There was something inevitable about Chris Hughton’s sacking today, almost if after the last few weeks, it was a case of when rather than why. I was extremely critical of Mike Ashley’s reign in the season that Newcastle United were relegated and yet here we are again, two years on and the man simply can’t leave things alone. The trouble with some chairman is that because they own a football club, they think they actually know about football. Ashley continually proves this isn’t the case.

What I’m constantly astounded by is the Mike Ashley managed to become a multi-millionaire. How can someone who clearly has absolutely no clue about football make his money in sports retail? Hughton had done an astounding job by getting Newcastle United promoted at the first time of asking. Lets not forget this side, in the majority, were the one that limped so poorly out of the Premiership in 2008-09. Hughton cleared the dead wood, refused to panic after the humiliation of a preseason hammering at Leyton Orient and hit the ground running once the Championship season started.

Every mistake he made the first time round seems to be coming back to haunt the Newcastle faithful. Could any set of fans have such an out of touch owner since Peter Swales held the power at Manchester City in the 1990′s? It simply beggars belief that a man who employed Dennis Wise as a Director of Football and Joe Kinnear as a manager, now feels Hughton isn’t the man to take the club forward. A man who believe that Xisco was a better player than James Milner, who claimed that Newcastle fans had threatened his children and has refused to put a penny into the club in 18 months.

As Chairman go, Ashley shows all the facets of arrogance personified. Clearly he is under the misapprehension that he actually understands football when, with the exception of letting Hughton have the managers position, every major decision he has made shows he has none. He allowed Keegan to be ostracised over transfer policy, employed a manager who hadn’t managed to in the top flight for almost ten years, gave the job to Alan Shearer and then never rang him back once the season had finished and allowed Adidas to release that awful, awful cream and yellow stripe vomit inducing away kit last season.

As if I had anything left to surprise me, English bookmakers suspended the betting on Alan Pardew being the new Newcastle manager. Seriously. Sacked by West Ham, resigned from Charlton, sacked by Southampton. Of course now Martin Jol has walked out on Ajax too so he is now going to be the new Newcastle United manager. No-one has any idea really. Yet you have to ask yourself which top quality manager, after seeing the nonsense, chaos and simple bad management on display at Newcastle United would want to work in that environment.

I just feel sorry for Newcastle United’s fans. Often incorrectly portrayed as delusional big club chanting fans, Newcastle, over the last 25 years have seen so much talent leave the club, so many close shaves to major success and yet they find themselves continually run by people with no respect them as fans, as people and as consumers. That, for any set of fans is galling to take. Question is, have they finally had their fill of Mike Ashley or will the continue to turn up regardless.My colleague Matt earlier mentioned his disgust at the decision which you can read here but nothing that goes on at St. James’ Park under Ashley surprises me at all.

Please leave me your feedback below and you can follow me at http://twitter.com/paulbestall

Chelsea will wear a fluorescent yellow third shirt during the 2010-11 season, according to a leaked photo.

Designed and manufactured by Adidas, the shirt features black trim and a very unique black line that runs down the center of the new Chelsea third jersey. The last time Chelsea wore a fluorescent shirt was during the 2007-2008 season when it was also bright yellow but featured a different trim from Adidas.

The black line down the center of the new Chelsea third shirt looks like a compromise to try to break up the fluorescent yellow color so it’s not quite so alarming.

What do you think of fluorescent jerseys, in general, and what do you think of Chelsea’s third shirt for this season? Click the comments link below to share your opinion.

For the largest selection of Premier League shirts for all 20 clubs, visit the EPL Talk Shop.

Stoke City has unveiled their new away jersey for the 2010-2011 Premier League season.

The shirt is designed and manufactured by Adidas. It’s navy blue in color with sky blue trim. And, in my opinion, it’s miles better than last year’s away kit which was black with red trim. The new Stoke City away shirt is shown in the above picture featuring Ryan Shawcross.

What do you think about Stoke City’s new away shirt? Click the comments link below to share your feedback.

For the largest selection of Premier League shirts for all 20 clubs, visit the EPL Talk Shop.

