09-10 Kits Page
Posted by John Devlin
You may not have noticed that I’ve just started posting the 09-10 kits, starting with the Premiership. Championship will follow.
Although I’ve only posted Arsenal to Everton so far already you can see the overdose of black and navy away kits in English football at the moment – something I’ve often criticised in the past.
67 Responses to “09-10 Kits Page”
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December 18th, 2009 at 12:42 am
What’s also interesting is the amount of teams that wear blue home shirts who’ve adopted black or navy away. Makes for a rather unvaried palette in some cases.
December 18th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Agree on the whole about their being too many black kits. However if they’re a bit different then fair enough. With this in mind I think the Everton away kit is my ‘kit of the season’.
December 18th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
I’m loving the Black kits with pinstripes i.e. Everton and Pompey
December 20th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
There’s quite a few bizarre choices of away kit this season, not just Chelsea’s now “cursed” navy, but also Blackburn’s rather odd choice of white given how prominent it is on their home kit.
With Rovers also retaining last season’s navy away kit (another strange colour choice) as their third kit, it’s just as well they haven’t had to pay a visit to West Brom, otherwise they would have had a problem.
Everton too, have a rather unvaried palette – though I’ll cut them some slack for the purple strip as it is a special limited edition kit for the Liverpool Unites charity. However they too would be screwed if they come up against a team wearing navy, either in the FA Cup or in the Europa League this season.
As for Liverpool (and their slow-motion car crash of a season it seems), it was rather mystifying to see them wear their white third kit at Portsmouth yesterday. Aside from the 03/04 season, where they wore their away kit (and turned in a similar performance), they had worn a pair of white socks with the home strip.
December 21st, 2009 at 5:43 am
I really like the Fulham away kit. My sort of strip. Never knew they had a third strip this season though. Must have a been “typical” late Fulham third strip. Like the yellow one from last season.
Going a little off the subject, something I’ve always found strange, and maybe someone can enlighten me…
When a team is away at a team with a pretty standard red and white striped jersey, for instance this season’s Sunderland. You often see teams wearing a white top, but never a red.
Red is seen as a clash, and white isn’t – even though the home team’s strip has the exact same amount of red and white.
Is there a reason for this, or am I being stupid again?
December 21st, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Adam, as a referee I would say the Sunderland shirt is predominantly red and therefore a clash is avoided.
Most teams in the Prem who wear white shirts though have dark shorts i.e. Bolton, Fulham and Spurs so the
have clashing dark shorts and tend to change to away kits.
December 21st, 2009 at 2:29 pm
I’m nitpicking as usual John, but Arsenal have change shorts and socks for their away kit, basically the navy and white have been swapped, with the light blue trim remaining the same
December 21st, 2009 at 2:30 pm
That just seems to be the accepted wisdom Adam, eg teams that have white-striped shirts will often have a white away, such as Sunderland and Sheffield United have had, but rarely will they have an away in the colour of the other stripes
December 21st, 2009 at 3:52 pm
I’ve not seen any instances of a team wearing plain red shirts against a team in red and white stripes in the English or Scottish leagues, though plenty of instances in Spain until relatively recently.
I know Atlético Madrid, for example, had a red away kit for many years up until the mid 90’s. They even wore their home kit at Old Trafford in a Cup Winners’ Cup tie in the 91/92 season – in the days before UEFA went overboard on kit regulations.
I’ve seen instances in the past where wearing a red kit would have been a better choice than wearing white against a red and white striped kit. The 1976 Charity Shield was a prime example, when Liverpool wore their away kit (with white shorts and red socks) against Southampton’s then-new Admiral kit, which was about 70% white.
What does really baffle me is when teams wear different kits against different teams with the same colours, like Newcastle used to do a lot. Also teams who wear a change kit unnecessarily yet don’t change when really they should, like Stoke City wearing black at Birmingham, but wore red and white at Spurs and Bolton.
