The New Kit Lottery

Last week I was doing a bit of reading up on the Dutch Eredivisie, as you do, when I came across a picture of the new Ajax home shirt for the coming season. A fine effort, I'm sure you'll agree, although it's a bit of a shame to see them lose their quirky vertical 'ABN Amro' sponsor.

This chance encounter gave me the idea for today's post; a quick look at some of the kits set to grace fields of play across the continent this year.

Kit changes can be quite an emotive subject as fans tend to prefer sticking closely to a well worn colour scheme and will tolerate only minor design modifications. Kit manufacturers have recently been infatuated with the 'retro' style concept, which has thrown up efforts ranging from absolute class, to completely farcical, such is the nature of the 'new kit lottery'. There are quite a few websites dedicated to the glorious failures of yesteryear, and a little research has already thrown up quite a few contenders for future inclusions in these halls of shame.

My absolute favourite so far has to be this stunner, pitched at the already-close-to-breaking-point Newcastle United fan. Here's Steven Taylor, trying to maintain some dignity.

Stop sniggering at the back! Sadly for us neutrals, this is the away kit, so we're unlikely to see St James's Park awash in a sea of off-yellow. In fact, I doubt they'll sell any of these abominations. Maybe they've just given up trying to flog away kits, due to the popularity of the classic black and white stripes, and given the designers free reign to come up with whatever they fancy, which appears to be an unholy marriage of Northern Rock and a stick of rock. Good luck to them.

Grimsby Town fans can, in theory, have no complaints with their new kit, given that it was voted for by fans on their official website. They've gone for a modern revamp of their classic striped design and I have to say, it's turned out very nicely.

These fan votes are a way of engaging the supporters, but tend to be a bit of a con, as there is often only one decent design to choose. They are, of course, open to sabotage as well, which might well be what happened with their away kit, which is, quite frankly, crap.

If you think Grimsby's home and away kits show a contrast between good and bad, then brace yourself for the latest offerings from French top-flight outfit Olympique Lyonnais (that's 'Lyon' to you and me).

Yes, these are both from the same team, despite being as different from each other as it is strictly possible to be. Even the club badge is different on each one. As you can see, the away kit has gone for some sort of 'sunrise/surface of Mars' effect, for reasons best known to themselves.

I'd better make mention of one of the Premier League teams, so here is the truly shocking Sunderland away kit.

Those sleeves are something else. According to the marketing guff, they are 'carbon-coloured'. Eh? Just in case you were thinking things have gone completely to pot in the North East this summer, I can confirm that Middlesbrough have managed to avoid the 'tampering-trap', and have got something respectable to wear on their travels next year.

Finally, a quick word for my favourite kit so far. Here's Cambridge's new home shirt.

Quite original if you ask me, yet still in the classic sports kit mould. Good work from manufacturer Vandanel, who I will confess, I've never heard of.

The big (and indeed, only) football shirt story this week, concerned the official Liverpool website, who started to sell shirts with Glenn Johnson's name on the back, despite the fact that he hadn't even signed for the club. Thankfully for anyone who decided to get their purchase in early, Johnson finally agreed the move today. The same story was played out with much more amusing consequences on the Chelsea website last year. This time it was Robinho shirts being put up for grabs, only for the Brazilian to sign for Man City instead.