usually i am quite loathe, look you see, to do any sort of "top ten" list thing here. generally speaking they are intended as "clickbait" (i believe the term is), designed to be quite deliberately provocative and upsetting, so that keyboard in their warriors may click in anger, share in anger, complain and generate traffic for adverts and other such sh!t. with this in mind, then, i tend only to do this sort of thing at the end of the year as a sort of "best" thing, or when something or other comes to mind.
as i have resisted the suggestion of "monetizing" this blog (Codename Magic in particular has suggested i do so), there is no advertising here (at time of writing). so, i am confident that when i do a list like this, it is for pure interest reasons.
on the off chance, to upset the likes of Jacob Rees Mogg by commencing a third paragraph in succession with a word that begins with a genuine vowel. someone was searching for this, i have then or thus decided to look at the wonderful world of neil shipperley merchandising.
i, to start an unprecedented fourth paragraph with a vowel, really don't need to say much about Neil Shipperley (to use capitals correctly) as an introduction. that is because he is a man who probably needs no introduction to anyone who would be reading this. but, if you wish for such, he was a quite class "striker" which is a prominent position in a football team. for comparison, as some of you like this sort of thing, think of him as being like a "90s Wayne Rooney", except of course unlike Rooney it cannot be said that Neil Shipperley was a complete and utter [TEXT OBSCURED ON LEGAL ADVICE], nor was he [TEXT OBSCURED ON LEGAL ADVICE], and he most certainly never ever [TEXT OBSCURED ON LEGAL ADVICE], at least twice and probably more than that.
everyone (there's a fifth) who is interested in the subject knows how to spell Shipperley correctly. however, the magic of the internet, and a brief forgetting of the spelling, can lead one into unknown, hidden treasures in terms of merchandising. if you go on to that ebay place, for example, and deliberately (so i am claiming) miss one "e" out of his name, you can get some absolute bargains in respect of Neil Shipperley merchandising.
you (there's the sixth unofficial vowel for you) can, then, with some deft spelling, get two reasonably rare and fairly obscure (but all the same partially desirable) items of Neil Shipperely merchandising and have change from a fiver. i have long argued that proper spelling is an irrelevance in the modern world, and the above is something that i see as proof of this.
the (out of vowels) problem, or issue if you will, with the above is that those items of merchandising pertain or relate to "Chelsea era Neil Shipperley". it's from a time when a lot of lifelong Chelsea fans were unaware that they were so, because they only became aware of how it existed around 2003 or 2004, whenever it was that a combination of a Russian and a Portuguese fellow "invented" football. but, Neil Shipperely merchandising is Neil Shipperley merchandising, and so these represent both bargains and shrewd investments.
for the purists, though, Niel Shipperley is most fondly associated with Southampton. interestingly, Southampton is a team rarely ever called by their name. usually they just get called the Saints, or the South, or the Hamptons, or the Dukes of the Dell. such is the affection they are held in it is rare their actual name is used, for fear of not having enough reverence in one's voice when the hallowed name is spoken.
as you can sort of see in the above (amazon is not particularly user friendly for grabbing screenshots), using the rather more conventional spelling of Neil Shipperley's name brings up a whole plethora of prospective merchandising. lots of it, and a good deal relating to his time at Southampton.
what made Neil Shipperley's time at Southampton so iconic, indelible and celebrated? you would probably have to ask a Southampton fan, really. all i know is that, after some reasonably extensive research into the subject (i sat and thought about it for a moment), the 12 career goals he scored for the Saints are both considered and regarded as being the "best and most important goals ever scored for Southampton", excluding ones scored by the likes of Benali, Le Tiss, etc.
so as best to celebrate aspects of the previous (the one above) paragraph, here is some really smart Commodore 64 style footage of Shipperley of Neil smacking in a goal for Crystal Palace.
looking at the above, which is smart, really does wonder why they don't make all football highlights available in Commodore 64 mode. i mean, that really does look quite class. at a guess they don't because them what do the football for the tele just look to make it all as cheap as possible, whilst charge as much as they can get away with, so as to rake in better profits. probably the case that they do not care much for the quality, so long as money rolls in.
what happens if you go back to ebay and type in the name Neil Shipperely "properly", or rather how it is conventionally written? quite a lot, actually. at present the market for such merchandise would seem to be furious and vibrant.
indeed, wow might well be the reaction you have to the above. despite it being class that you can access a hidden world of Neil Shipperely stuff by typing the name in a non-traditional way and searching, the generally accepted spelling of his name brings forth a pretty formidable range of items to choose from, and purchase.
but of these items which, considering or mindful of the title this post has, feature in the ostensible "top ten" of ones you can get? that is quite a tricky question to answer, except for the aspects which are not. in truth i am no expert on the subject of Nial Shipperly merchandise; further i wouldn't say that i am particularly knowledgeable. should for some reason my views or thoughts on the subject count, then i would say that the top ten are ten what stem from his celebrated Southampton era.
do i plan to produce further insightful, informative pieces like this in the future? well, as opposed to in the past, yes, but no. i never really plan anything for here, things just kind of come to mind. all the same, i trust this has been of use or interest to someone.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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