My Favourite Shirt.

A day or so ago we touched on the subject that this years kits are the worst home and away kits I can remember us ever having.
The home kit in my opinion is wrong, Herbert Chapman changed our kit in the early 1930’s and put white sleeves on and in my opinion that is our traditional colours, not a wide red stripe on the sleeves. At some angles especially when Silvestre is playing he still looks like he is in a Man U kit.

Cue the Hovis theme tune now…. “ When I were lad” My favourite player was Geordie Armstrong who unfortunately died on the Arsenal training ground some 10 years or so ago now. When he ran down the wing the sleeves on his shirt, they used to appear to be inflated, but that may have been my old b/w television that gave that illusion. This was the first kit that I ever owned, it must have been about 1970 I went to a little shop called Lee Sports and Marine and came out wearing the full kit, with  a long sleeve shirt, I don’t think short sleeve ones were available then and I just wanted to play football in it not wear it for leisure like the shirts are today.
It was about the time we got to Wembley and we wore yellow, I don’t think they were called ‘away kits’ in those days just ‘changed kit’ so for us paupers with the b/w tv’s it was easier to spot the different teams. Who can remember the snooker (Pot Black) before the colour tv? “ The light grey is just behind the slightly darker grey” .
So we was in yellow at Wembley in full colour, that’s how I like it to be yellow away but I do understand that market forces mean that the away kit can be messed about with. But not the home kit please!!

My favourite shirts are from about 1986 and they were a breakaway from our old kit maker Umbro. We were to be decked out in Adidas, the trefoil, a proper manufacturer with some style, more like the clothes that everyone was wearing on the terraces. This new kit also coincided with Georgie Graham coming in as manager, the shirts represent a bright new era in our modern history David Rocastle, Paul Merson and trophies luvvly jubbly.. I have the home kits around that era but my bestest shirt has to be the 91’ away kit, yellow with the green/black delta’s on it. The first time I saw it some kid cycled past my house with one on and I had to have one there and then. So I got on my trusty RD350 and went straight down to the Arsenal shop at Finsbury Park and bought one that day.
That has since been worn so much the letters have started to fall off..

I have been disappointed with the Nke shirt era to be truthful, I like some better than others, also I was upset when the club changed to the new badge, it’s a Leeds look alike, a piss poor attempt at modernisation. We are The Arsenal, a club built on tradition and traditional values and that badge does not represent that in my opinion. It really winds me up on Arsenal tv when the use the Victoria Concordia Crescit on an advertisement when they have dropped it from our badge.

I could go on but I would like to hear other views on the shirt debate..

“Do a summersault on your head, whoop”