Following the farce of Scotland playing in pink at Wembley, I’m watching City v Arsenal at the moment and Arsenal are in yellow. Since when were sky blue and red similar colours?
On the stupidity of change strips
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At least, unlike Scotland’s effort, Arsenal’s is a change kit with heritage but it’s becoming ever more rare to see two sides playing in their iconic colours. To me, it dilutes the spectacle.
It’s all about the replica shirt sales. I assume teams have to guarantee a certain amount of exposure to each type of strip under the deal they have with the shirt manufacturer / sponsor.
Witness Norwich’s 3 choices of strip this year – all of which feature yellow, green or both.
Yep. Also, perhaps not coincidentally, UEFA’s stringent rules, more suited to an era of black and white telly. Nike’s godawful current strip style of different toned sleeves has also muddied the waters. Different coloured sleeves (Arsenal being probably the best known example) were a part of a club’s identity, not a here today, gone tomorrow fad.
From a club allegiance point of view, I like the current Rangers strip, evoking memories of one worn by the great Davie Cooper in the 80s. But I won’t be buying it. Because Mike Ashley.
Be thankful that there is anything remotely unpredictable about Arsenal.
Arf!
Promising position? Check.
Not sustained for 90 mins or a season? Check.
Refereeing decisions highlighted by AW? Check.
Loads of money in the bank? Check.
Dallying over wage increases? Check.
Did anyone see Sunderland’s third strip, which they played in last weekend? It was all pinks and purples, covered with a nasty diagonal hatching, as if one were looking at the strip on a poorly functioning TV set. Yikes!
https://www.safcstore.com/cgi-bin/live/ecommerce.pl?site=safcstore&state=item&dept_id=25&sub_dept_id=10&product_id=150001096
Thankfully missed that @duco01! Even from a nakedly capitalist, marketing wankery perspective though, I don’t see the logic in some of the strips that are offered for the captive audiences. Cardiff’s thankfully short lived change to red is probably the most notorious example. There is room for tinkering at the margins but essentially all clubs should protect their core identities. In this and of course much else Leicester got it right last season.
If the colours clash then it should be shirts (home) v skins (away). Newcastle fans would love it.
Why aye man!
Liverpool had a kit on midweek that made them look like those Stabilo Boss highlighter pens. Mind you, it probably made picking out a teammate a bit easier on a murky midweek evening.
Of course, there are disadvantages to wearing luminous yellow kit, too.
You might send a lovely pass out to your team-mate by the touchline, only to find that the said team-mate is in fact a steward in a yellow high-viz jacket. Catastrópho!
Couple of weeks ago my team, West Brom [navy blue and white striped shirts, white shorts], were playing Chelsea [royal blue shirts, royal blue shorts]. As the away team, we played in a change strip of, ahem, navy blue shirts and navy blue shorts.
I know.
‘Away’ kits in League 1 and the Championship are designed, perhaps deliberately, for their emetic qualities. I was at a match featuring Derby County earlier in the season, and their hideous away/third kit resembled the vomit of a child who’s consumed a bubbling combination of Skittles and Fanta. It made me feel quite nauseous.
“Skittles and Fanta” sounds like a typical League 1 centre-back pairing. One’s from Scunthorpe, the other from Ivory Coast.
That’s Danny Skittles and Momo Fanta.
Current worst change kit has to be the horrendous orange/purple affair than Man Citeh are wearing in away Champions League games. Truly vomit inducing.