00:00Hanson's World Football are delighted to be offering for sale the unique Manchester
00:06City Match Shirt Collection. 282 match shirts. I'm delighted to be joined today
00:14by the owner of this collection, Mark McCarthy. And it really is something Mark,
00:21just tell me how did this collection come about? Well I have to go back to 1983
00:28Charles, to where it all started for me as an eight-year-old. I had no interest in
00:31football, but a visit to my granddad's house where he informed me of a cousin
00:35I'd never heard of, Mick McCarthy, who'd be joining Manchester City. So as proud
00:39to hear that from a granddad, I declared myself a Manchester City supporter and
00:43as time went on I became obsessed with Man City. It was always a dream then to
00:47own a shirt of my cousins and eventually trace one down and once I got the shirt,
00:52the feel of it and reminiscing in the battles that shirt would been in the
00:55changing room's floor, it perhaps had been on, because obviously players didn't get
00:59you know a shirt per game back then. And then the collection started from there
01:02and it started getting bigger and bigger and then it works all the way back to
01:051926 now. And of course they're being sold as one lot, so for a collector or a
01:11museum it offers such potential for future insight into the history of
01:18football of one of the world's greatest teams. Mark, you've pulled out what you
01:22might call some personal favourites. Tell me about them. All shirts tell a story
01:28and when we're starting with a guy who may not be a well-known player, Billy
01:32Soden, a trialist for Man City back in 1953 when they'd play up you know a
01:37mid-season friendly and they played hearts to open Main Road's floodlights
01:40and this shirt, he designed one set of shirts with a shiny look you know so
01:44most of the players could pick each other out. It must have worked, they won
01:486-3, Soden got a hat-trick. So that shirt for the history, first the
01:51floodlights, it's got its own story, it's unique. And what's the shirt beside it Mark?
01:55Well that's arguably one of City's greatest ever players, Colin Bell, a
02:00long-sleeve shirt synonymous for the number 8 which that shirt is that Colin
02:03wore. How did you acquire that shirt? Well that came from a former player, he was a
02:09schoolboy at City at the time. The shirt was actually torn in the fixture and it
02:13was thrown to the dugout. Mark Lillis was the player. He was told to go and get it
02:17you know fixed by the laundry ladies. In them days these shirts were worn week in
02:21week out. I remember Mike Somerville telling me if it was torn you simply had to
02:24fix it yourself and it was given to Mark and he kept it for years and years you
02:28know. Well we go from Colin Bell to David Silva, one of the modern-day greats of
02:32City players. It's an unwashed shirt, that gives it
02:35provenance, you can match it to the game. It's signed by David Silva so you can
02:39see the match mark, Silva played in the game, capped in the team, scored a goal.
02:43And carrying on Mark, what have we got? So another modern-day great, Yaya Torre,
02:47who was synonymous for putting VIX on his shirt, which you can see on this shirt.
02:51Yaya Torre really, he was the stellar big-name signing for City when they got
02:56investment. He was really the first one. And this was worn in the game? Against
03:00Aston Villa. 0-0 at half-time, Torre opened the score in second half, they
03:04went on to win 4-0. And on the end here Mark, what have we got? So this shirt is
03:08probably, for me and most City fans of a certain age, probably the most iconic
03:12shirt. This is the shirt worn in a game against Gillingham 1999. There
03:17were 2-0 down, with eight minutes left. Two goals in the last two minutes to
03:21take it into extra time. We were in Langley Street in the old third division
03:25then, so maybe if them goals hadn't come, then they wouldn't have got back. Maybe
03:28the vestment wouldn't have come. So that's such a pivotal shirt for our history. If it
03:33wasn't for that game, that shirt, there might not have been the Yaya Torres and
03:36the David Silva's we've been talking about. And there's actually
03:39eight of them shirts from that game in the collection. And that's Andy
03:43Morrison's, who was the captain that day. And it's signed by Andy on the back
03:48himself. Almost gives you a shiver, because it was the crossroads I suppose.
03:52It was then the climb out of League Three. What you've created Mark, what
03:57you've crafted, is a collection like no other. A collection and narrative which
04:03defines the rich fabric of our beautiful game. Every shirt tells a story and every
04:09shirt will very much have that provenance with it. This remarkable
04:13collection of 282 Manchester City match shirts will be sold in a two-week timed
04:23auction, commencing on the 29th of July and will conclude on the 9th of August
04:30at the Football Museum in Manchester. Thank you Mark McCarthy. It's an absolute
04:35honour to be handling your collection. Thank you.
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