Close Encounters of the Tangent Kind

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2

Frustrating..
2007-08-26 03:53:00
What a frustrating night that was. It turned out that I couldn't get a peep out of WHUTV, even though they were doing live commentary of the game. I can only assume it's something to do with not being in the UK, cursed as I am by the off-shore digital rights that also deny me BBC Radio Five Live commentary. In this world of global communications where we have the technology in place for me talk to my Muppet clan back in the UK using a webcam, I'm not allowed to listen to football commentary. Isn't some money grabbing bastard missing the point somewhere down the line?Anyway that's the WHUTV subscription cancelled - you want me to spend $150 a year on what exactly? What a disappointing service considering the claim that I can, and I quote, 'watch all the action direct on your desktop'. So, it was Chelsea versus Portsmouth on the box and this : As handy as Soccernet's Gamecast is there is only so much 'throws in (attacking)', 'throws in (defending)', 'throws in (attacking)...

West Ham v Wigan
2007-08-25 08:50:00
On the same day that Roy Keane comes out on the side of referees, Steve Bruce has apologised to Mark Halsey for giving him abuse over the penalty last week. I wonder what odds I would have got at the bookies for both of those events happening (of course I would have had to wait until they'd stopped laughing at me first..) Still, both are right and fair play to Bruce for coming out and admitting he was wrong.The other interesting titbit this morning was Curb's comments on Ashton. I had been expecting Deano to walk straight back into the team but it appears not :He's delighted he's back. The qualifiers are a couple of weeks away, and he needs a bit more than that. He needs to try to get back in the West Ham side.I suppose that's fair enough but I can't see it being that long before we see a Bellamy Ashton front line. I was hoping for it last week and was thinking it was only due to match fitness that Deano wasn't getting any minutes on the pitch. It does stop me picking him as ...
More About: Wigan , West Ham

A week until the transfer window closes..
2007-08-23 23:41:00
A week to go and speculation is rife. The 'Say No to Diouf' campaign is in full swing and I totally agree with Kumb, Iain Dale, Hammers Mad and all... He's definitely not want we want at the club but then I'm not sure how much stock I put in the story in the first place. At the moment I'd expect Curbishley to be looking at any number of strikers. That's the position that I think we'll see him trying to strengthen this week, although I have no clue who the likely candidate is. I wouldn't have minded Yakubu but he seems bound for Everton, Anelka would be hard to prise away from Bolton without splashing a lot of money. I still would have Defoe back and at some point he must get fed up of sitting on the bench for Spurs (and England) - it seems unlikely it's going to happen this week. It must be time for the scouts to uncover some gem from abroad methinks.It was interesting to read Curbs saying that we're covered at the left back spot. McCartney has been doing a fine job it's ...
More About: Transfer , Week , Window , Tran

An Entertaining England Friendly??
2007-08-22 23:45:00
I'm not sure what happened to England this morning. I can't remember the last time that I actually enjoyed watching an international friendly - I don't think the international scene would lose anything at all if they stopped playing them altogether. Over in New Zealand, where Rugby is king, they have games when selecting the national side that are billed as the Probables versus Possibles. As the name suggests it's All Black players who are likely to be in the squad versus the ones on the fringe. I've been thinking for a while now that I'd like to see this happen in football. The Probables have to be on their toes for fear of losing their place in the team and the Possibles try all out to instill that fear. I think these types of games would provide a lot more debate and be worth playing than the usual meaningless friendly that we tend to endure.Still, I'm willing to change my mind if we can get more games like this encounter. The first quarter of an hour was the most controll...
More About: Friendly , Entertaining , Entertain

First win of the season..
2007-08-20 03:32:00
I'm pretty delighted that we registered the first win of the season against one of the new boys. You can pretty much bank on a newly promoted side being well organised and hard working these days. Given our performance against Man City I couldn't see this as being anything but a tricky prospect. A job well done methinks.I was thinking before the game, after all the nonsense talk that Spurs should get rid of Jol, that we were probably quite lucky that our game against Liverpool got postponed. If we'd gone into this one with a couple of losses, you can just imagine the stories about Curbs in the papers. Hopefully with three points on the board we can relax and enjoy the ride a bit. I have to admit to almost falling asleep during the first half. It was foul after foul without any enterprising play from either side. Plus my internet stream seemed to find it amusing to freeze any time anything faintly exciting happened. I didn't even get to see Noble's free-kick rebound of the post....
More About: Season , Seas

