I was quite surprised to see how poor the new Nike Arsenal shirts were until I noticed how bad the new Nike Man U shirts were, too. Not only that but the world has gone mad over the new Nike socer ball, illustrated left as placed behind Everton's keeper by Arsenal today, with its bizzarro three latitudinal stripes.

I've complained about Nike's crap style in passing before when praising Umbro's superior classic sense. Nike has to put in its swoop, its asymetry and its exterior-reference-lacking curving trim somewhere in every shirt it creates. Nike is a more important message than the team. Look below right at the sad excuse for a collar reference in the new Man U shirt. [Later: I think it might be a stylized Nike swoop with the neck hole as the interior of the curve. How craptastic.] Not that I mind them looking crappy but there is something not right about it - the white arm wedge is for what?. The back of the Arsenal shirt is worse, so busy it detracts from the player's name, the thing that one presumes is being framed for ease of identification by the fan watching live or one TV. For a team that has had the classic simplicity of the 1970s and early 80s Umbro white sleeve, red body look, this year's model is a bit of an embarrassment.