The Minor Disaster That Is the Liverpool 2011/2012 Third Kit

Why?

Why not yellow? That hasn't been done for a couple of seasons now.

Why not green? Admittedly, it's not the most popular colour but at least it's not cyan or whatever shade of blue they insist on calling it to reassure Liverpool fans that it's not blue.

A nod to Liverpool's past they say? My foot. Sounds like a bleeding PR cover-up to me. Even if the intention was a nod to 1892, why didn't Adidas come out with a proper Blackburn-esque jersey? Why this half-baked, recycled Marseille design? Oh yes, to maximise profits by minimising design costs. Well, they'd have to start selling shirts first before they can make a profit and I'm certainly not buying along with a good bunch of other Liverpool fans out there.

L'OM or Liverpool?

Am I being petty with the choice of colour on a Liverpool shirt? To an extent, yes but this to me is more about the principle of the whole shirt design thing. It just says that Adidas are plain lazy. And to think I'd feel a bit sorry when Adidas gets replaced by Warrior next season (especially after they played a blinder by coming out with the amazing 2011/2012 away kit a couple of months ago). What a disappointment.

Liverpool 2011/2012 Third Kit pic: The LFC Official Online Store (just in case anyone gets confused as to which one's which)
Olympique de Marseille 2006/2007 Home Kit pic by: Edu and improved by Poke2001

Grey Matter

Steven Gerrard, Dirk Kuyt and Luis Suarez were over in Dublin last Thursday to launch Liverpool's much awaited 2011/2012 away kit. And where was I when all this was happening?

A mere 15-minute scooter ride away, on the other side of town, stuck in a windowless room trying to think of an excuse. Any excuse. An escape plan that would make it possible for me to pop down the stairs, jump on my Vespa and head towards Henry Street that sunny Thursday afternoon.


It was never going to happen though. I would just have to wait until later that afternoon to get my hands on the jersey. That was the easy bit. Unlike the jersey, Gerrard, Kuyt and Suarez won't be kept in stock by Lifestyle Sports so, I'll just have to accept the fact that I'll have to travel all the way to Liverpool to stand a chance of meeting either of the three in person. Wonder what my wife would think of another Anfield visit? Hmmm...






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Weekend of the Warrior

What a weekend. A good, long one. But, all good things must come to an end and as I write this, there's depressingly less than 12 hours to go before I'm meant to be at work, either running around on an errand for a client or looking at a computer screen trying to decipher the work of some trainee who seems incapable of getting the correct answer to one plus one without the help of a calculator.


The guys over Adidas must be feeling the same way too. Although they have a bit more than 12 hours left, in jersey sponsorship terms I presume it must feel like less than that. Yes, Saturday's 5-0 thumping of Birmingham was good news but amongst the refreshing news that Maxi had scored a hat-trick (with Joe Cole popping in one as well) the Beeb managed to sneak in another surprising piece of information in its match report: from the 2012/2013 season onwards, Liverpool will no longer be kitted out by the German sportswear giant.


Apparently, Warrior Sports have agreed to pay GBP25m a season (GBP1.5m more than what Nike are currently paying to United and more than double the GBP12m Adidas are currently paying Liverpool) for the honour of outfitting Liverpool from then on. The deal with the New Balance subsidiary (who are in turn, probably owned by at least one of the FSG owners - this being consistent with the owners' theme of keeping things in-house) will at the very least squeeze as much as the club can from its sponsors. It doesn't take a genius to come to the conclusion  that Warrior will definitely get more than their investment's worth as they force their way into the global football market. And, what a way to enter the market - Liverpool are reportedly fourth place in terms of shirt sales worldwide (behind Real Madrid, Barcelona and United). Certainly a big jump from selling lacrosse and ice hockey gear Stateside. Hopefully, the company are up to it and don't make a balls of their chance.


Of course, I don't really care whether the company's investment earns them a decent return. All I want is that they throw their best designers at creating a Liverpool shirt that every fan can be proud to wear. Can't wait till April/May 2012 now (or at least until some Photoshop know-it-all attempts a Warrior jersey mock-up and shares it online in the very near-future).

Of Basketball Superstars and Liverpool Away Kits

I woke up this morning earlier than usual but kept to my normal morning routine. At breakfast, I had my bowl of cereal in front of me, my 2 year-old son on my lap and my mobile within reach. I checked the top stories on the BBC News app and then scrolled almost all the way down to the bottom of the page half-hoping to see Chelsea trounce United in their Champions League encounter the night before. On seeing a picture of Wayne Rooney’s face firmly planted on the pitch in a very awkward position (what the hell was the man up to anyway?), I quickly came to the conclusion that it went United’s way on the night.

