Is it just me or is the Rams 2008/09 away shirt just too awful to even contemplate buying?

I have been a collector of Derby County strips since 1988 and have all of the official home and away strips hanging proudly in my cupboard. Many of which I am proud to wear at the gym or when feeling nostalgic during a televised game.

Sadly this year I have hit an emotional roadblock with the release of the fluro green away kit. From my perspective the only good thing about Green this year is the one christened Paul on the pitch! As for the shirt I and many fans don’t like it at all. The shorts don't look too bad but on the actual shirt why is the  sponsors name written in white? Is the idea to blind the opposition.... actually that might just help!!

Many years ago I used to have an office job in the cinema industry and the fluro green highlighter was my felt pen of choice. That said, I never remember having the urge to take it and redecorate my clothing so I could boldly display my selection in public.

With Adidas being my favourite sporting goods brand especially having made some fabulous apparel for ‘Collingwood’ (my Aussie Rules team) but have well and truly dropped the ball with this lacklustre football strip. I know the colour has come about more because of the sponsor but surely they could have come up with a more inventive design. Perhaps with a bit more black splashed around or even a more Kermit the frog like green rather than the same blinding shade used to represent nuclear waste in many episodes of the ‘Simpsons’.

With my preference (for historical purposes) to get a players name and number on my shirts plus the league badges on the sleeves, it can be a very expensive exercise especially when like last year the Rams had three strips on offer. I struggled with last years yellow third strip with its thin material hugging my slightly above average frame and the problem of trying to decide what you can co-ordinate with a yellow shirt? Jeans, shorts, yellow bikini? Do the designers ever think about such things…. no I thought not!

It may seem I have done a lot of complaining in my column over recent weeks but to even the ledger I think the home shirt looks great this year. I will have no problem outlaying my hard earned cash for my Sterjovski home strip this season even if I may end up wearing it more than him.

Regular readers will know Mile has been a favourite topic of mine so why should this week be different. Many have insinuated I have an unnatural love for my fellow countryman but I beg to differ, even though he ably models the new away shirt on the official site, even he can’t raise this fashion abomination to the heights it needs for me to consider adding it to my collection. The irony is although the club will let him model the shirt, it seems to be the only place Paul Jewell will let him wear it this season.

With the club recently stating that three strips are likely to become regularity for each season, I can only hope that they have better choices in store for the future. Fans only need to look back at the hippie goal keeping shirt that was rolled out many seasons ago that was more akin to a child throwing up after too much rainbow ice-cream than the design of a stoppers kit for a premier league team. Mind you I still like it better than the new away shirt… at least it was creative... in an ‘I’ve drunk too much to be designing a shirt today’ kind of way!!

The saddest part of all is that even though I have devoted my whole article to my dislike of this shirt, chances are at the end of the season when the strip is heavily reduced to clear I may purchase one. I hate collecting things…. it totally clouds my better judgement!

C’mon Ewe Rams!!

Photo: Action Images

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