Umbro make shit kits. They look cheap and feel cheaper. They’ve been making England kits for ages now and they have failed to design a single strip that I like. Other nations get nice kits by Nike or adidas, but England has had to suffer Umbro for way too long. I put much of our pathetic performances on the world stage down to the fact that our kit is almost always worse than that of our opponents. And just look at the Prem clubs forced to wear Umbro kits: Birmingham, Blackburn, Everton, Sunderland, West Ham, Wigan. See what I mean? You can’t succeed dressed in Umbro.
But there is good news for all Umbro haters like me. US sportswear giants Nike, who do seem to know how to make a nice, classy-looking football shirt (see Fulham this season, for example), has agreed to buy Umbro in a deal worth £285m. Yes!!! Umbro said last month that sales of England tops had been ‘disappointing’ – make nicer kits then – and analysts are concerned that sales could suffer if England fail to qualify for Euro 2008.