EPL Talk » Umbro

Photoshop, Football Shirts, The Recession, And Maybe Not You Personally, But…

Matthew Semisch — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 04:56:16 +0000

I’m just going to come right out and say it: I suck at Photoshop.

A year ago, a Digital Photography course I had to take for my degree at university pushed me head-first into the world of photo-doctoring. Not to the point where we were creating things that weren’t there, but just touching pictures up so that they looked more aesthetically pleasing. I got out of the class with a solid A, but I didn’t then and I wouldn’t now call myself an expert.

Other people are, though, and fair play to them. However, when some of these supposed artists’ work – namely fake football shirt designs – hits the presses otherwise known as the Internet, I can’t help but ponder the following:

Shouldn’t we have anything better to do with our lives?

I realize that morbid curiosity gets the best of pretty much everybody at some stage, but sometimes I really do fear for those who fall at the first few hurdles. If you want a case in point, we’re right in the middle of a pretty big one at the moment, with tech-savvy prognosticators trying to predict what Adidas, Nike, Umbro, Canterbury, Under Armour – Yes, really. Hannover 96 must protect this house! – and all the rest of the kit manufacturers are going to be coming up with for club and national sides for the upcoming season.

That’s fine, except that by my math, ‘next season’ for a lot of those teams is around about five months away.

To help put this into perspective, allow me to throw in a personal anecdote. The club I support, Manchester City, is in its second year of a contract with French kit manufacturer Le Coq Sportif – Which translates into English as ‘The Sporty Rooster.’ …Yeah, okay. – and has travel agency Thomas Cook as their main sponsor. Both of these things are set to change next season, with City changing manufacturers (to Umbro) and possibly sponsors (to Etihad Airways).

I’m not going to speak for all City fans here, but frankly even that bit about next year’s kits is more than I’m really all that bothered to know at present, especially when I’m much more concerned with what’s going on more immediately with a club that’s still very much alive in the UEFA Cup and battling to retain their place in Europe for next season. Therefore, you can imagine that I might have been a wee bit annoyed the other day to find that the blog Todos Sobre Camisetas had unearthed the Blues’ supposed new home shirt for the 2009-10 campaign…or so they and we are all led to think.

On the surface, it’s all there: club badge on the left (from the wearer’s perspective), Umbro logo on the right, ‘Etihad Airways’ emblazoned in block letters on the middle of the chest. The only problem? It looks just like the supposed new England home shirt that has been making the rounds on Internet football sites. Which may or may not actually be the real thing. And is supposedly going to retail at a recession-tastic £50.

It’s with that last point in mind, then, that I put out the following question: Why are we encouraging this? I suppose there is the possibility that a lot of these ‘insiders’ are just wind-up merchants and/or supporters of other teams that are trying to get a rise out of rival fans, but I fail to see what purpose that serves.

Premiership clubs evidently reserve the right to come out with the following season’s kits before the last one’s even finished anyway – See among others Chelsea wearing this season’s ‘new’ kit in the Champions League final last summer – thereby giving fans something to tide them over during the summer, which in my mind makes this plagiari…er, art of creating fake kit designs ultimately kind of pointless.

Then again, maybe I just have more pressing issues to worry about.

Man United v Inter Match Moved to ESPN Classic

The Gaffer — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:59:47 +0000

Very few of us look forward to Mondays, so instead of wallowing in the depression of going back to work, here are several Premier League-related stories I handpicked for your reading pleasure. Enjoy.

“Acorns Children’s Hospice will sponsor Aston Villa’s shirts next season” (Aston Villa). Congratulations to Aston Villa for deciding to allow Acorns to be the shirt sponsors for the second year in a row. Pure class.
“History of the Premier League Sleeve Badge” (The Onion Bag). Very interesting glimpse of the history of the Premier League sleeve badges and how they’ve morphed over times. Some of the older ones are horrendous. The new one is much classier in my opinion.
“Man United v Inter Milan will now be shown live on ESPN Classic” (Soccer By Ives). The Man United game is being moved from ESPN2 to ESPN Classic because of bloody baseball back on ESPN2 again, so be sure to check your DVR’s this week so you’re not disappointed. While you’re at it, be sure to allow for the possibility of the game going into extra time.
“Lovejoy’s Job “At Risk” At The Sunday Times” (Sports Journalists’ Association). It isn’t just the average fan who’s suffering from the credit crunch. It appears likely that The Sunday Times will be cutting back severely on their sports desk staff including football correspondent Joe Lovejoy.
“Liverpool FC and Everton FC’s Early Story Is To Be Told” (Liverpool Echo). Excellent news for Liverpool and Everton fans — and soccer historians. The Liverpool Record Office at Liverpool Central Library have amassed an incredible collection of early souvenirs from the history of both clubs. The items will be digitized and released online later this year.
“Memorabilia Sport Guests” (Sporting Memorabilia). There are plenty of comic book conventions and collector conventions in the United States, but you’ll have to visit England to see soccer legends being hired to sign autographs. The guests include Bryan Robson (I guess he’s kissed his chances of being a top manager again), Paolo Di Canio (how do you say “don’t do it” in Italian?), Rodney Marsh, Stan Bowles and many more.