Back in the late 80’s early 90’s of course this all wouldn’t have happened as the Football League were very strict on colour clashes, with some teams not even wearing their away kits for an entire season, whilst some teams’ kits enforced a kit change even in reality there wasn’t (such as Norwich’s Asics kit forcing goalkeepers to wear something other than green!!).
December 21st, 2009 at 4:19 pm
United got away with wearing their home kit away to Atletico in 1991-92 too Jon, something I noticed watching old clips of The Match on Youtube recently!
December 21st, 2009 at 5:28 pm
They wore red at Atlético? Interesting, I’d have thought they’d have worn the blue away kit at the time.
December 21st, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Re: 9. Jon.
On the Stoke thing, maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree, but I have a theory.
The Stoke kit man might be a stickler for shorts clashes.
Stoke’s home strip has white shorts, so do Birmingham. Maybe they are one of those teams that instead of having change home shorts, they just don their away kit – like Arsenal used to do circa 2003.
Bolton and Spurs have navy shorts, almost the same as Stoke’s black shorts of the away kit. And, as has been pointed out in these comments – a team can now get away with wearing red and white striped shirts against a team with white shirt. Although I take your point on “really Stoke should have changed strip at Bolton and Spurs”.
My head is now starting to hurt. Am I making any sense?
Also, sorry to waffle on, but I have two questions on football kits in general.
1. Do the clubs pay the kit suppliers for the strips, or do the kit suppliers pay the clubs?
2. Do the clubs have any input regarding the kits, or is it all down to the kit supplier?
Sorry if these are stupid questions, I’m a beginner…
December 21st, 2009 at 10:09 pm
I don’t think its to do with the clash of shorts – when Stoke travelled to Everton a couple of months ago they wore the home shirts, but with the black shorts and socks of the away kit. They then wore a similar kit combination at Portsmouth in the League Cup a couple of weeks later.
What makes the choice of kit for the Spurs and Bolton games even more baffling is that for the corresponding fixtures last season, Stoke wore their yellow away kit.
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Jon – go to 1:43 on this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpvAihTS3qo (or watch from the start if you want to relive how good the theme music of The Match was!)
December 22nd, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Cheers Denis, indeed its a real oddity as to why Man U wore red at Atlético. I bet they didn’t wear red when they played Southampton in the league that season!
Oh and that theme music of The Match brings back some memories when I used to watch football as a youngster, in the days when football on ITV used to be rather good.
December 22nd, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Also back in those pre-Champions League days it wasn’t uncommon to see the home team change kit in the event of a colour clash (well, apart from the Man U v Atlético game). I’m sure it was due to UEFA regulations at the time.
December 23rd, 2009 at 2:05 am
You’re spot-on Jon, as evidenced by the main game in that link, Arsenal at home to Benfica and wearing the bruised banana.
That ruling came in in 91-92, but from the mid-90s it seemed to be inconsistently applied, off the top of my head: Blackburn wore their away against Rosenborg in 95-96, but Arsenal had to comission a special one-off third at home to Lens in 98-99.
In the same season, Man Utd wore white at home and away to Barcelona, and in 02-03 they wore blue at home to Olympiakos
December 23rd, 2009 at 2:21 am
Re: 16. Jon.
The home team changing in the event of a colour clash used to happen in the Champions League days also.
I haven’t seen it happen for a few years now, but I remember Man United changing to white when they played Barcelona at Old Trafford in like 1999/2000.
I mentioned it to my Dad at the time, and he said it something to do with a FIFA/UEFA rule. Although, he often gets these sort of things mixed up…
I found a clip, actually…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm_7VaYsT2w
December 25th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Last season saw Aston Villa Wearing their third kit at home to West Ham United and this season in the Champions League Porto was seen wearing their away kit at home to Chelsea
December 25th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
The incident with Aston Villa against West Ham last season was due to the referee deciding West Ham’s sky blue away shirt with claret trim was difficult to distinguish from Villa’s kit.
In truth West Ham should have worn their white third strip that day.
