My two favorite home shirts from the past few decades have been the 2008-09 edition and the special one-off 50th anniversary commemorative FA Cup victory shirt from 2019-20. I don’t ever buy kits, but I regret not getting that one at the time.
So in theory, I should absolutely love the home shirt for next season, which was officially unveiled
today (matching, as usual, months and months of leaked information).It’s got a proper collar. It’s got yellow accents. It’s got the just the lion rampant instead
of the full badge, which is always a solid choice for a fashion-only wear item. It’s the proper shade of blue. It comes in long sleeves! “It’s a Chelsea Thing” was the slogan for the FA Cup kit drop, and this one is Proper Chels, too.
But for some reason, it just doesn’t quite work for me.
Maybe it’s the piping on the shoulder and down the sides. Maybe it’s the lack of sponsorship, not because I’m some corporate stan, but because it unbalances the design and leaves a void. The shirt tries to mitigate that with the tonal oversized badge dominating the front, but that’s perhaps the worst feature of the shirt. On pictures, it just looks horrendous. It probably will look better on the pitch, especially if we can make it a winning shirt. It’s definitely an improvement from this year’s.
Satisfy your consumerism at the Megastore!
