Normally you have to make your own entertainment during the close season, not so this year as we have the World Cup to look forward to, but usually it’s a case of scouring the web for news on signings whilst anxiously awaiting a spate of pre season friendlies against some lower league foreign clubs. One summer sideline of mine has always been checking out the new shirts released by various clubs. I do this because I like to see how the different styles come and go, but mainly because I’m a football geek.
The best shirt I saw last season was an all black Millwall number worn by Scroobius Pip on Soccer AM (yes I still watch it, yes I know I shouldn't), having said that he's probably not the best barometer given that he could wear a Matalan tank top and make it seem cool. He's possibly the only white guy in existence who manages to carry off a full beard without looking like a serial killer, paedophile or a Edinburgh council office worker (often the three traits are mutually inclusive). That aside there weren't really any stand out shirts last season, the only one that will possibly be cited in years to come was the Newcastle away shirt, not for positive reasons mind, but purely because they were the first set of players to adorn a sport garment resembling the vomit of a very sick child since David Seamen brightened up Euro 96 by dressing like a poor man's Jorge Campos.
Shirt styles tend to get tweaked with each new release and boundaries are pushed until we eventually come full circle. There's definitely been moves towards 80s retro in recent years, so much so that styles which would have been regarded as old fasioned and faintly ridiculous in the mid to late 90s are now commonplace. Similarly the styles favoured by clubs in the 90s would now be considered too in-your-face, obvious or even 'chav' for current tastes. I guess football shirts are like all other fashion trends in that they are directly reflected by popular culture, Adidas Fila and Sergio Tacchini have seen a renascence undoubtedly fuelled in part by films like The Business and The Firm. This has resulted in 80s styled sporting garments previously only favoured by the obcurest of indie bands now being found the windows of many major high street shops.
Personally, given my allegiance, I'm eagerly awaiting the new shirts from Hearts, although for some reason we have to wait until July to see it. From what I've heard, it's an Umbro top sponsored by an external company. Whilst this might sound unremarkable to the casual observer, it's caused much discussion amongst the Hearts support, most of whom are desperate to wear a top advertising something other than the completely uninspiring Ukio Bankas brand. At a recent fans q&a night, a Hearts board member suggested a sponsorship deal was in place with a company outwith the UBIG group. I await the announcement with bated breath. Realistically I'm expecting a East European company linked to Romanov in some tenuous way as supposed to a big brewer or multi national tech firm.
So, in terms of shirts already released (or leaked via the glorious internet), my favourite effort is probably the Spurs home shirt shown here without the sponsor (I'm sure I saw a version with Sony emblazoned on it somewhere but I guess I could have imagined it).
Again, very retro and akin to what teams would have been wearing in the mid 80s. I like it.
I'm less enthralled by the Liverpool shirt which, by virtue of having a sponsor without any strong branding (at least in comparison to thier previous sponsor Carlsberg) looks pretty non descript and boring.
The Man Utd shirt for 2010/11 is confirmed as being sponsored by Aon. I believe the shirt itself is yet to be revealed, but a leaked photo displayed on the excellent http://www.football-shirts.co.uk/ gives us a sneak preview. To be honest I'm not sure about it myself, the picture below could of course by an early mock up but I think it looks a bit shapeless and thrown together.
Up here in Scotland, Tennents lager continued the recent trend of sponsoring both Celitc and Rangers for fear of alienating themselves amongst half of Glasgow (and probably Scotland). I believe CR Smith were the first company to do this back in the 80s, (although latterly they just sponsored Celtic) to be followed by NTL and most recently Carling.
There have, however, been companies who did take the plunge and dared to sponsor either Celtic or Rangers individually. Umbro sponsored Celtic for a couple of season as did Peoples, a ford dealership. McEwans lager sponsored Rangers prior to the joint NTL deal, but having said that, you never see McEwan's Lager around any more. Perhaps being made beverage-non-grata by green and white clad old steamers was what killed the brand off?
Anyway, with reference to Rangers and Celtic, personally I prefer Ranger's polo shirt style design. Celtic's Nike shirt doesn't appear to have moved on much save for substituting the Carling Logo for that of Tennents.
Roll on the World Cup, as you've probably surmised I'm bored of waiting.
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