As for Porto, they changed due to Chelsea turning up in their white “Champions League” away kit, when really Chelsea should have worn the navy kit – maybe they didn’t because it’s cursed?
December 25th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Re: 17. Denis
…and Benfica wearing white at home. Have to say that I love Benfica’s kit from then, so stylish. Why have Portugese teams stopped wearing the coat of arms on the sleeve?
There’s also footage out there of the ‘goal’ that sent Benfica to the European Cup Final 1989-90.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3WP_YilYPY&feature=related
Eat you heart out Henry!
December 25th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Also Arsenal wore the bruised banana in the previous round v Austria Vienna.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTuYndwV8R8&feature=related
December 25th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
The Portuguese coat of arms are only worn by the reigning league champions – very much like the Italian flag “Scudetto” badge worn by the league champions in Italy. Placement of the badge depends on the club’s choice, but for the last few years Porto (as champions for the last few seasons) have worn the badge on the front of the shirt, above the sponsor but between the Nike logo and the club badge.
December 26th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Today’s kit choices were strange. Not so much Stoke wearing black at Man City, but Blackburn deciding to wear White at Wigan when the navy third kit should have been used.
December 27th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Away kit choices have really gone to pot this season haven’t they Jon?
December 27th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Just wondering what people think of the Portsmouth away goalkeeper kit?
It’s pink.
It’s caused some controversy in my house.
Me and my mom think it’s very modern and love it – while my dad and sister think pink in a football strip is just wrong.
What do you think?
It’s not a great picture, but it’s the best I could find…
http://i48.tinypic.com/352llae.jpg
December 29th, 2009 at 1:08 am
I watched Spurs-West Ham this afternoon, and I couldn’t believe the ref allowed West Ham to wear that goalkeeper kit.
When the ball went into the area, I couldn’t make out Rob Green from the Spurs attackers.
December 31st, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Does anyone know what the story is with Rangers’ socks? The other day away to Hibs they wore red, while last night at home to Dundee United they wore white, have the black socks with red tops been ditched?
December 31st, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Hello Eric, I thought the very same while watching MOTD. Really odd decision.
Hello Denis, I’ve got a complete set of Rangers kit illustrations done (haven’t had time to put them up yet!) and this strange socks question comes up a few times. It appears that quite often they have strayed from the norm when it comes to socks. I’ll try and dig out some evidence. I just wonder if its the same scenario as Man Utd where they don’t like to wear black socks under floodlights?
December 31st, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Hello ‘Knowing Me Knowing Yule’ (ah-ha) – I hadn’t seen the Pompey pink goalie kit since you mentioned it. At least you can tell him from the opposition! Of course ’salmon’ pink was the colour of the club’s first ever kit – I guess inspiration came from there.
December 31st, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Perhaps the floodlights was the reason for the white socks, but Hibs wear white socks themselves so surely they should have worn the black ones.
Re Rangers sock confusion, I can recall at the start of 01-02, I think it was, the Rangers home socks were to be red with black tops, but this decision was reversed within a few weeks of the season starting
January 4th, 2010 at 5:36 am
Nice to see the 09-10 Man United kits up on the website, John – good work!
I’m really liking the black with blue away strip.
Whilst I’m on the subject of this season’s Man United strips, does anyone know what’s up with the white goalkeeper kit?
It’s officially the first choice GK strip, but they never seem to wear it….
They always seem to be in the “second choice” turquoise, or the yellow – which is nowhere to be seen in the online club shop.
I just find it odd.
January 4th, 2010 at 11:12 am
It is a bit weird H3, apparently the white has been worn once this season, away to Burnley
January 4th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
Hello H3 – glad you like the Utd kits! The white goalie one is a bit of a mystery isn’t it? White is such an odd choice for a goalie maybe they’ve just seen sense and decided not to wear it too often!
January 4th, 2010 at 8:29 pm
Just another observation from the weekend – Arsenal wore their white kit at West Ham, as they did in the league earlier this season and at Turf Moor a few weeks ago.
