Tag Archives: Admiral

Fantasy Kit Friday, 13-4-18 – Home Nations special

13 Friday Apr 2018

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The tardiness of today’s offering should hopefully be compensated by the fact that it’s a bumper edition.

It’s the melding of two independent requests – Paul Thomas asked for a 1976 Home Internationals mix-up and then David Morrissey sought something similar from 2000, so we decided to bridge the gap and do 1988 as well.

That meant that each country could have one kit from each of the others, and the easiest way to do that was to do two pairings per year. We wanted to avoid putting countries in kits by the same manufacturer as they had at the time, and though there are slight quibbles – like Wales ending up in Umbro in each each of the three years – we’re fairly happy with the outcome.

There has been a little bit of artistic licence taken with trim colours, but if you have a problem with that, then – like Lance Armstrong in his infamous podium speech – I feel sorry for you.

1976

1988

2000

 

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Nathan’s Top 5s – Best Mashups

13 Friday Apr 2018

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  • Nathan Patrick takes a big interest in the administration of kit-clashes – as this excellent piece goes to show. To continue the collaboration, this is the first of a new series where he choose his five favourite instances of a kit topic, in this case the best mashups.

The first instalment of this series will focus on the five best kit mashups in football history, that have come about to avoid a potential shorts- and/or socks clash but at the same time have looked excellent, perhaps even looking better than the original kit did with the standard shorts and socks.

I define a proper kit mashup as different elements of different kits of the same club being worn as an after-thought but, against the odds, the aesthetics are pleasing.  This list will therefore  not include specific change shorts and/or socks made for that kit or elements from other kits where mixing  and matching were clearly an intention beforehand.

Wales (1976-79, nine occasions)

Wales-Admiral-1977-home-kit-yellow-socks-Scotland-Joe-Jordan

This first entry could technically break one of my rules.  Before 1976, Wales had been stuck with a pedestrian red and white kit which was often worn with white shorts.

Admiral, famous for their innovative and daring templates, changed all this upon their arrival when they kitted Wales out in their eccentric ‘tramline’ template, also worn by Coventry,  trimmed in bright yellow and green. The away kit was in the same template, with the main colour being yellow.

Before the days of changing at the drop of a hat, Wales needed to change socks when they were away to Scotland who were in their classic navy-white-red, while they also did so against Yugoslavia.  In previous years they may have used white change socks, but they decided to use the away kit’s yellow socks, which worked perfectly with the trim on the shirt and shorts.  Some may say that these kits are made to mix and match, but due to the unorthodox nature of any yellow on the Wales kit at that time, I have decided to include it.

Barcelona (2001-02, v Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen)

Barcelona-2001-2001-away-camiseta-navy-shorts-socks-Liverpool-01

This mash up works so well that you could be excused for thinking this was the standard kit.

Metallic kits were all the rage in the early 2000s and Barcelona released their own gold number with trim in navy and blaugrana.

What was strange was that the kit was released with cherry red shorts and socks, perhaps due to Barca going through their phase of wearing navy shorts and socks with the home shirt and they wore these odd shorts and socks at Roma in an awful overall clash.

Luckily they also faced Liverpool that season, which gave them the perfect chance to mix and match.  The trim on the navy shorts was gold and the navy bar down the shirt flowed nicely into the shorts, which proved that this combination was infinitely better than the default combo.

The season after, the home shorts were worn with this kit once again, but by then the home shorts had changed to royal blue and the magic had been lost.

Arsenal (v Roma, 2002-03)

Arsenal-2002-2003-Nike-away-shirt-white-shorts-socks-Roma-Henry-hat-trick-01

European football often gives us mash ups that we may not have seen otherwise.

In 2002-03, for example,  Arsenal were involved in shorts-clashes and sock-clashes in the Premiership due to the lax rules.

The Champions League’s rules were not as lenient however, and Arsenal needed to change the shorts and socks of their new navy away kit when they went to Roma, who had black shorts and socks for their Champions League strip.

