West Brom fans fume over new kit
WEST Bromwich Albion supporters have reacted angrily after details about the team’s new kit leaked online and suggested a drastic departure from their traditional blue and white stripes.
In the biggest break with tradition since the Second World War, Albion are set to adopt a pinstripe design next season making the shirts predominantly white.
Players have worn blue and white stripes since 1892, barring a five-year period in solely blue shirts in the 1940s. There was a so-called ‘barcode’ design in the 1990s.
After a photoshoot this week, West Brom’s England goalkeeper Ben Foster wrote on Twitter: ‘I do like it. Lot whiter than usual.’
But a poll on the local newspaper Express & Star website found that the majority of fans were upset at the change. More than 4,500 people voted, with 70 per cent against the new kit. John Homer, chairman of the West Bromwich Albion Supporters Club, said: ‘If this happens I can only see it as an unnecessary break with tradition. I think fans like the stripes that we have always played in. That’s what Albion are.’
West Brom announced a new twoyear deal with adidas this week but yesterday a spokesman said: ‘The club does not comment about the designs of new kits before they have been officially unveiled.’
A number of clubs have altered their kit colours in recent years, most notably Cardiff City, who changed from blue to red at the behest of owner Vincent Tan.
Southampton have also dispensed with stripes by going from traditional red and white to all-red.
West Brom manager Pepe Mel yesterday revealed that he wants Arsenal forward Joel Campbell at the Hawthorns next season.
The Costa Rican played under Mel at Real Betis last season and scored a superb goal against Manchester United for Olympiacos in the last 16 of the Champions League in February.
Mel, whose side travel to Arsenal tomorrow, also revealed the 18-month contract he signed in January has a get-out clause for both himself and the club come the closed season.
‘My contract finishes after the Stoke match and then we will have the meeting for the future,’ said Mel.
‘If Pepe Mel and West Brom say yes, I stay. For now I only want to talk about Arsenal, Sunderland, Stoke. I don’t want to talk about the future as that is a mistake.’