Clearly, someone at Arsenal, most likely the kitman Vik Akers (now Vik Akers OBE!), considers the navy away to clash with claret shirts.
However, when Man United went to Upton Park and Turf Moor, they wore their black away and Chelsea wore their navy away at Aston Villa, with no problems. Why is there no consistency?
January 4th, 2010 at 9:05 pm
Oh and John, sorry to be nitpicking again, but in the gallery for this season, you have a blue border around the Man U white change shorts for their third kit, but there wasn’t one in the Champions League final?
http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/88019228/Getty-Images-Sport
January 5th, 2010 at 12:38 am
RE: 35. Denis Hurley.
I think it’s probably more to do with Arsenal just getting some wear out of the white and grey third kit, rather than the kit manager thinking the navy away kit clashed.
I mean, their red home kit and navy away kit don’t both clash with anybody in the Premier League, thus really negating the need for the white and grey third strip.
So, they’d never wear it, as far as I can see this season. And, maybe they’ve worn it just so fans who bought the shirt can see the team wearing it a few times.
That’s my theory anyway.
Although, you could argue they might need the third kit for a Champions League and/or FA Cup match. I’m thinking Barcelona and Crystal Palace.
As far as consistency, well there is none. Clubs seem to have their own little policies.
Arsenal, in particular, recentley often suprise me with their kit choices. Like wearing the navy at Wolves, and the goalkeeper kits this season. I think they have worn four different GK strips this season, for seemingly no real reason.
January 5th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
I presume that’s the reason Ace, though the white is officially marketed as the European away and was worn against Standard Liege.
However, the other two teams in the group, Alkmaar and Olympiacos, have so much white on their kits that Arsenal had to wear the navy!
Re the GK kits, there doesn’t seem to be any policy, and in my view they’re all terrible, I don’t like the way Nike match two similar colours, the yellow Arsenal goalkeeper shirt is almost as bad as the Newcastle away!
January 5th, 2010 at 11:08 pm
Just a little observation, talking about goalkeeper kits, I’ve noticed that a lot of clubs only have one official goalkeeper strip this season.
Fulham, Birmingham, Arsenal, Barcelona, Aston Villa and Bolton are the teams that come to mind this season.
January 8th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
Didn’t realise that Footballkitfan (although I do know Villa have worn 2 goalkeepers kits this season, green and yellow. I know many clubs only sell replicas of one goalkeeper kit.
January 9th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
That is sort of what I was getting at, John.
I didn’t explain myself very well.
I first noticed it when my nephew asked me to get him the grey Arsenal goalkeeper kit for Christmas. He saw it in the Arsenal-Chelsea match, thought it looked good, and plays as a goalkeeper for his local under-13 teams, so I thought I’d try to get him it.
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/93480998/Chelsea-FC
I went to the Arsenal.com shop, but you could only buy the yellow goalkeeper kit.
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/90174725/Getty-Images-Sport
After having a look around at other online club shops, it seems a lot of clubs are doing this now.
January 9th, 2010 at 11:40 pm
I agree FKF, and it seems unfair on those that do buy the version on sale when it’s not worn, especially when there’s no reason (ie a colour clash) not to
January 11th, 2010 at 7:40 pm
H3 and Denis, I’ve spoken to my contact at Nike who has explained more about Man Utd’s white goalkeeper shirt this season.
The white kit was supposed to be the 1st choice goalkeepers kit as it’s a direct colour link to the 1909 strip the outfield players wore which of course is where the ‘V’ chest design came from.
Edwin van der Saar wasn’t so comfortable wearing white as he felt it was too ‘young’ for him but as it was thought that some of the younger keepers at the club would get a chance this season it was thought the white would get some use.
Unfortunately due to the increasingly strict Premier League colour clash rules they can’t wear it against Arsenal, Bolton, Blackburn, Fulham, Man City, Stoke, Sunderland, Spurs or Wigan so they haven’t had much chance to wear it.