Luckily, and unusually for Arsenal, the home and away kits were in similar colour schemes and templates, with both kits containing large amounts of white and red, which meant that they could just wear the shorts and socks of the home kit and Henry looked particularly elegant in the combo, netting a hat-trick in a dominant performance.

Manchester United (v Sunderland, Cardiff City and Southampton, 2013-14)

Manchester-United-2013-2014-away-shirt-white-shorts-socks-Sunderland-Januzaj-01

United are notorious for creating copious amounts of different shorts and socks combos, often resulting in two or even three different versions of the same-colour component.

You would think this would have been the case in 2013-14 when they had their usual red home shirt accompanied by an all-navy away kit with a black gingham pattern.  United’s home shorts however,  were plain white with a black Nike tick and their home change socks were white with two black lines.

This meant that they could wear them with the away kit, lifting an otherwise dark kit and keeping the tradition of light shorts and socks that Fergie so often adhered to.  Away to Southampton  this arguably created a socks-clash.

Juventus (v Sassuolo, 2015-16)

Juventus-2015-2016-away-maglia-pink-white-shorts-socks-Sassuolo-01

Since Adidas recruited Juventus to their ranks in 2015/16, their designs have been fairly underwhelming for the most part.

However, there is no doubt that, whether you love it or hate it, their pink 2015/16 away kit has become one of the most iconic kits of this decade, receiving mainstream fame after being worn by hip-hop artist Drake.

On the pitch, it was usually worn with black shorts, which didn’t really go with the light nature of the kit, so the perfect opportunity to try something different was grasped at Sassuolo due to a shorts-clash.

Juve turned out in the pink shirts with the white shorts and socks of the home kit, which looked especially good as the Adidas stripes on all three components were black.  The mix-and-match novelty certainly didn’t work with the third kit.

 

 

Season’s meetings, no. 4 – Leeds v VfB Stuttgart, 1992-93

08 Sunday Apr 2018

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  • See here for previous entries

It’s back to the 1990s again for this series, and, as with the Ajax-AC Milan example, we’re looking at three meetings in Europe’s top club competition – a rare enough occurrence, rarer still that a side would wear a different kit in each game.

As we shall see, there were unique circumstances. We’ll start at the start, with the drawing together of VfB Stuttgart and Leeds United in the first round. With new  shorts-clash rules meaning Leeds could wear all-white in early-season away games at Aston Villa, Middlesbrough and Manchester United, the first leg in Germany was a first outing for Leeds’ ill-fated blue away kit, setting the tone for its winless tenure as the home side won 3-0.

Presumably due to advertising size rules, Stuttgart only had the logo of sponsors Südmilch – domestically, their wordmark appeared on the red panel too.

 

For the second leg Leeds were in their white home kit, with Stuttgart wearing a reversal of their default strip – the same as when they had met in the pre-season Makita Tournament at Elland Road, where Nottingham Forest had worn their new baggy Umbro shirts with the skimpier alternative shorts from the previous kit.

Leeds won 4-1, seemingly not enough to prevent them exiting on away goals, but it turned out that Stuttgart had used four foreigners, one more than was permitted. Instead of expelling them from the competition, UEFA declared that the second leg was a 3-0 win to Leeds – leaving the tie level at 3-3 and no away goals in play, so a replay was ordered.

Barcelona’s Nou Camp was determined as the venue, with the game set for Friday, October 9. Presumably the netural nature was the reason for both sides having to change kits – had it been away kit v away kit we would have had the wonderful vista of all-blue against all-red in Barcelona, but instead Leeds were in their third kit. One would imagine UEFA wanted a dark v light situation.

Leeds’ yellow shirts had the same style as the blue, but the shorts were of a more sedate nature.

 

Goals from Gordon Strachan and Carl Shutt secured a 2-1 win for Howard Wilkinson’s side, and a second-round tie with Rangers, dubbed The Battle of Britain, for a place in the Champions League section.

Two 2-1 wins saw Rangers to advance and, with no shirt sponsors permitted in the group stage, we were treated to an excellent DIY job for their first outing against Marseille.

