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.
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| 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.
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| 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
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| 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
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| 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
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| 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
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