There’s your answer!
January 11th, 2010 at 10:12 pm
Very interesting John, just goes to show what a stupid choice white was!
January 12th, 2010 at 5:24 pm
Just another thing I noticed – John, you say that Man U couldn’t wear the white goalkeeper shirt against City, and normally when City play a team in white someone changes.
However, last night Blackburn wore their white away, when the navy would surely have been a better bet?
January 12th, 2010 at 8:01 pm
Good point Denis – looking back its surprising how many problems City’s pale blue shirt causes. Similarly with Coventry, I’ve seen pics of Coventry playing Chelsea with both teams in their home colours – probably less of a clash than one playing in white.
On a similar topic I ordered some old programmes the other day and saw a pic of Villa playing Liverpool in the early 90s with both teams also in their home kits!
January 12th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
Yes John, for some reason in 95-96 and 96-97, teams in red were not deemed to clash with Villa and West Ham!
Although, also, in 89-90, Chelsea wore their red away at Villa, though a season earlier Liverpool had to wear that special white shirt as their red and grey were deemed to clash – this despite the fact Everton wore their grey and white away there against Villa’s half and half kit!
January 17th, 2010 at 7:00 am
Does anyone know the official name of the Nike Premier League goalkeeper jerseys this season?
As worn by Fulham, Villa and Arsenal…
I’m thinking about getting one for my 5-a-side team ‘keeper.
January 17th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
Weird isn’t it Denis!? Why would Chelsea CHANGE to red to play Villa?
January 17th, 2010 at 7:48 pm
It beggars belief – though as you pointed out in volume 2, Palace did so in 90-91 as well, wearing their all-red third!
You can see it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1XEDSutLz0 from 1:11 on
January 18th, 2010 at 12:23 am
Just finished watching the highlights of Blackburn-Fulham on Sky Sports.
Strange that Fulham changed to white shorts and socks, instead of their usual black shorts and sock with their away kit, for no apparent reason.
Infact, by changing from black to white they actually created a shorts clash!
January 18th, 2010 at 9:21 am
Good spot Bill – saw that this morning – what I daft situation! I know we’ve realised that shorts clashes aren’t treated as seriously a shirts/socks but why on earth would they go out of their way to create a clash!
January 21st, 2010 at 6:22 am
I went to the Villa-Blackburn game (as a neutral) last night.
When looking down towards the ball, if you know what I mean, I found it almost impossible to make out which team was which, as both clubs were wearing white shorts and blue socks. Villa’s blue socks were a bit lighter than Blackburn’s, but it was still very hard to see, at a glance, which team was which.
Do the match officials/kit men/whoever just not care anymore?
January 21st, 2010 at 9:07 am
Hello Vinny – I’m so glad you made that point, I watched the game on TV and my jaw dropped when I saw the shorts/socks situation. I even mentioned it to my wife (who was not interested in the slightest I hasten to add). The shorts issue is one thing as we’ve ascertained that teams don’t HAVE to change shorts (although as far back as I can remember Blackburn have always done so in a clash situation) but the socks was even worse.
Interesting that you were actually there and it seems the clash scenario was even worse. I’m going to try and investigate this further…
January 21st, 2010 at 12:06 pm
I noticed this last night too, Villa wore blue shorts in the away leg so I was surprised Blackburn didn’t do likewise, or wear their white away
January 24th, 2010 at 7:12 pm
Hello Hitman Hart – just noticed your post, I think the one you mean is the Nike Club UNITED:
http://www.just-keepers.com/clothingnike.htm
January 27th, 2010 at 9:15 pm
Birmingham City have retained last season’s Ajax-inspired away kit as their third choice strip for this season. They are currently wearing it (as I type this!) at Chelsea.
In addition Arsenal have a pair of alternative socks for their white third kit, which they are wearing at Aston Villa. The socks are the same style, but in dark grey with redcurrant stripe on the top and the text and Nike logo on the back in white.