Trip to St Andrews
2007-08-18 08:50:00
Even after my hopeless bout of optimism last week I think we might sneak a result out of this trip to Birmingham. Sitting in the bottom three (even though it's only after one game) has got to wake the team up from the stupor we saw against Man City. It's disappointing that Parker and Neill are still probably going to be missing. Still, I'm expecting Ashton to start and I reckon Dyer will be making an appearance too. Lawro has us drawing 1-1, which I wouldn't be terribly upset about - anything but a loss at the moment is the way I'm thinking. Still, I'm going for a 1-0 win, Ashton with the goal. What I want most of all though is a clean sheet!If like me you're wanting to watch the game then check out the internet steams. Right, I'd better disappear and sort out my fantasy team - typically I had Rooney in my team...
More About: Trip , Andrews , Drew

What's in a name?
2007-08-18 07:47:00
I've always thought that Kieron Dyer's name never really did him any favours. I'm sure if I waded through the back pages of old tabloids I'd find his name included in some dodgy pun headlines. I expect there's even a website out there somewhere that's devoted to all things punny, that groans under the weight of them. How many fans have seen it as an omen of what to expect? Should I?It kind of feels that we're taking a big punt on every player we're signing this season. Faubert has to live up to his potential, Ljungberg has to recapture old glories, Bellamy could explode at any time, Parker has to find his Charlton ways again, and now Dyer. He really is the typical 'could have been great' player. Add a touch of consistency with a lack of injuries and you feel he might have reached the very top of the game.Yet, I'm falling into the Owen trap. You hear them being talked about for so many years that surely by now they must keeping company with Yorkie and Teddy. To think that ...

Another court case?
2007-08-18 06:26:00
Just when I think it's safe to turn my back on the footballing world for a couple of days I find West Ham facing the prospect of another court case. At this rate Sheffield Utd are going to be voted 'Favourite Football Club, 2007' at some lawyers' Christmas party this year. I read somewhere that they had already spent something like 500 thousand pounds on the Tevez saga and who knows how much this latest case would end up costing them. I suppose if you've fallen into the Texas Hold'em craze you could happily equate it to them having great pots odds, with 30 - 50 million pounds being up for grabs, and be shouting 'Go All in!' at the tops of your voices. Except, there is an essential flaw in the analogy because there isn't 30 - 50 million in the pot and Sheffield Utd really need to realise this before a court case drags out for 6 tiresome and costly months. The chances of winning compensation has to be extremely slim and seems to be based around a legal document that wasn't e...
More About: Case , Court

Curbishley
2007-08-12 23:26:00
I started to read Alex Shilling's The Ultimate Question over at Kumb and got to the line 'would we have stayed up if Pardew had been given another chance?' and thought this can't be a let's get rid of Curbs piece, can it? Because you know, after the abject display in the first game, there will be people out there conveniently forgetting our run in to last season and questioning Curbs' credentials again. Of course, Alex wasn't about to say that and instead went on to make a lot of sense. I also realised that it was written before the Man City game anyway. . My immediate reaction to that line was probably brought on by Konch's outburst. The one quote that made me laugh was :I am sure that is one of the main reasons Carlos Tevez didn't stay at the club, and also why Darren Bent refused to sign for West Ham. It was because of the manager.You what? The main reasons behind Tevez leaving was Kia wanting another payday, coupled with the little fella quite fancying the prospect of C...
More About: Bish

Uh oh..
2007-08-12 00:57:00
It was extremely disappointing to see the disjointed team I was expecting yesterday turned out to be wearing Claret and Blue. I always think a home game at the start of the season is a banker, and hearing bubbles being belted out by the Boleyn faithful before the game added to the feeling that we had put last season firmly behind us. Instead it looked like we were still hungover from the celebrations of staying up. I tumbled into bed this morning with a scene from The Philadelphia Story playing in my head. It's where James Stewart picks up the house phone in a wealthy socialite's mansion and declares to her bemused mother, 'This is the voice of doom speaking". Not exactly the thought I was anticipating from watching our seasoner opener.The alarm bells should really have been going off in my head after I found myself agreeing with Lawro. My pre-season optimism was clouding the obvious omen, and Man City came and burst my bubble with aplomb. Where was the high-tempo performance th...
More About: Uh Oh