 

 

Midweek Mashup – Mancheser United, 1976

28 Wednesday Mar 2018

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  • As always with Manchester United content, the primary source of research is the ever-excellent United Kits.

Admiral took over as kit suppliers to Manchester United in the summer of 1975, as the club returned to Division 1 following the relegation at the end of 1973-74.

However, while a blue Umbro third shirt was worn against Southampton and Walsall in the promotion season (and would appear again after adidas replaced Admiral), the was no third kit in Admiral’s first season, with varying white shirts worn at Sheffield United and Stoke City.

For 1975-76, though, Admiral did provide a blue version of the home shirt, complete with a blue-tinged crest, and it was first seen away to Ajax in the UEFA Cup on September 15.

Previous third kits had tended to use white shorts and blue or black socks, but the rig-out in Amsterdam was noticeably different. For the first time since the 1968 European Cup final against Benfica, blue shorts were used and – uniquely in Admiral’s tenure – the players wore red socks.

Manchester-United-1976-Admiral-third-kit-Ajax-red-socks-01

Where they came from and where they went, we’ll never know. United lost 1-0 but won the second leg 2-0 to advance.

When the short-sleeve blue shirts were worn in the league, away to Southampton and Sunderland, white shorts and blue-topped black socks were used.

United wouldn’t wear red socks in a competitive game again until 2000.

World Cup Classics no. 2 – Belgium, 1982

05 Monday Mar 2018

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At the end of last week’s first feature in this series, the Sweden 1994 away kit, we mentioned how the Swedes were prevented from having a white change strip for the 2002 competition, and this week’s entry wouldn’t be allowed nowadays either.

Apart from England, Admiral also supplied Belgium for the 1982 World Cup and they made sure everybody knew about it.

As well as the ‘normal’ applications of their logo on the right breast of the shirt and the left leg of the shorts, it was also repeated along thick yellow stripes which travelled from the arms down the sides of the shirt and on to the shorts (the same route as the Coventry and Wales ‘tramlines’). Such brand exposure far exceeds modern limits.

There is a possibility that, if you were to ask the casual fan what the Belgian kit was for the World Cup in Spain, they might say red shirts, white shorts and red socks. That’s what was worn in their opening game, a 1-0 win against Argentina at the Nou Camp, a game which provided an iconic – and somewhat misleading – image of Diego Maradona and six Belgian players (click here for the real story behind it).

Belgium-1982-Admiral-home-kit-World-Cup-white-shorts-Argentina-Maradona-01

The white shorts were from the away kit, which followed the same design as the red strip, and the change must have been one of those illogical FIFA decisions due to a perceived shorts-clash.

For their other two Group 3 games, another 1-0 win over El Salvador and a 1-1 draw with Hungary, Belgium were in the all-red which had superseded the red-black-red look. Note how the red shorts had a different number font to the white.

Belgium-1982-Admiral-home-kit-World-Cup-01

That progressed them to the 12-team second round, where countries were drawn in groups of three.  In their first Group A game, Belgium played Poland, who were in their usual white-red-white but, while this was obviously more of a shorts-clash than the Argentina tie, no change was mandated.

A Ziggy Boniek hat-trick gave Poland a 3-0 win to put Belgium on the back foot and they were out after a 1-0 loss to the USSR – though, as they won the toss for colours, it meant they exited the competition having played all five games in their traditional red shirts.

With Admiral in financial trouble, Belgium soon returned to adidas, who gave them an interesting design featuring an argyle pattern – something of which we shall see more this summer.

 

Midweek Mashup – Wales, 1976-77

14 Wednesday Feb 2018

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When Wales beat Northern Ireland 1-0 at Euro 2016, some outlets referred to them having reached the quarter-finals of the European Championship for the first time.

However, the qualification for Euro 76 featured eight groups, with the winners of them being drawn in four two-legged ties to determine who made it to the four-team finals. Surely they were quarter-finals?

