dp/B075644BC8/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=toilet+cloth
To be fair, though, not many tops have been considered to be so good by a Championship club that it was willing to pay a central midfielder £40,000 just to model them in the centre of the pitch each week.
It has to be said that Burrda did make good quality kits: this being a nice two-tone striped shirt with a collar that came across as being quite sophisticated when first worn — a kind of school uniform for a vibrant, new millennium, young educational establishment in Hampshire.
However, the collar, like those institutions, ended up looking a bit worn-down quite quickly. The great shame is that this collar defect was reflected in the team’s season, which seemed to be quite promising early on, but then plummeted in quality, only to end with a previously unthinkable second successive relegation — clearly the low point of the last quarter of a century in our great club’s history.
The shirts in the images are a matchworn number 32 short-sleeved top of Kevin Foley’s and a long-sleeved academy one (hence the different sponsor).
It’s a shame Foley is associated with such a negative time, as he really was a good servant to the club. His shirt here has the garish sportingbet logo that never looked right, which was located just below the collar that was made of a different, cotton-like material and was kept in a similar orange gold to the round-neck of the preceding season’s home top, as opposed to the usual black collar or trim.
The rear had the what house? sponsor just above the name and number. This was in a classy, small, black font and looked better than sportingbet, just as it did when it became the main sponsor as of the season afterwards. The npower league badges in themselves were quite stylishly done, but matched this main sponsor more than our shirts, at the end of the day. Close-up, the musty gold trim to the black numbers and player name letters looked a bit clumsy on our orange-gold shirt, but appeared to fit okay from a distance. The two-toned orange-gold stripes of the main body — slightly darker and shinier than our previous Burrda outifts — came across quite well on the few sunny days of that season, but mostly the overall feel for me was of a design that reflected the out-of-place, uninspired play being offered on the pitch.
All in all, the shirt was a bit more of a success than our season, but that season was such a failure, I can’t imagine many Wolves fans looking back on either very fondly.
Didn’t Roger Johnson get his thrown back at him when he tried to throw it into the crowd 😀
I got this one. I loved it. The only reason I don’t wear it now is that it is too small now beer belly syndrome.