A Liverpool legend is struggling with his health, and having come from a time in football when the trappings were far more modest than they are today, has even had to resort to selling his prized medals.
Ray Kennedy was signed for Liverpool by Bill Shankly for £180,000, but arrived on the day that the enigmatic Scotsman resigned. Bob Paisley took over the manager’s job of course, and converted Ray from striker to winger, where he excelled for the club. By the time his Liverpool career was over he’d scored 72 goals in 393 games. One of those was scored in the semi-final of the 1981 European Cup, a goal that helped Liverpool towards their third triumph in the competition.
What wasn’t known at the time was that Kennedy was playing with the early stages of Parkinson’s Disease, a debilitating condition that was starting to have a physical impact on him. Now the illness has seriously impacted on his life. It can cause shaking, slowness of movement, rigidity, muffled speech and depression.
Ray’s not been forgotten by Reds fans or by his old team-mates, and various efforts are constantly being made to support the former Arsenal player. A Ray Kennedy day is being talked about, to take place at the Emirates next time the two sides meet.
Another way of getting behind Ray is to make a bid for one of these shirts on eBay. Ray has signed them, as has Jimmy Case, and the organisers will be able to get more signatures added on request. They are even offering the possibility of the shirt being presented to the successful bidder by a former Reds player, although not Ray due to his poor health.
Click here for the shirt that is being sold by Auction.
Click here for the shirt being sold on a “Buy Now” basis.
For more details on the shirts or to buy a print signed by 13 players please contact Retro Reds Memorabilia.
100% of the sales will go to a very good cause.
Please bid now to help generate more interest, and pass this information onto other Reds.
Above: Jimmy Case with the shirt.
Below: Ray with Jimmy Case.
Ray, you are in my thoughts down under here in Sydney, Australia. I grew up watching you play and you were one of the few players who could do the business with the ball at either foot.
Many thanks Jim for bringing this to people’s attention.
Because of the publicity these auctions have received, the first shirt has now been sold for a wonderful £500.
We have 2 more now listed with a buy now price of £500, but as the intention is to get as much as we can for them, we have also added a “best offer” option as we need payments in by December 12th when we see Ray next.
So – if the price is too high, but you really want to help, submit an offer, you may get lucky !
The new link for the buy now is :
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190179850477
The auction is still running and closes on December 9th.
We also have a number of dual signed Case / Kennedy photos available here :
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190179179853
Again – make an offer if you can’t manage the full amount.
Thanks to everyone who has emailed us with messages of support for Ray, which we will pass to him next week.
Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year to all at anfieldroad.com
YNWA
– Bob / Retro Reds Memorabilia