Bored, I kept on scrolling and managed to catch two names that wouldn’t normally be seen together sharing a headline: LeBron James and Liverpool. I scrolled back and as strange as it seemed, the headline didn’t lie, LeBron James becomes minority stakeholder in Liverpool.

Eh? What the...

Always one to be skeptical of the media, I went straight to Liverpool’s official site but there was nothing to confirm the Beeb’s report except for a piece of news in the Transfer Gossip section of the site (out of all places). It didn’t carry the usual, This story has been reproduced from today's media. It does not necessarily represent the position of Liverpool Football Club disclaimer either so, it must be true then? Bah...but do I care?

Actually, no. OK, admittedly it is a bit strange but as long as it doesn’t have any negative impact on the club (and for the life of me, I can’t figure out how it could), LeBron James is just another shareholder.

So now, to the more important things in this world, Liverpool’s all-new 2011/2012 away kit. There have been two rumours that have been doing the rounds lately. Firstly, there was the rumour where the away kit would be a white kit with light blue (blue?!) highlights that resembles the Adidas stock template seen on the likes of various pub teams around the world, Olympique Marseilles and FC Dynamo Kyiv. If this ever got released, I suspect FSG would be thankful that away kits are changeable on an annual basis.

The other one looked more realistic and to be honest, I actually quite like. A yellow kit with red pinstripes down the front started popping up on eBay from Bolehland’s “Grade A” sellers (where else, eh?) and that was enough to get the rumour mill going.

Fortunately, the official store put an end to these two rumours by sneaking in a short description that can be seen in this screenshot here.

The new Liverpool FC Away Kit, the kit worn by the players on their domestic travels during the 2011/2012 season, will feature Solid Grey/Silver/Red colour way and we are confident it will become and instant fans favourite.

Solid Grey/Silver/Red. Not white. Definitely not blue and not yellow either. Oh, and to the muppets that never seem to get the idea of the black teaser jerseys, it’s not black either. I’ve always liked the grey away kits and hopefully, the one that’s going to be officially released tomorrow (that's next week for the rest of us who failed to pre-order) would follow in the tradition of all the previous gorgeous grey kits. Grey is good. So, that’s another couple of Euro out of my bank account and into the club’s coffers.

Over in Miami, I’m sure LeBron wouldn’t have any complaints.

Standards Corrupted

I received an email in my inbox a couple of weeks ago. It was titled, New Liverpool Shirt. Great. That must be the pre-order reminder for Liverpool's third kit.

When I eventually opened up the email, I immediately noticed something awfully wrong with the jersey. Like any bad rip-off, it had everything but at the same time was all wrong.

After carefully reading through the whole thing, I realised what it actually was. A protest shirt. And a damn good one as well. About time too.

Anyway, is it just me or is it just so obvious that the media (especially the London press) have been going out of their way to praise Liverpool's new manager? About six months ago, when news broke that Milan Jovanović was Liverpool-bound, the only thing you could hear were criticisms of how un-ambitious Rafa Benitez was for taking on a player on a free transfer.

Fast forward to the summer of 2010 and Roy Hodgson is in charge of the club. All of a sudden, all you hear from the media is about how great Hodgson is for signing on such a quality player (the same player lest we forget) on a free transfer. Huh?

It doesn't end there of course. Suddenly, Liverpool are ambitious and back in the big league because the club had just signed Joe Cole on...wait for it...a free transfer.

Don't get me wrong though. I've got nothing against Hodgson. He is after all, the new Liverpool manager and as such, he'll get my support even if it is riddled with a good dollop of skepticism but, until he does something drastic to change my opinion (selling Insua doesn't help), I can only see him as a good old company man - out to keep his employers happy and make a healthy profit.

Closer to home and my beloved homeland is again in the news over here for all the wrong reasons. To be honest, I'm somewhat glad that United's shirt sales are going to be hit hard but seriously, don't the powers-that-be over in Malaysia have anything better to do? The Mufti of Johor might be secretly an honourary Scouser but isn't it better if they pulled their resources to go out and save abandoned babies rather make fools of themselves?

Or, like Rafa, are Malaysia's religious authorities also prone to some very biased (mis)reporting? I certainly hope so.

The New 2010/2012 Liverpool Jersey: A First Look

It's finally here! Actually, a few days ago but I've only got a chance to post up the pics last night so here goes...

As expected, the jersey was delivered with a gym bag and a gym towel. One of the benefits of pre-ordering the jersey from the official online store. There's nothing really special about the two extras so, as soon as it was out of its plastic wrapping, my 4-year old son and daughter took possession of the bag and towel.


Yeah, the kids have been trained well.


