Wow. Everything is just so bad for next season. Every jersey, home, away and 3rd. Every piece of training and pre-match attire. Every jacket and item of general casual sportswear. It all looks like fucking garbage. I can not remember the last time this happened but next season's full set is absolutely disgusting across the board. Not a single half-acceptable piece of clothing from about 10 items.
I know a lot of people like the 3rd kit which takes inspiration from our great 3rd kits of 97/98 and 04/05. But I don't feel the same. I can't say this without sounding like a pretentious prick but I think if you like the 3rd kit you're being completely duped - and I'll explain why.
The entire appeal of next seasons 3rd kit, is to play on our nostalgia and our love of a classic design. On close inspection and further familiarity, it's nothing more than a very low quality rip off.
To give the best analogy - think about music. There are many garbage pop songs wherein their only redeeming factor is the catchy hook which has been sampled from an already-popular song. It's a common trick.
I got nothing against the rapper Nelly, but a couple of years back he put out a song called
"The Fix", which was a disgrace.
The song uses the backing track and heavily features the chorus from Marvin Gaye's classic "Sexual Healing". "Baby, I'm hot just like an oven.." What an iconic melodic line in music history.. You're already singing it your heads. And the only reason Nelly's "The Fix" has any memorable effect whatsoever, is because it just repeats Marvin's iconic hook in Sexual Healing over and over. The rest of the song is utterly negligible. It plays on our nostalgia and it plays on our attachment and familiarity of this beloved melody.
Next season's 3rd kit is to our classic 1998 3rd kit, what The Fix is to Sexual Healing. It's a low-effort emulation whose only redeeming quality is the sparks of nostalgia it tries to create. The only thing good about it is it's similarity to what it's ripping off. When that's the case, you know what you have brings close to nothing to the table by itself.
Really low tier trash for next season.