How to look good in England

England have announced the latest incarnation of the national teams home shirt which will be modelled by Stuart Pearce's side against the Netherlands on Wednesday evening.

England Home Kit for EURO 2012

The shirt was hastily announced this week through a blog on the Umbro website, to prevent Joey Barton stealing their thunder by posting a picture of the latest design on Twitter. Comprising just shades of white and red, the shirt was apparently "inspired by the St George's Flag, Tailored by Umbro." The reaction has been underwhelming, with more being made on the FA's decision to launch another kit for a RRP of £55 when the previous home kit was only used during qualification matches to get to this summers tournamen.

Rather than shelling out on the new kit I thought it would make more sense to have a look at past iterations, which frankly have a bit more to them than a plain white shirt with some red piping.

Home Kit for 2002 World Cup

This 2002 shirt was the first England strip that I owned and as such I still hold it in high regard. Despite being over 10 years old it still fits perfectly and with its off-centre red stripe and blue detailing on the edges it still looks the part.

Get one now on eBay for : £5-10

Away Shirt 1998 World Cup

If you can ignore the shiny plastic sheen coming off this shirt then there is a pretty good looking piece of kit. The collar and design are classic 90's fair but this shirt also has a tasteful St George's flag embossed in the red front panel. With far more character than recent all red shirts this 1998 top is a steal at less than a tenner.

On eBay for around: £5-10

2012 EURO Away Shirt

Now if you don't want to go too retro and will recoil in horror at the nicks and pulls on older shirts then I think the current away shirt is a fairly good alternative to the home one. Made from the same pyjama type material as the old home kit, this outing is fairly straight-forward. It works though. The dark blue and baby-blue collar is a new colour scheme, one that I think is a refreshing change (unlike the team).

Still quite pricey: £40 on jjb and sportdirect

England Third Kit: 1990-1992

Saving the best until last is this third kit, that was criminally only used in a single qualifying game for the 1992 European Championship. This kit has all the flair of a James May shirt, a world away from the current tops. England shirts tend to be quite bland so this pop-art design is one of the most distinctive and interesting I've seen. As you'd expect for such a rare and now old shirt it is expensive starting at around £40.

classicfootballshirts.co.uk - £40-70

Apology of an apology covers deeper issues

The most belated apology in football arrived today as Luis Suarez and Kenny Dalglish both apologised for their conduct in the game which was meant to be Man Utd against Liverpool.

Suarez's apology reeks of involvement from principal owner John Henry and was subsequently followed with a statement from managing director, Ian Ayre, the first to publicly criticise the Uruguyan since the whole race saga developed. Ayre stated that "It has been made absolutely clear to Luis Suarez that his behaviour was not acceptable."

The three carefully crafted apologies offered their regret after Suarez turned down Patrice Evra's offer of his hand in the pre-match handshake that ironically was introduced as part of the FA's Respect campaign. Pointedly, the apologies stopped short of personally apologising to Patrice Evra for any wrong-doing and still leave the response of Liverpool to the initial eight game ban, the Suarez t-shirts and Dalglish's opinion last week that he should never have been banned unanswered.

That Liverpool today came out and made these statements was inevitable. As admitted in the three comments issued, the unpalatable actions at Old Trafford had seriously damaged the reputation of Liverpool Football Club and their manager who enjoys hero status amongst their fans.

Kenny Dalglish's response to the Sky cameras yesterday were a microcosm of his handling of the whole Suarez affair; a blinding loyalty which has seen the club attacking everyone outside the club with a refusal to look inwards for blame. Anfield seems to be enveloped in a state of paranoia at present, with everyone from the media, the FA and other Premier League clubs being accused of persecuting Liverpool.

This lack of balance may, in some part, be down to the current manager. The cult status that Dalglish enjoys at Liverpool seems to be beginning to cloud his judgement. His passion for the club and desire to avoid criticising it or any of their players has led to a completely rigid refusal of criticism, which is what landed Liverpool in their current situation.

A more impartial or less Liverpool tinted man might have reacted differently to Geoff Shreeves questioning yesterday. A manager other then Kenny Dalglish might have been less partisan when attacking Evra's reputation and the FA for finding Suarez guilty of using racist language.

The apologies were the least that Liverpool could muster today. Unfortunately they don't make all the tension and anger from Old Trafford disappear. Suarez could, and should, have started a very long road towards English football finally eradicating imbued racism in our game with a simple handshake. That he didn't was an idiotic decision and it means that rather than simply 'moving on' from issues of racism in our game it will continue to be a talking point for many months.

Some pundits and commentators have stated a wish to move on from the rearing head of racism, instead 'talking about the football'. However, such optimistic thinking does nothing to tackle any issues of racism that obviously still linger in our game. Liverpool and Suarez have apologised, but it remains to be seen whether these are enough to repair the damage done to their reputation and indeed the reputation of the English Premier League.

Parker for Poland and Ukraine

The Football Association acted today to remove the England captaincy from John Terry, in a move which has deliberately undercut Fabio Capello. Terry, who again decided not to resign the armband, did appear to have the backing of the England manager but Chelsea’s wish for the court case to be played out after the European Championship was a stretch of faith too far for FA executives.