What about the effing jersey itself, I hear you say. Well, to quote one Rafa Benitez, the jersey is Quality. OK, I might be just a wee bit biased but it actually is. Even the ClimaCool polyester seems of a better quality than the usual Adidas stuff that's out there. I can't explain it but my initial impression was that it feels heavier, in a good way.

My fears of a body-hugging Kappa/Canterbury-style shirt was somewhat laid to rest after I had tried it on. Admittedly, it is tighter than last year's home shirt but nothing to be too worried about. Basically, there's no need to go up a size to be able to comfortably wear this shirt, even for fat old me here.


As you can see, I've opted for the short-sleeve version (as opposed to the long-sleeve one I was looking to get at first) which, funnily enough is longer than usual - the sleeves sit right above the elbows so, either Adidas did this intentionally or I have very short arms. Whatever the reason, I think it looks good.

Now, for the constructive criticisms. Although the jacquard-type pattern is subtle and adds to the shirt's retro feel, I still think that the shirt could do without the gold piping. The piping doesn't add anything obvious to the shirt AND more importantly, accentuates the gut area which is not good news for most fans.


There's also the LFC crest itself. I'm not sure what other clubs do with their shirts but the one on this shirt looks like an iron-on job to me. The way I see it, if I'm paying what security guards in Malaysia get paid in a month, I'd want a bit more quality. If Adidas could properly embroid their logo on to the shirt, why couldn't they do it with the Liverpool crest?


So, to wrap things up, great jersey. I can't wait now to see what sort of job they do on the 2010/2011 away jersey. In advance of the game against Hull tomorrow, I bid this season farewell and good riddance. Here's hoping for a far better 2010/2011!

Tubeless Rims Update

As mentioned in my previous post on the tubeless rims, I dropped the folks at ScootRS a quick message to see what I could get off them.

The next morning, I received an email from the company's Customer Service people.

We can send you 2, is this correct still?

A short reply. The exact one I was looking for. No excuses no legal mumbo-jumbo. Just straight to the point, here you go, here's your replacment parts.

If I was being a bit picky, I would've expected the valves to be in the post as soon as they figured out that they had a problem with them. But, to be fair to the company, at least they didn't give me the cold shoulder (which they could have easily done from a few thousand miles away)so again, thanks guys.

While on the topic of valves and tubeless rims, it seems the whole problem isn't actually limited to innovative Vietnamese products. In their latest issue, Scootering magazine reported some minor problems with the valves that SIP supply for their own tubeless rims.

Seemingly, SIP are actively trying to source more suitable valves for their rims.

On different note, I had in my hands this morning, my all-new Liverpool jersey! I could've had it a day earlier if only my wife had made it home a tad bit earlier after dropping my daughter to school yesterday. I'll post something up on this as soon as possible.

The New 2010/2012 Liverpool Jersey: The Final Countdown

So, there I was at my desk at work. A normal Monday morning. And, like any Monday morning, I'd check my emails, work ones first of course and then the personal ones followed by the really personal ones on webmail. Already in a happy enough mood from Liverpool's win over Burnley on Sunday, I was even more pleasantly surprised that morning when I received the following mail.

A nice little note to say that my all-new Liverpool jersey had been sent! Strange, considering that the official release date was meant to be around May 8th. Maybe, DHL were under some instruction to hold delivery until then or maybe the club were just worried that Eyjafjallajokul would cause havoc again. Either way, I'm just glad that I'd be able to get my hands on the jersey sooner rather than later.


Back in the world of scootering, from the other side of the world came a different type of email.

It looks like the folks at ScootRS have had some reports of some dodgy valves on a batch of their tubeless rims and have decided to recommend that they get changed ASAP. Not quite like Toyota's HomygodIcantstopthisthing! moment but close enough it would seem.

Personally, I've had the rims in question for a while now but have yet to use them. Even so, I was a little bit concerned as I do plan to use them when I eventually get myself a pair of decent tubeless tyres.


It doesn't seem too clear from the email or the website but, it certainly would make good PR sense to send out replacement valves for free to those effected by this product recall. I might pop Randall and his crew a quick message to see whether I can get some more information on this.

The New 2010/2012 Liverpool Jersey: Kit Unveiling

So, the unveiling of the all-new Liverpool 2010/2012 kit finally happened earlier today. At 12am BST to be exact. Woohoo!

What do you think?


Personally, my first impression was that Adidas just got lazy, used their standard template and applied Liverpool colours. Then I looked more closely. The jacquard design although not entirely new, does add to that retro feel while the collar is a nice thick band which is always comfy and a feature that I've always liked on football shirts (I think it makes my face look less fat or something). Plus, the shirt does look good on the players.