This summer we’ve seen how several Premier League clubs have unveiled football kits for the new season that are inspired by retro designs from yesteryear. Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and West Ham United, just to name a few. But when you think about it, are clubs peddling retro to sell more than just football shirts? And if so, why stop there?

The reason retro sells is because it’s a proven winning formula, it’s hip, it harkens back to a time when the world was a better and safer place, and – most importantly of all – it sells. Plus, in many ways, it’s easier. For example, the design of Arsenal’s home jersey remained practically the same from 1933 to 1965. Sure, there were minimal changes in those years, but essentially the design stayed the same for 32 years. Nowadays, the Arsenal home shirt changes every two years or less. But after a while, whether it’s Arsenal or any other soccer team, you have to wonder how difficult it must be to create an original design when all you’re doing is essentially reinventing the wheel each time.

So rather than creating uninspiring new designs, it’s easier and better to go back in time and tap into what worked before. The same could apply for many other aspects of English football. Here are my suggestions of what else can be turned retro in the Premier League:

1. Soccer boots/cleats. I’m getting a bit sick of the bright purple and orange boots as well as all of the other colors under the rainbow. What if Adidas could be a leader in boots again with a classy and retro black boot with it’s famous three white stripes along the side?
2. Soccer balls. There is something beautiful about a classic design of a soccer ball. Take the Telstar, for example — the ball from the 1970 World Cup. Or the ball from the 1982 World Cup, the Tango. Just like the classic cleats, the two balls are from Adidas also.
3. Stadiums. Take the majority of new stadiums built in the past decade and many of them look practically identical. And because they look like carbon copies of each other, the stadiums lack the original character that makes them feel unique. In the old days, you could see a quick snapshot of one stand and instantly tell whether it was Manchester City’s old Maine Road ground, Southampton’s Dell or one of many other unique stadiums in England. Not that they are the model to follow, but stadium designers need to consider the past and how unique the designs were when building grounds of the future. Even Arsenal has decided to rename parts of their Emirates Stadium after the old stands at Highbury to inject a bit of personality and familiarity into the ground. Other clubs should consider doing the same at their plastic stadiums.
4. Safe standing. The Premier League and government doesn’t want it, but many supporters do. Returning to safe standing sections at football grounds would be a way to create better atmospheres in grounds, encourage singing and to generate a better overall experience for many fans. It’s a proven model in Germany where it’s used in many Bundesliga grounds. And it could work in England if only the authorities would give it a chance. Sadly, they probably see it as a slippery slope and a partial loss of control, so it may never happen. But we can dream.

It’s hard for football clubs to invent new things when reverting back to retro can be the easier solution. It may not necessarily be the best, but it’s often the safest bet.

What do you think? Do you like the return to retro? Are there certain things that clubs and supporters should go back to that are better than what they are today? Or is retro just a way for clubs to make more money? Share your opinion in the comments section below.

When judging the best and worst designs of shirts for Premier League clubs each summer, we generally wait until we see the ones from Wigan since they’re usually some of the worst. But while Wigan has changed their shirt manufacturers again, we’ve run out of patience with the Latics and bring you my verdict on the best and worst Premier League shirt designs for the 2010-11 season.

We did a similar thing last summer when we picked the good, the bad and the ugly of Premier League shirt designs for the 2009-10 season.

Browse through the best and worst designs to see how your favorite club did:

Best Premier League jerseys of the 2010-11 season:

9. Blackburn Rovers home

The symmetry of the Blackburn Rovers jersey by Umbro is perfect. The blue and white halves are practically a mirror image, but the sponsor’s logo seems to keep a bond between the two halves. It’s another classy design by Umbro and one of the better Blackburn home jerseys in quite some time.

8. Everton home

If you removed the sponsor’s name, club crest and Le Coq Sportif logo from this shirt and asked soccer fans to figure out which club it belonged to, most would answer Everton. Rather than busy the shirt design with flashes of color or fancy trim, Le Coq Sportif stuck with the basics and created a classic Everton shirt.