January 27th, 2010 at 11:04 pm
I had wondered today if Arsenal would do that Jon, given the sky blue/white clashing issue. Noticed Brum in the Ajax kits too, they wore the black at Everton didn’t they?
January 27th, 2010 at 11:57 pm
I’m a Birmingham fan and I have no idea why we wore the white and red “Ajax kit” at Chelsea tonight.
It was our away kit last season and, as far as I know, it wasn’t retained as third kit this season – as some teams do.
There was also no reason for us to wear it.
Some, on the official Birmingham fan’s forum, have said maybe the ref thought blue and black were to similair under the floodlights.
That would maybe be an explanation, but the ref and linesmen wore black!
It’s an interesting one.
I’m trying to find out more….
January 28th, 2010 at 7:49 pm
BTW, Arsenal wearing the dark grey socks last night brings to SIX the number worn this season, three of them white!
Here’s one for the boffins at night, why not have the away kit all dark grey rather than navy, then the away and third could have mixed and matched?
January 29th, 2010 at 10:35 pm
On the subject of Birmingham wearing the white and red kit at Stamford Bridge the other night (see my previous post #59).
I haven’t heard anything official, but quite a few fans on the Birmingham City official fan’s forum are saying the FA requested the change.
I’ve been looking into it a little the past day or two and I’m just a bit confused it all…
January 30th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
‘night’ in my comment #60 should read Nike, apologies!
February 3rd, 2010 at 9:14 pm
Hello Vinny & Denis – I’ve been doing some digging around re the Blackburn/Villa match. This is what the Blackburn kit man had to say:
“Although normally shirts, shorts and socks have to be a different colour in Football League competitions, we received special dispensation from The Football League on this occasion. The only issue as far as we were concerned was the shorts (both being white, which is not an issue in The
Premier League). We don’t believe the socks were a clash as they were completely different colour blues plus, Villa wore sky blue in the first leg. However, prior to the match we spoke to the Referee and sent him photographs from the first leg in respect of the shirts and socks. He was ok with this and The Football League also approved it on the basis
that the Referee was happy.”
So from that we can gather that shorts clashes ARE frowned upon in the Football League but NOT the Premier League and that Blackburn got special dispensation to wear their white shorts.
I also found out from David Blanch who is Umbro’s head kit designer that Umbro’s most recent kits are not being designed to mix and match – a kit is a kit (ie a set of specific shirt, shorts and socks) and with the exception of socks which as we know cannot clash under EPL rules, no element should change otherwise this would spoil the integrity of the kit as a whole. Which is why Rovers and Man City have not worn change shorts this season – its a specific statement Umbro are making with their kits from now on.
February 4th, 2010 at 12:15 am
Interesting stuff John, though to be honest it sounds a bit self-important of Umbro to be talking of “spoiling a kit’s integrity”!
February 4th, 2010 at 7:57 pm
So people, what’s your favourite and least favourite kit in the Premier League for this season?
I’m torn between the navy Arsenal away, and the black Man City. Both are lush.
I also have a soft spot for the white and grey Arsenal third kit.
On the flip side, my least favourite is the Bolton home kit. It just looks cheap and nasty.
It’s almost like a mischievous 5-year-old has drawn on it with a navy felt tip pen when the designer went out of the room to make a cup of tea!
February 4th, 2010 at 10:49 pm
Hmm…well Adam, I have to say I do like the Man City kits – especially the away (yeah, I know I’m contradicting myself as I’m always going on about black kits, but theres something about that one for me). I also think the Burnley home kit is pretty good. I too am not a fan of the Bolton home, but I also strangely the Hull home kit doesn’t grab me. Too much like Wolves in the 80s for me.
February 5th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
I’ve set up a special page for people to vote and comment on their favourite and least favourite PL 09-10 kits:
http://www.truecoloursfootballkits.com/truecolours/poll-favourite-premier-league-kit-09-10
Good idea Adam!