My only complaint would be that annoying gold piping on the shirt. Seemingly it adds "class" to the design but I think the only thing it does is that it actually accentuates love handles and beer bellies on the fans. It might look good on Torres, Gerarrd and co. but seriously, we're not all super-fit athletes, you know.

Also, I'm glad they opted for the plain white Standard Chartered as opposed to the green and blue logo that's been floating about on the net. The "shadowed" bit in grey is quite a nice touch as well. Not ground-breaking stuff but then again, it's just the sponsors logo.

Whatever it is, like most Liverpool fans around the world, I just can't wait for my ordered shirt to arrive in the post this May.

My only worry now is that the shirt does come across as a slim-fitting design. So, I hope I've been realistic enough when gauging my own size!

Credit also to Christian Purslow’s team for getting a good deal for the new shirt sponsorship as well as retaining Carlsberg as one of the main sponsors to the club. What the management team would not have forecasted for would be a significant increase in shirt sales in areas that weren’t actually deemed to be significant before this.


I’d say sales would increase by whopping percentages in places such as the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, Central Asia and South East Asia solely because the brewing company’s name is no longer on the new Liverpool kit. Obviously, I don’t have any inside knowledge on the club’s finances but I’m sure additional funds into the club would be most welcomed. Could just translate into one or two quality signings in the near-future?


Overall, it still looks the part as the attire for the 2010/2011 Champions. Heh. But before then, let’s hope we get through to the Europa League semi-finals by beating Benfica tonight. Now, wouldn’t that bring double joy to fans around the world?

To quote one Jamie Carragher:

...ultimately you always remember the shirts you win things in, so we'll have to win something in this.

Image: New kit pics taken from LFC's official site.

The New 2010/2012 Liverpool Jersey

I've never owned a proper Liverpool jersey.

Oh my God! Especially for a self-proclaimed Liverpool fan such as myself. OK, I do have a repro Candy jersey (the one worn when Liverpool last one the League), a Crown Paints jersey which I got from eBay (I still doubt its authenticity) and a Toffs replica shirt from the 70's.

My 3 year old son has got more of the current Liverpool jerseys than I do. He's got the yellow 06/07 one and the 08/09 grey jersey which I personally think is the most gorgeous of the recent away kits (I've got weird tastes, I know).

The key reason why I haven't bought a proper Liverpool jersey has got to do with the name that's been plastered on the chest for the past 10 years or so. The kids version my son wears doesn't have this and rightly so. FYI, personal circumstances and beliefs dictate that I don't associate myself with the brand.

So, earlier this year, I was delighted when it was announced that the club had found new main sponsors. I was delighted because the new deal not only meant that Liverpool would finally get what it deserved sponsorship wise, it also meant that I, for the first time ever, would be able to wear a current Liverpool shirt.

OK, not that Standard Chartered are superior to Carlsberg on the morality stakes but at least, I'd be more comfortable wearing a shirt that has got credit crunch written on it rather than Hey, let's go for a pint!

It would take too long for me to explain so, let's just leave it at that.

What won't take me too long to explain is that the new kit has been available to pre-order on the official online shop for about a week now. So, out came the credit card and straight to the shop I went.

I was just about to finalise the order when I realised that I had to have a player's name at the back of my shirt.

Which player's name would have the honour of being stuck to my sweaty, hairy back for at least the next two years or so? I'd be tempted to go with the crowd and go along with the more popular choices like Gerrard and Torres.

Or, do I get my money's worth and go with longer names like Mascherano and Kyrgiakos. Maybe I'd like to show my support for some of the unsung heroes in the squad like Lucas or Kuyt? Aquilani perhaps? Even Pacheco?

At the moment, I think I'd go with the one player that epitomises Liverpool more than any other player in the squad, Jamie Carragher (plus I'd be getting value for money on the length of his name)!

Anybody have any other suggestions? I think I'd have until somewhere around May 8th before the shirts get finalised anyway so, all suggestions would be welcomed (whatever the reason).

Until then, I can't wait until that day finally arrives, whatever the name on the back says.

Jersey image: Nicked from the official online shop site. No, the jersey won't be black and the one I'm getting is the long-sleeve version, not the short-sleeve.


Jerseys aside, Liverpool still have a game to play later today. Just as I thought Ryan Babel was turning a leaf, he goes on and gets touchy-feely with Luisao and naturally, gets sent off. Would be interesting to see whether Benitez lets him keep his starting place.


Birmingham seem to be keen on taking big club scalps this season so, let's hope it doesn't turn into a penalty freak show like it did over in Lisbon. That way at least we stand a decent chance against McLeish's men.