7. Birmingham City home

When a club asks its supporters to select the design of their new jersey, it’s quite often a sound decision. Such was the case when Birmingham City presented several designs for supporters to choose from for their 2010-11 home shirt. The picture of the winning design (pictured above; which doesn’t do the shirt as much justice as it deserves) is bold, modern and like unmistakeable that it’s a Birmingham City shirt.

6. Liverpool third

The sharp contrast between the yellow trim and black shirt will definitely make Liverpool’s third jersey for the 2010-11 season stand out in a crowd. The classic Adidas style is simple, understated and perfect. Don’t change a thing.

5. Manchester City home

The unmistakeable color of Manchester City’s home shirt looks even better when it’s featured in a modern but clean design. The collar is different, but will hopefully look better in person.

4. Sunderland home

While many northeast Englanders may refuse to admit it, Sunderland and Newcastle United have a lot in common. But perhaps the biggest commonality is their similarity in design of soccer shirts. Newcastle United features the black and white stripes of Tyneside, while Sunderland embrace the red and white stripes of Wearside. But a big difference this season is how classy the Sunderland home shirt is while the Newcastle United one is too complicated for its own good. Designed by Umbro, Sunderland’s home jersey features clean lines, a traditional collar and a sponsor’s name that seems to fit well with everything. Bingo!

3. Everton away

You can say that one thing that Everton has is cajones. Very few clubs would come out of the closet not only with a pink shirt, but one that’s described as “lightning pink.” But fair play to Everton for deciding to go with something bold rather than the play-it-safe designs of fellow Premier League clubs. It’s bright. It’s bold. It’s in your face. And at the end of the day, it’s a well-designed shirt.

2. Tottenham Hotspur home

There’s something lovable about the new Tottenham jersey that gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling. At first I thought it was the retro design. But it suddenly dawned on me what it was this past weekend when I saw Spurs wearing the jersey for the first time in their friendly against San Jose Earthquakes. It was that the shirt reminds me of the North American Soccer League (NASL). While there is no NASL shirt that specifically mirrors the look of the original Tottenham design, the spirit of the NASL is very much alive in the above design. Die-hard Tottenham supporters may refute the suggestion, but there’s no doubt that Puma’s design is a breath of fresh air in a design year that has been quite stale.

1. Arsenal home

Arsenal and Nike made a smart choice in going back to the design of the Gunners shirt from the early 70s and reinventing it for 2010. The simplicity of the shirt is what wins you over and it has enough splashes of modernity with the logo, updated crest and sponsor’s name to not overdo it. The only criticism is that the red cuffs at the bottom of the sleeve look too big, but beggars can’t be choosers.

Worst Premier League jerseys of the 2010-11 season:

7. Tottenham away

The question that comes to my mind when I see a picture of Tottenham’s away jersey is, why? Why create a jersey that is so forgettable? Why not create a shirt that is as bold as the new home one but in sky blue instead? Instead, what we end up with is a shirt design that is plucked from the Puma template and updated with its baby blue colors. This shirt does nothing for me.

6. Liverpool away

Liverpool’s design of their away jersey wouldn’t be so bad if it was for the pinstripes. They detract from the overall design of the shirt and clouds the aesthetic quality of the shirt that lies beneath it. Remove the pinstripes and the rest of the design would be allowed to breath.

5. Aston Villa home

It’s rare for a club as classy as Aston Villa to unveil a shirt design that is lacking of, well, class. Uninspiring, bereft of ideas and unattractive, the shirt looks like it was cobbled together by some mad seamstresses at the last minute.

4. Fulham home

It’s bad enough that the design of the shirt looks like something an AYSO team would wear, but the shirt is made worse by the obnoxious tag line that appears under the sponsor’s name.

3. West Bromwich Albion home

A brilliant shirt design ruined by a horrible sponsor logo and phone number. While the shirt does everything right, the sponsorship completely wrecks it and cheapens it considerably.

2. Manchester United away

It’s not so bad that the away shirt was white, but Nike had to spoil it by adding a Flash Gordon-inspired lightning flash to separate the blue and red colors.

1. Chelsea away

This Halloween inspired shirt is no joke. Not only is it black with orange trim, but to make matters worse it features pinstripes on the front of the shirt. This is yet another poor design of a Chelsea away shirt.