Season Opener..
2007-08-10 23:42:00
It's not often I agree with Mark Lawrenson but his prediction that we'll beat Man City by 2-0 is exactly what I woke up thinking this morning. In fact I'll stick my neck out and opt for Noble and Bellamy getting on the score sheet. I think Sven will eventually get Man City heading in the direction they want, but it's not going to happen today. The newly imported talent will take time to get their heads around each other, let alone the Premiership; a problem that's not facing Curbs' new boys. When Sven was managing England I always got the impression his biggest concern was not losing and if he tackles the Premiership in the same way I think he's going to struggle. We all know Curbishley is big on pre-season and big on starting the season well, so I'm expecting a high-tempo performance from the boys.With the absence of Neill, Curbs has announced that Freddie is going to be leading out the side. I have to admit that took me a bit by surprise. When we picked up Ljungberg I had ...
More About: Season , Seas , Pene

All Speculation
2007-08-08 22:03:00
I can't believe I just woke up to the news that Lucas Neill could be out until October. It seems the fickle Footballing Gods still have West Ham in their mega game of Subbuteo. They probably chuckle to themselves as they decide which player to flick off the table next. I say October as that's what's being reported in the mirror but interesting the only quote I can find behind the story is reported in Herald Sun. They have a spokeswoman for West Ham saying that they don't know the extent of the injury and won't until they've done scans later today. So I'm going down the optimistic route and hoping that it's not as bad as being speculated about at the moment.I also saw that MyFootballClub got it's first knock in the media today in Dave Lee's Get your hands off my football club, MyFootballClub! As a Cambridge United fan he seems scared shitless that we might come and buy his club. I still think that if a club did get taken over that a lot of it's supporters would jump on boa...

Foreign Ownership
2007-08-06 22:25:00
Seeing as I'm dallying in club ownership myself, I was interested in reading Michel Platini's comments about foreign ownership today. The main quote from a sky sports interview is :I would be worried if I were English because of all the foreign ownership," Platini said. "They could be rich people coming to help English football and develop it, but they may just want to make money. I fear your clubs will lose identity. If it was in France, I would fight it.I'm not sure he really hit the nail on the head for me. I think the identity of a club comes from it's history, the fans, and the players on the pitch. For instance, for years now I've pretty much thought of Arsenal as being French, Liverpool as Spanish and Chelsea as the United Nations. Inevitably this comes from the nationalities of the players and managers. But that's just me looking peripherally through the window from time to time. Arsenal fans will probably tell you the club is still essentially the same Arsenal, it's ...
More About: Foreign , Ship , Fore , Owners , Reign

Roma visit signals end of pre-season
2007-08-04 23:52:00
My head's a bit befuddled this morning, and I'm not talking about trying to figure out what Newcastle are up to with the Dyer transfer. Imagine if shops decided to increase prices by 40% by the time you get to the checkout. I'm sorry sir, yes I know that the price was a fiver on the shelf but you see, we reserve the right to change the price now that we know you definitely want to buy. The only thing that vaguely makes sense is if another club has come in with a bid for Dyer. I can't believe Newcastle would be stupid enough to risk having a player who doesn't want to be there. No, I was talking about getting up for the Roma friendly. Seeing as it was a home game I had hopes that it might be shown on WHUTV. Sadly, it wasn't. Maybe that was just as well, as I was busy proving my Muppet status once more - managing to set my alarm an hour late after incorrectly figuring out the time difference. It seems like I needed a bit of friendly action to get me back match fit too. Thankfull...
More About: Season , Visit , Seas

Tevez Tug of War is finally over
2007-08-04 00:34:00
Did you know there is an official Tug of War Association? I admit I didn't, but thought I should check it out after I heard rumours that West Ham, Man Utd and Kia Joorabchian were all entering teams. Apparently it confused the organisers as they didn't know where to position Kia in the upcoming match. Hurriedly drawn diagrams were no use and in the end all they could agree on was that the little fella was likely to gain a couple of inches.But it's all academic now as West Ham have released a statement saying that a deal has been struck to get the little fella on his way. The most important part of the settlement being that Kia has now agreed that West Ham were the holders of Tevez 's registration. He's also happy for the club to receive a nominal fee of 2 million pounds as part of the transfer. Although I'm using the word happy there in the same way as being 'happy' to hear someone tell you that 'pain is an illusion' before hitting you with a plank of wood. The lawyers down...
More About: Finally , Fina , Ally