Whether they were or not, Wales were there, having bested Hungary, Austria and Luxembourg. They were drawn with Yugoslavia, whose kit was blue shirts, white shorts and red socks, meaning a change for Wales when they went to Belgrade for the first leg.

Admiral had provided the revolutionary ‘tramlines’ kit that year and there was a complementary yellow change strip, with the socks from that matching the red shirts and shorts quite well.

Wales-Admiral-1977-home-kit-yellow-socks-Scotland-Joe-Jordan

Wales lost 2-0 and, oddly, wore the same ensemble in the home game, a 1-1 draw, despite the fact that Yugoslavia were wearing all-white.

The look would again be seen away to Scotland in their World Cup qualifier in Hampden Park in November of 1976. The Scots donned white socks in Wrexham when the countries met in the Home Championship in May 1977, but for Wales’ ‘home’ World Cup qualifier (held at Anfield following crowd trouble at the Yugoslavia second leg), they were again in red-red-yellow.

That game was overshadowed by a dodgy Scotland penalty – some Wales fans have yet to forgive Joe Jordan – which led to a 2-0 ‘away’ win. Had Wales won, then they could have afforded to lose to Czechoslovakia in their final group game and still qualify, but instead it was Scotland who went to Argentina.

 

Fantasy Kit Friday, 5-1-18 – Bayern Munich in Admiral

05 Friday Jan 2018

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A happy new year to all of the site’s readers, and welcome to the first FKF of 2018.

If you have an interest in the German national team or Bayern Munich, Rick Joshua has two sites which will be of huge interest – Schwarz und Weiss and Fussball Chef – and Rick came up with today’s suggestion.

While it’s practically impossible to imagine Bayern in anything other than adidas but we’ve tried it before and Rick’s idea of Admiral is a worthy one.

Bayern-Admiral-Fantasy-Kit-Friday-01

It’s very similar to the 1975-78 Coventry City away kit, and we hope you’ll excuse the few anachronisms used to ‘Bayernify’ it – the club didn’t use a crest in a competitive game until the 1987 European Cup final, while blue didn’t feature heavily until the 1990s.

Still, quite pleasing to look at, in our view. Let us know your thoughts.

Midweek Mashup – West Ham United, 1980

01 Wednesday Nov 2017

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Growing up in Ireland, where Gaelic games are so popular, it doesn’t seem strange to have two teams changing when colours clash (of course, sometimes neither changes).

On the rare occasions that it happens now in football, there is a general outcry, while the same sentiments are often expressed when looking at pictures from the past – perhaps with a lack of knowledge that, at one stage, that was the rule for FA Cup games.

By the late 1970s, that regulation still existed but was enforced less, with the 1971 FA Cup final the first notable example of this. Arsenal lost the toss on that occasion and, while they wore their home kit in losing to Leeds United the following year, their yellow and blue change kit would be used in three deciders in a row from 1978-80 inclusive – but only in the middle one, against Manchester United in 1979, was it fully necessary.

As related in the excellent book The Arsenal Shirt, Arsenal changed against Ipswich Town in 1978 rather than donning red alternative shorts, and it was a similar story two years later, when West Ham United provided the opposition.

Both semi-finals went to replays, and were indicative of the inconsistent approach to clashing – West Ham wore all-white against the all-blue of Everton in both of their games, while Arsenal and Liverpool’s four-game series saw them alternating home and away kits.

West Ham were the ‘home’ team for the final, but they opted to stay in white – perhaps a mix of superstition after the semi and the heat. The default setting of the away strip was white shirts with blue shorts and socks, but the home shorts and socks were used here, with the mash-up nature evident by the difference in Admiral trim and logos.

West-Ham-United-1980-Admiral-white-FA-Cup-final-Arsenal-01.png

With West Ham in white, Arsenal could have worn their home shirts with red shorts, but again decided to go with yellow and blue. West Ham’s white worked its charm though, with Trevor Brooking’s header giving them victory.

It would transpire to be their final game in Admiral as they joined forces with adidas for the 1980-81 season – their next game, the Charity Shield against Wembley, would see all-white worn again, with the shirts and shorts again have different striping.