So there you have it. Some of the best and worst shirt designs for Premier League clubs. There were many that weren’t featured in the rankings above. So many of them were blah, middle of the road designs that neither made me swoon or vomit. But let’s just hope that next season the quality of the creative designs improves.

To me, it’s interesting to note how Adidas, once a leader in shirt designs, has relinquished its superiority to create wonderful designs in the Premier League. Other than Liverpool, its designs for Premier League clubs have been very lacking of late.

I don’t believe this coming season will be the worst, but it’s time for clubs to think longer and harder about their away jerseys and, if they’re still not sure, ask their supporters for advice. Judging by many of the designs shown above in the worst section, their supporters weren’t polled.

What do you think? Which shirts are missing from the best and worst that you think should be included? And which rankings do you agree or disagree with? Click the comments link below to share your opinion.

For the largest selection of Premier League shirts for all 20 clubs, visit the EPL Talk Shop.

Chelsea has officially unveiled their away jersey for the 2010-11 season. And boy is it horrid.

We first saw leaked pictures of Chelsea’s away shirt yesterday. And while we weren’t sure 100% whether the pictures were real or not, we got confirmation today that they are. The shirt colors remind me of a popular (but disgusting to taste) chocolate treat in the United Kingdom called Terry’s Chocolate Orange. It’s got nothing to do with John Terry, but the black and orange colors remind me of the chocolate treat and Halloween. Not a good image to have for a football shirt.

More photographs of Chelsea’s away strip for the 2010-2011 season can be seen here:

Share your feedback about the new Chelsea football shirt design in the comments section below.

For the largest selection of Premier League shirts for all 20 clubs, visit the EPL Talk Shop.

Liverpool today unveiled their third kit for the 2010-11 season. Designed by Adidas, the kit is black with yellow trim.

It’s a pretty straightforward design from Adidas but it gets the thumbs up from me. It’s clean, bold and looks good.

Share your feedback about the new Liverpool football shirt design in the comments section below.

For the largest selection of Premier League shirts for all 20 clubs, visit the EPL Talk Shop.

Photographs of what appears to be Chelsea’s new away jersey for the 2010-11 season have been leaked on the Internet.

The images of Chelsea’s new away shirt feature a black top with gold trim. Designed and manufactured by Adidas, the new Chelsea away jersey features a tartan-like design on the shirt which is slightly consistent with the design of Chelsea’s third jersey for the 2010-11 season.

Looking at the designs for Chelsea’s away and third jerseys, it seems like a cruel joke has been played on the west London team because the shirt designs are absolutely horrid. However, it appears that the designs are no joke. But we won’t get confirmation until the club officially unveils the designs between now and the end of August.

Here are two more photographs of the new Chelsea away jersey:

Share your feedback about the new Chelsea football shirt design in the comments section below.

For the largest selection of Premier League shirts for all 20 clubs, visit the EPL Talk Shop.

Photographs of Liverpool’s new away shirt have been leaked on the Internet ahead of the official unveiling on Thursday.

The photographs confirm that Liverpool’s new away jersey will be white with vertical pinstripes in red, gold and black, running down the front and sleeves. The shirt features a v-neck collar, the iconic Adidas three stripes down the sleeve and, overall, is a very sleek design.

More pictures after the jump.

What do you think about the new Liverpool away shirt? Click the comment link below to share your feedback.

For the largest selection of Premier League shirts for all 20 clubs, visit the EPL Talk Shop.

Source: Todo Sobre Camisetas

What happens if you combine Star Wars with Adidas, Snoop Doggy Dogg, David Beckham, Ian Brown from The Stone Roses and other famous musicians? It sounds like a surreal dream, but it’s all here in the TV commercial above.

When you think about it, both Star Wars (the original) and Adidas are icons of the 1970′s, so it’s a perfect marriage of two brands that have stood the test of time. In the past several weeks, we’ve seen an onslaught of soccer TV commercials, but this one from Adidas is one of the most creative ones I’ve seen.

In addition to the above named stars, keep an eye out for Noel Gallagher (Oasis), Daft Punk, Franz Beckenbauer and many other celebs.