And lastly, here’s Umbro’s brand new redesigned website which includes a great Flash interface, a history of England’s home shirt and be adding new videos in the coming weeks.

New 09/10 Everton Home & Away Shirts Revealed

The Gaffer — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 23:00:05 +0000

Photographs have been leaked of what are presumably the new home and away Everton shirts for the 2009-10 season. Designed by Le Coq Sportif, who are set to take over from Umbro as Everton’s official kit suppliers, the shirts feature radically different designs than what Everton currently have.

The home shirt pictured is a modern tribute to Everton’s Le Coq Sportif home shirt (pictured right) from the 1983-85 seasons. In those incredibly successful seasons for Everton, the club won the FA Cup in 1983-84, the English First Division title in 1984-85 and the European Cup Winners Cup trophy in 1984-85.

Just like the 1983-85 shirt, the new Everton shirt features a distinctively white V-neck.

Everton’s new away shirt, meanwhile, is black with pink trim and features a classic collar.

Whether both of these designs will end up being the final football shirts for Everton is unknown at this time. But, if these shirts are the ones that will be released ths summer, what are your thoughts about them? Personally I think they’re both perfect. The home shirt has a retro significance but looks very modern. The away shirt is refreshingly different, and I’m always a big fan of black shirts.

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

Umbro Reveals More Details About England Home Shirt

The Gaffer — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 02:15:56 +0000

Slowly but surely, more details are coming out about England’s new home shirt scheduled to be unveiled on March 28th when England plays Slovakia at Wembley.

In a new article on the Umbro blog entitled “The New England Kit: How It All Began,” Umbro senior designer David Blanch reveals that the new England shirt will feature an insignia at the bottom of each Three Lions crest which will include a mark of recognition for the opposing team. It may be something similar to the England crests (pictured above) from the 1950’s where the opposition name was featured.

Blanch also reveals that the inspiration for the new England shirt happened after a trip to the National Football Museum in Preston. One label especially opened their eyes.

“We took a small team of people up to National Football Museum in Preston and our role there was to absorb what the game is really about,” said Blanch. “We were looking at both what football stands for and what is football ‘soul’. One of the football kits that we saw had a great label in it, saying ‘Tailored By Umbro In England’, which made us think about why Umbro referenced tailoring in football kits? It became apparent to us that tailoring was a significant part of both Umbro’s history and footballs heritage. We went on to put the concept together and brought back ‘Football Tailored’ as the inspiration for innovation.”

For the widest selection of Premier League football shirts, visit the EPL Talk Shop.

Player to Watch: Savio Nsereko & Other Thoughts

The Gaffer — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:59:00 +0000

It seemed like a whirlwind footballing weekend. We got confirmation that Arsenal and Liverpool are in a freefall, while Chelsea still has a long way to go if they have any hopes of closing the gap with Man United. And the Red Devils, even with a B team, showed how much depth they had against Tottenham Hotspur in the Carling Cup Final. Here are some of my thoughts from this past weekend:

Was yesterday’s Carling Cup match the most forgettable final ever? I enjoyed watching it not knowing what was going to happen next, but will I remember any of it a few months from now other than Ben Foster’s fantastic save?
The last time I remember a full debut that was as impressive as West Ham United’s Savio Nsereko was when Wayne Rooney played for Everton many moons ago. Savio’s performance against Manchester City yesterday was spectacular. The German u-20 striker had poise, a ton of skill and plenty of creativity — and he’s only 19 years old. Gianfranco Zola has a hit on his hands with this player he picked up in the January transfer window.
The highly recommended Umbro blog has a post regarding the early history of Umbro. They also reveal how they came up with the name Umbro.
Liverpool yet again suffer from consistency. They can be brilliant in one game and absolutely appalling in the next. Against Real they were giants. Versus Middlesbrough, they could have easily lost 3-0 or 4-0.

And lastly, a favor to ask. Could some of you go ahead and update the EPL Talk page on Wikipedia? Thanks in advance for your help.