His second dismissal from the role leaves Capello in a quandary, as he must again appoint a new captain in time for this summer despite them well knowing that they were second choice. Rio Ferdinand has already ruled himself out of the running, citing his experience of having the captaincy stripped away from him by Capello and alluding to a serious breakdown in relations with the Italian.

Following Capello’s own logic and painful experience from South Africa, the third in line appears to be Liverpool skipper, Steven Gerrard. Whether Gerrard, who is flung the armband when England drift from one crisis to another, would want the cast-off honour remains questionable, but like Ferdinand before him his recent injury record might make the pragmatic Capello think outside of his 30 plus box.

Frank Lampard and Gareth Barry have captained their country before but are not guaranteed a place in England’s starting XI, even more so if current form is taken into consideration. Rooney has game-time leading his country but his petulance and suspension for the first two games in Ukraine casts doubt on how he would handle such a role.

As Capello enters into the final six months of his England career the temptation for the 65 year old would be to play safe and appoint one of the aforementioned names, with experience in captaining their country. However, to many a more appealing prospect would be the introduction of a younger talent, one who could lead England for the next ten years. A younger generation free from the disappointment and pressure of the so called ‘golden generation’ and their flop at the last two World Cups.

Names like Jack Wilshire, Phil Jones and Joe Hart will be thrown loosely into the hat, although at present only Joe Hart is an established England international. Gary Speed was reaping the benefits of naming then 20 year old Aaron Ramsey as permanent captain before his untimely death, and England would do well to learn from this. England need to begin blooding a new generation of players who are comfortable with the ball at their feet and not just suited to the frenetic pace of the Premier League.

Having said that one player who must be considered, even if it is solely to lead the side to Poland and Ukraine, is Scott Parker. Alongside Michael Carrick, Parker has been the standout English central midfielder this season and his role in Harry Redknapp’s Tottenham Hotspur side has been the difference between them challenging for a Champions League berth and challenging for the league.

To describe him as a tough-tackling holding player is to do Parker a disservice. The former West Ham captain through a series of spectacular goals, Churchillian half-time speech’s and box-to-box raiding which saw him named FWA player of the year for 2010-2011. In his criminally few appearances for England he has managed to stake his place in Capello’s thoughts and now looks a guaranteed starter, injury permitting.

Although at 31 he may only have two major tournaments left in him, his sense of throwback to years gone by (just watch him do an interview) and a passion to play for his country means that he deserves a shot on the grandest of stages. He already seems a lynchpin in England’s new three man midfield and what better way to utilise his talent then to send a 23 man squad to the European Championships this summer, then with Scott Parker at the helm.

The Changing Face of Racism

In the build up to the confrontation between Liverpool and Manchester United, talk was dominated by pleas from both managers for the football to be the main talking point after the match. This was, after all, the first meeting since Luis Suarez had received an eight game ban for racially abusing United captain Patrice Evra. Unsurprisingly large sections of both fans managed to ignore such requests. Blinded by a fierce tribalism that only United vs. Liverpool can generate, the race row showed no signs of abating with Suarez, sitting in the stands, heckled as a racist by the travelling fans whilst Patrice Evra, despite the FA finding him to be the victim of racist language, was subject to widespread booing whenever he dared go near the ball.

In a season in which the Premier League’s supposed moral high ground over other leagues in terms of eradicating racism, has been challenged there was a troubling ease with which the behaviour of certain Liverpool fans was glossed over. ITV, who faced the thorny issue of not wanting to turn the game into Patrice Evra against Liverpool, went too far the other way and didn’t even comment on the former France captains non-stop barracking. Kenny Dalglish when pressed on the treatment of Evra post-game bristled with sarcasm, responding “what kind of question is that?” The issue was also skirted by journalists with more being made of the arrest and bail of one Liverpool fan who allegedly made a monkey gesture, than the thousands of fans who booed Evra for daring to report being the victim of racist abuse.

Club loyalties and the intense rivalry between the two clubs surely played a part in this virulent outpouring, with blind and unwavering loyalty behind their own players causing unpalatable situations. The game at Anfield illustrates clearly that although racism is not as overtly acceptable in our society, and thus football, it is fair from extinguished and is unlikely to ever be removed entirely. Racism is more subtle now and often expressed through humour, in an attempt to soften the blow, with many players now accepting it as part and parcel of football. Take the example of Emmanuel Adebayor, who was the on the receiving end of some borderline racist/humorous (depending on how you interpret it) chanting whilst facing Tottenham Hotspurs last season. The song started “His dad washes elephants his mum is a whore” and one can only assume that Adebayor didn’t enjoy listening to this song. Yet less than a year on the player finds himself playing for Spurs, as the player has seemingly puts the song behind him and not lingering on any racial connotations.

That only two out of the 92 league clubs employ black managers is a startling figure and suggests that more nuanced and subtle conventions of racism have emerged in our game. I can understand the wish of Manchester United and Liverpool to move on from the race row that has dominated the last few weeks, but to deem Evra’s treatment barely worthy of comment alludes to a deep rooted issue, one that often glosses over casual racism in the belief that nothing is wrong with the state of our game.