Monsieur Salut reports on responses to our poll on Sunderland’s new home kit …
Well, we asked the question as neutrally as possible and got the answer: a big thumbs-down for the new Sunderland home shirt.
Of 111 votes at the last count – not too bad a sample by opinion poll standards but no more than that, of course, when you consider our average attendances – a thumping majority (nearly 74 per cent) think it “an absolute eyesore”.
[polldaddy poll=9766785]
You can still vote
Just under 11 per cent like it, ticking “quite impressive, captures history in style” while nine per cent have gone for “not bad”.
There were also the “other answers” volunteered by six per cent. Readers cannot see what the suggestions were but I can! SAFC management may wish to avert its eyes:
* Absolutely, unspeakably vile
* Just about OK apart from the back, which is terrible
* Who cares? The club is a disaster, like the new kit
* The back is a Man U shirt
* Woeful, tasteless the back of the shirt is plain red and not like the old shirt
* Stripes are OK and it nods towards nostalgia, but the back is a disgrace
* front ok, back crap
Many fans who have expressed opinions here and elsewhere seem to agree with the criticism of the back. But, as some readers pointed out in comments at the original piece, it had to be plain to take account of EUFA-imposed rules requiring backs to be plain so referees can clearly see players’ numbers.
So if, like Theresa May, Sunderland hoped the poll might produce a ringing endorsement, it was – as for her – unforthcoming. As a mischievous thought, why not ask the DUP for its thoughts – we might end up with a back showing a Sunday scene in Northern Ireland with children’s playground swings sternly tied up?
As for me, I stick to my first impression. I do think it harks back reasonably well to historical Sunderland strips from when we were a power in the land. But I agree the back is hideous.
Surely if we consult the DUP the back will have to become orange!
I posted the following after the original article. Others might wish to check out its veracity.
“As far as I can tell there isn’t a regulation that insists the back is a single colour and I can’t imagine Celtic changing their kit. But what there is, is a requirement that numbers and players’ names are in a contrasting colour and clearly visible.
That means a panel (say white) with the name and another with the number in black would be acceptable.
With the stripes on this kit being so narrow it is obviously easier to have a plain red back with white numbers and names.
Mind you I might be wrong but I still don’t like the strip.”