Midweek Mashup – England, 1982

13 Wednesday Sep 2017

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I actually don’t have that much of a problem with the Nike Vapor template.

This year’s Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham kits are quite nice, for instance, My problem was that, in 2016, the company decided to dick around with teams’ traditional looks, altering shorts and socks and socks colours – a recent Midweek Mashup featured Internazionale in what should have been their actual kit.

England suffered in this regard too, with their current kit having white shorts and red socks. The PR blurb on the launch mentioned honouring John Barnes’ excellent goal against Brazil in 1984 but those colours were obviously only worn because of a clash with the hosts, and the team didn’t have sky-blue sleeves then either.

The fact that two kit elements were changed from the classic look was what offended the sensibilities of traditionalists. If it had been just red socks added to a white shirt and blue shorts, it wouldn’t have been so drastic – perhaps then we should be sorry that England didn’t beat West Germany at Wembley in 1982, with somebody scoring a wondergoal, as then that look could have been the basis for the 2016 kit.

The countries had met in the ’82 World Cup in Spain, with England changing (into two different styles of red shirts), but for this friendly in October, the Germans had a brand-new green pinstriped away shirt, similar to the kit France had at the time.

Given that pretty much every country with white home shirts also has white home socks though, were the Germans engaging in a bit of trolling with their socks?

Germany-adidas-1982-away-kit-shirt-trikot-England-Wembley-01

It meant that England had to wear their away socks – incidentally, they reverted back to the style they had had before the World Cup, when the ubiquity of the Admiral logos on the turnover meant they weren’t allowed.

It made for a far more cohesive look than the current home outfit.

England-Admiral-1982-home-shirt-kit-red-socks-West-Germany-01

 

Midweek Mashup – Leeds United, 1993

23 Wednesday Aug 2017

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Earlier this year, we looked at an odd Leeds United mashup, centred around how the club had ditched yellow shorts, leading to an odd mix of their third shirt with home shorts.

When I was growing up, Leeds’ away was pretty much always yellow with some bit of blue and this was of course the case as the club won the last ‘old’ Division 1 title in 1991-92.

That summer brought a lot of change on the kit front, though. The club’s deal with Umbro ended, as did the short-term sponsorship arrangement with the Yorkshire Evening Post.

On both fronts, Admiral were the replacements as they sought to re-assert themselves in the kit game, with a five-year contract agreed, as outlined in the excellent book Do You Want To Win? by Daniel Chapman, which covers the club’s development during the period from 1988-92.

Sartorially, Admiral’s most noticeable change was the designation of blue as the away colour, with yellow demoted to third choice. Daniel goes into detail on blue Leeds change strips here, and it is a deviation mentioned in that piece that we will look at.

With nobody wearing white shirts and yellow shorts, there was never a need to switch from all-yellow, but the trip to White Hart Lane to face Tottenham Hotspur in February 1993 saw the team emerge in something resembling the change kit worn in the late 1960s.

Leeds-United-1992-1993-Admiral-away-shirt-third-shorts-Tottenham-01.png

Tottenham had navy shorts and socks, but Leeds only changed shorts, despite the Premier League having decreed that shorts-clashes between teams didn’t have to be solved, in contrast to the Football League’s rule.

While Leeds had beaten Spurs 5-0 at Elland Road in the new Premier League in August (with Eric Cantona scoring a hat-trick), their form had dipped since then and their defence of the title was characterised by a failure to win an away game – this was a 4-0 loss.

The league outings, coupled with the 3-0 Champions League defeat to VfB Stuttgart, meant the blue shirt was also winless and it wasn’t seen after this game, with the yellow preferred when a change was required.

Despite the five-year deal, Leeds and Admiral’s link-up ended in the summer of 1993, with Asics taking over. In 1993-94, Leeds would pair their home shorts with their yellow and blue striped away shirt at White Hart Lane, but subsequent seasons saw blue away shorts worn there with no problems.