My Football Club
2007-08-02 00:49:00
I got an email from MyFoot ball Club today saying that they've now reached 50,000 members. They are now looking to get the memberships paid up so that they can officially bid for a club. If you haven't come across it before, basically it's a new idea being put forward by Will Brooks for fans to club together and buy a football club.I think when I signed up I was more curious as to how far this can go and whether enough people will actually stick their money in when the crunch time came. For me the 35 pounds turns into 90 bucks, but for a year's membership and a ring-side seat to see how it's all going I think it's worth it.What's even more intriguing at the moment is that apparently there's 4 clubs that are interested in being taken over. The email said that two were from the Conference and one was a League Two club, although details of the clubs are remaining undisclosed at the moment. I wasn't sure that the idea would get this far, but once EA Games came on board to invest ...
More About: Ball

Quinn's Brain Fart
2007-07-31 03:10:00
I see Niall Quinn had a bit of a brain fart this week. When I started this blog I jokingly referred to West Ham as the 'axis of all evil', due to the amount of bad press and sloppy journalism that created a mountain of ill-will over Tevezgate. With Quinn's outburst it looks like we're heading into another season of being tarnished by yet more unreasoned ravings.I especially love this quote: I see players signing and chairmen standing there with the jersey and their arms around the player and I say, 'Oh my God, what are they doing?' It's their call, they may like that and may be in it for that, but it's not right. I'm sorry but this is from the guy who thought it was okay to be chairman and manager at the same time? What nonsense.. At least he spouted an apology of sorts. It's odd that on the one hand he's thinking it's great that we've got ambition to want to break into the top four (like every other club), but on the other hand we're not supposed to spend the amount ...
More About: Brain , Fart

Goals for the new boys
2007-07-29 04:53:00
I've just been reading the match report for the Southend friendly on the official site. It sounded like a good performance from a strong side, with Bellamy and Ljungberg getting on the scoreboard. It's extremely encouraging that the new boys have picked up a couple of goals, especially as Ljungberg got an assist for Zamora's goal as well. Things seem to be ticking along nicely pre-season, bar the injuries of course..I'm not sure how but I arrived at a Freddie Ljungberg fansite today, which as you'd expect is devoted to all things Freddie. Looking at the archive it's being going since around December 2004 and has continued to follow him since his move across town. It got me thinking how hard that must be. Can you support a player more than a club? If you follow a player so closely, especially one that stays at a club for 9 years, you'd have to end up with an affection for that club too (assuming you didn't already at the start). If I wore a hat I'd take it off to them methin...
More About: Goals , Boys

Captain Lucas Neill
2007-07-27 23:22:00
It's not a big surprise that Curbs has given the captaincy to Lucas Neill . Towards the end of last season there seemed to be a wall of opinion that Tevez single-handedly kept West Ham in the Premiership. As good as the little fella is, he's not capable of beating a team all by himself and it's easy to overlook the other players on the pitch. In fact you could argue that Tevez was with West Ham all season and the tide only started to turn when Neill began playing regularly. But that would be a pretty simplistic way of looking for things. I think I'll settle for Neill being the best acquisition by Curbs in the transfer window, showing real quality on the pitch. I've actually spent the morning trying to get more sense of who Neill is. It's amazing to look back at the barrage of articles lambasting him for moving to West Ham in January. Here's a prime example from Fox Sports :- The Dark Side of Lucas Neill. Looking back now it seems incredibly harsh, especially if the Magnusson r...
More About: Captain

Yellow Fever
2007-07-27 03:35:00
Due to an over abundance of news concerning West Ham recently I've not really focused on the team that's suddenly appeared on my doorstep - The Wellington Phoenix. I'm not really sure why some of the teams down here have to have names like Queensland Roar, Perth Glory or my favourite Melbourne Victory - I mean what happens when they lose? Melbourne Victory were defeated today.. eh, what? But the fact that it's football, not 'Rugby Football', is encouraging and does mean that I get to watch some live action. Although I'm not about to throw away my Sky Sports subscription. I suspect the football might bring back memories from my Partick Thistle watching days.New Zealand's foray into professional football hasn't been very smooth to date. The New Zealand Knights (formerly known as the Football Kingz) were the last team to attempt to ply a trade in the Australian league, and from what I've heard they didn't fair too well in the 8 or so years they were around. So, when it was a...
More About: Yellow , Fever , Yell , Yello

