I’ve changed my mind about the new away shirt

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And racing round the outside it’s Bernie Ecclestone! The so-called Arsenal takeover just gets better and better doesn’t it? I’m fed up to the hilt by takeover rumours so I’m going to leave it at that, but what I will say is that launching a protracted and hostile takeover just before the new season is just about the most sure-fire way of ensuring a season of turmoil at the club. Anyone who would consider that has only one thing at heart and it’s not Arsenal. Still, I wouldn’t hold your breath about something happening fast. If it ever happens it’s some distance off. For a start, it requires the current board to want to sell. A small point but a relevant one.

On the pitch, we’re coming along well with Wenger’s main man van Persie knocking in two on Thursday and Walcott beginning to prove his worth too. If we’re not looking for another striker then all five of the players who will play in that position – van Persie, Adebayor, da Silva, Bendtner and Walcott – all need to raise their games. 100 goals between them would be fine I’m thinking, so no pressure there lads.

Shirts. The white one looks alright, doesn’t it? That’s what I thought too until I happened upon one in a shop, when to my horror I spotted what appears to be some 1930s script extolling the achievements of Herbert Chapman swathed across the shirt. It’s barely legible but sufficiently awful to make acquisition of the shirt a total non-starter. What is the point in that? Seriously?

No worries, because not content with having the most expensive season tickets in the UK, the club has launched a third shirt for “away fixtures in Europe when Arsenal’s red and white colours clash with their opponents’ kit”.

It doubles up as “the second-choice change kit for domestic fixtures”.

Loosely translated, that’s “money-making exercise”.

The shirt is OK – novel, not a bad design at first glance – and brings back the hoop design so beloved of generations of Arsenal fans. The world-famous Arsenal hoops.

My mind has a habit of being hazy but when, if ever, have we worn hoops before? Are they another of Herbert Chapman’s innovations?

Jim

Arsenal since about 1979. Thick, thin and all that.