Two Days, Two Friendlies
2007-07-26 06:37:00
If you blink in pre-season you stand half a chance of missing a friendly! As many games in as many days made Curbishley decide to split his first team squad, playing half against Leyton Orient, leaving the other half for the MK Dons. It's a clear indication of what these games are all about, fitness and form, not results.Which is probably just as well considering we've only managed one win so far. Against Orient it was a 1-1 draw and the MK Dons came up with a late winner to finish 3-2 ahead. Before you rant and rage about not winning, remember to take a deep breath and remind yourself that it all means nothing. On the same night that we lost to Paul Ince's side, Man Utd lost 3-2 to Port Vale and Arsenal lost 1-0 to Salzburg. There will be no concern in those camps either.What's important is the glimpses of what we can hope to see this season:- A battle for the left-side between Etherington and Boa Morte. Both of them seem to be playing well, who would have thought that after la...
More About: Days , Lies , Friendlies

Enforceable in law?
2007-07-24 22:00:00
I was thinking that it's been a week since I have bothered to think about the little fella, so I suppose I should add to the plethora of life-sapping Tevez news. It appears that the game of Tevez keepie-uppie is still continuing. Fifa in a fit of decision-making, decided that someone else should make the decision. Ah yes, a neat header towards the Court of Arbitration. Kia Joorabchian is having none of it. Time to bring in the men in suits. A fine interception with close chest control and a stinging volley into the High Court. At least Judges aren't known for their ball juggling skills so hopefully, finally, the game will be put sternly aside, the ball burst and the little fella called in for his tea.What makes this news a little bit interesting for me is that I'm guessing we are finally going to see if the third party agreement was actually enforceable in law. I am really curious if all the musings around restraint of trade turn out to be true. Whether the court decides that Kia...

Right Said Fred, I'm off
2007-07-24 07:13:00
That's right, apparently Fred die Ljungberg is too sexy for Arsenal, although I might be taking paraphrasing to the limit. Still, there was lots of talk about being one of the last Invincibles. Henry's departure, and Wenger's future at the club appear to be the big factors in his decision. 'Unhappy at the lack of signing big name players' was another phrase that seems to be popping out of the papers today - good job he wasn't with us when Quashie walked through the door with his penchant for clubs in relegation trouble.It always seems a bit undignified to leave with a parting shot at your old club, probably because it tends to only tell half the story. I would love to see him help us fight for major honours too but you'd have to think that being at Arsenal would give him more chance of short term success. Yet, how much was Ljungberg in Wenger's first team plans? There have been a few injury plagued seasons recently that have forced the Swede into the background.That's when I...
More About: Said

Pre-Season Nerves
2007-07-22 22:30:00
I was on a stag do this weekend which had a 'Retro' theme for it's participants. It's interesting to see how different people interpret dressing up - there were a mix of hideous 70's disco shirts and dapper suits (with a truly spectacular ruffled shirt making an appearance); then one guy turned up in an Aston Villa kit from the 90's. I'd like to think I was resplendent in my garish shirt but I couldn't help but wish that I'd brought that 1950's West Ham shirt and worn that instead.Anyway, with all the drinking going on I missed out a bit on the news this weekend. Which, barring the little fella, hasn't really been much at all. I mean yes, we lost 2-0 to Lazio in a friendly but it's hard to take those games seriously. Losing to Sigma Olomouc and Lazio in games where most of the starting eleven are changed is hardly an indication of much. And then there's been the usual transfer speculation. Links to Shorey, Dyer and now Ljungberg are making the rounds. With the exception...
More About: Season , Seas

Voodoo anyone?
2007-07-19 22:49:00
A few years ago I used to have a running joke with a mate of mine who is a Spurs fan. They went through a few seasons where they kept on getting seemingly endless amounts of injuries. It got to the point where we started to believe there was a mystery saboteur in their ranks. These days it feels like we're the ones getting nobbled. It's as if someone makes a new voodoo doll every time West Ham sign a new player and then sticks a big fat pin in it. It was kind of amusing that you could equate about 150,000 pounds for every minute that Upson played for us last season, but to loose Julien Faubert for around 6 months just seems somehow wrong. The poor guy hasn't even seen a Premiership game yet. I remember playing an indoor game of football where one of our players ruptured his Achilles tendon. I was in goal at the time but I still heard the popping sound from the back of the pitch. Nasty. For him it was his second time and he reckoned that once you do it once you're more likely to ...
More About: Voodoo

Another Day, Another collection of Tevez Articles..
2007-07-19 07:20:00
These days I'm trying to avoid reading the new daily tit bit surrounding Tevez . Beckham must be looking over his shoulder, wondering if the little fella is going to outdo him in column mileage. It really is becoming some sort of torture as the drip, drip, drip of new news, or regurgitation of old news, comes along on a daily basis. I'm not sure if there is some sort of record for the slowest transfer :- Ashley Cole to Chelsea or Owen Hargreaves to Man Utd would be up there but if a decision isn't made about Tevez before the end of the transfer window on Aug 31st, I think we all might be losing the will to live by the time January rolls around. Instead I've being thinking about Marlon Harewood moving to Villa. I suppose anyway I look at it, it's good business. Pardew picked him up for something like 500,000 pounds and if the figure of around 4 million pounds is anywhere near accurate it has to be considered as a good sell. It's funny, in our first season back in the Premiership...
More About: Articles , Artic , Coll

Sigma Olomouc 1 - 0 West Ham
2007-07-17 23:59:00
I have to admit that my information on this friendly is a bit sketchy to say the least and is gleaned from a forum on the official Sigma Olomouc site. According to a guy on there the starting line-up was Wright, Spector, McCartney, Upson, Faubert, Bowyer, Collins, Parker, Ashton, Reid, Cole. So, sticking with the same guy and through the cunning use of an on-line translator I decided to try and get a picture of the game:'Sweet night , within Austria momentální technické hang-up port make for attachments within net plus reservation plnohodnotného on-line , on the chance , that to them nepoda?í supplant budou succinctly words within state here , within attendance knize.'(not a lot of confidence in the translator already but will muddle through.. guessing the guy is having technical problems and more worringly is having trouble with his reservation at the local hostelry. Still, it's okay because his mate Knize is there.)15 mins OUT OF Austria ?ádné nové words , score stilly 0-0.(all...
More About: West , West Ham , Lomo

Raymond Domenech - unspeakably stupid
2007-07-17 06:40:00
The Sun are reporting a story that has 'Raymond Dome nech' in the same sentence as the phrase 'unspeakably stupid' - which I think sums it up nicely. I can only believe that any international coach that picks a team based on who they play for and not their form or ability must be extremely blinkered. I can fully understand having misgivings about a transfer to a club that narrowly missed out on relegation last season, but would any professional air those opinions to undermine a player of 23? Surely not if you want your young players full of confidence and playing well.The assertion that Julien Faubert should only play for a top four side in Italy, Spain, England, or Germany is essentially flawed. As good as the young Faubert is, would he get a regular starting spot at Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool or Arsenal? I don't know about you, but I would want my internationals playing week in, week out. Isn't that more likely at a club like West Ham?Then you have to look at where Faubert c...
More About: Stupid , Peak

What not to do if the ref red cards a team mate
2007-07-16 08:34:00
I was just checking out how the Under 20 world cup was going when I came across this bit of footage during the Chile's 1-0 win over Portugal. The Portuguese striker Zequinha took exception to his team mate getting red carded and decided to take the card away from the referee, getting himself sent off in the process: I really don't know what he was thinking. It's a bit sad to see that the under 20's already have little respect for referees.People have been trying to figure out for years why rugby players have such respect for referees and football players don't. A few attributed it to the referee being able to move a free-kick forward ten yards for dissent. Yet, football introduced the same law in 2000, after all those ugly scenes of players surrounding referees, and then scrapped it a few years later citing that the referees rarely imposed the penalty.The more I think about it the more I'd like to see this rule come back and at the same time stop dissent being a yellow card of...
More About: Team , Mate , Cards , To Do , Red Car

New Kit
2007-07-15 22:03:00
Last week the official site announced that the new away kit had just been launched. To be honest since I first saw the home kit I've been trying to let it sink in a bit. I still can't decide whether I like it or not. I had been hoping it was going to grow on me but I'm beginning to think I'm just not a fan of the Umbro design. At first I thought it was the whopping big XL on the front. You can just hear the comments from other fans already 'does it only come in one size then?' or 'you need an XXL mate'. Still, that's all banter and what you'd expect. Certainly, XL.com aren't a dodgy sponsor, so why not? But, I think it's that Umbro double diamond stripe thing that's happening on the shoulder. Ach, I'm sure I'll get used to it, you look at anything for long enough and you tend not to really see it anymore.It's made me look back at some of the other kits we've had. Historical Football Kits have all the strips listed, going back to Thames Ironworks. Maybe it's made me...