The Sound Of Football: Final podcast of the year

Only one topic up for discussion this week folks: Manchester City, Mark Hughes and the odious Garry Cook. Join Chris, Graham and Terry as we pick over the carcus that is Manchester City's reputation and assess new coach Roberto Mancini's chances of not getting sacked at the end of the season.

You can listen or download the podcast here. Or if you right click on that link, you can download the MP3. Alternatively, you can subscribe via the your reader of choice or via our iTunes feed.

Such a carry on, Emmanuel

What to make of Emmanuel Adebayor? From hero to villain and back again twice, the Manchester City striker is deceptively difficult to get any kind of handle on.

The scorer of 62 goals in 114 appearances for Arsenal, Adebayor left the Emirates Stadium for Eastlands in the summer as one of Man City's many high-profile signings. He also left under rather a cloud, some fans saying he was lazy while others cast him as a temperamental and disruptive influence on the team.

Whatever he was (or is), Adebayor's switch to join Mark Hughes' team has reinvigorated his career, and indeed Manchester City's fortunes. In his first four games this season, the Togolese forward has bagged three goals, but just as neutral football fans everywhere were starting to re-evaluate his exciting play and goalscoring genius, Adebayor went and shot himself in the foot.

Yesterday's match between Arsenal and Manchester City saw Adebayor pick up his fourth goal of the season, but it was his post-goal celebration that made all the headlines. A 90-yard run back upfield to where the Arsenal supporters were situated, followed by a slide on his knees in front of them was at best inflammatory and at worst downright irresponsible. Only a matter of weeks after the hooliganism outside Upton Park, Adebayor couldn't have chosen a worse time to incite the fans that once revered him but now hate him over and above anyone wearing a Tottenham Hotspur shirt.



Somewhat unsurprisingly, referee Mark Clattenburg awarded Adebayor a yellow card with the potential for a further lengthy ban by the FA to come. Adebayor claims he got caught up in the emotion of the moment and has since apologised for his overexuberant celebration, but the damage has already been done, one feels.

Yet was this a chance to metaphorically stick two fingers up to the Arsenal fans that Adebayor found too irresistible to miss? Is it justifiable to suggest that the extreme opinions of a minority of Arsenal fans has polluted the minds of many others? Certainly the verbal treatment Adebayor received yesterday was far from pleasant and one could understand his eagerness to lash out at those who have been detrimental to his name. That said of course, there are ways and means to do so and running the entire length of the pitch to parade gleefully in front of them isn't one of them.

Elsewhere in the match, Adebayor caused further controversy with his rash reaction to a 50-50 challenge with Robin Van Persie that left the Dutch international bleeding from a cut near to his left eye. Van Persie's crude challenge won him the ball but Adebayor flicked his boot out at Van Persie in an act of petulance that will give the FA more evidence with which to suspend or fine him.

Even here, one has to note that Adebayor was himself challenged strongly only moments earlier by Van Persie and no doubt felt inclined to exact some revenge on his challenger, but that's all by the by. The 2008 African Player of the Year has much to learn about controlling his emotions and doesn't react well to the many trials and tribulations of the modern game, but unless he addresses those issues, we and Manchester City are likely to see a lot less of him in the future. The FA will soon see to that.

Premier League Kit Parade (Part 2)

And so we arrive at Part 2 of our saunter through the exciting landscape that is the Premier League shirts for 2008/09. Today we have five more teams to concentrate on, and this being an alphabetical list of sorts, we continue with...

Everton
Say what you like about The Toffees - when it comes to their home shirts, they don't like to change things around too much. Consistency is everything. There again (as Oscar Wilde once said), consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative, and we happen to agree with him there.

So what will David Moyes' men be wearing this season? Well, apart from their new blue shirt which looks staggeringly reminiscent of the last one, there's also a more enlightening away shirt that's white with a navy blue and grey band across the top of the chest.

Even this, however, can't really be treated as being anything bordering on unique or a one-off as this 'double stripe' motif of Umbro's can be seen everywhere from the England away shirt to the West Ham away shirt - more of which in Part 4 of our Premier League Kit Parade.

But let's not be too harsh. Both shirts look smart, neat and in the case of that away shirt, quite stylish. Not bad, but come on Everton... why not go for something more interesting next season, eh?

Fulham
The club from Craven Cottage scored big points with us (and indeed most of you) for their new Nike kits last season, and here we are again with another couple that should meet with your approval.

In the home shirt, Nike have reintroduced a little more black around the collar and cuffs which, given that last years equivalent was completely white, may or may not be a good thing depending on your opinion. Other than that, it's as you were.

On the away shirt, however, Fulham have (much like Barcelona this year) gone from stripes to halves in red and black, and we think this is excellent - so much so that Fulham should stick with it in the future. We really do like it that much.

Once again, Nike have produced a couple of designs that are very simple but retain a very stylish and attractive look. Well done them, we say.

Hull City
Ah, welcome aboard the good ship Prosperity, Hull. We're pleased to see you and we'll have difficulty missing you in your new home shirt which sees a return to those amber and black stripes you've worn so much throughout your history.

Yes, Hull are back in the big time and Umbro have given them a strip to be proud of. The thing you have to know about Hull City is that they regularly alternate between striped shirts and plain amber ones, and having had plain last year, Umbro have returned to the stripes for 2008/09. They've made a good job of it too, with a sleek, no-nonsense garment that should catch the eye without any trouble.

Away from home, The Tigers have got a more sombre dark grey shirt to wear. Hmmm... grey shirts... problematic, no? Perhaps. They can be somewhat less than inspiring (as we'll be seeing shortly), but this one's saved by its dark, brooding tone which should make it easy for the players to pick each other out on the pitch.

All in all then, a pretty good effort from Umbro, if our opinion's anything to go by. And at least they've avoided the obvious pitfall of basing a new shirt design on the team's nickname which, frankly, is unforgivable.

Liverpool
When Adidas replaced Reebok as The Reds' kit supplier in 2006, we all breathed a collective sigh of relief. Most of those Reebok strips from the previous ten years were, it has to be said, decidedly poor, so it was no surprise to find us rubbing our hands with glee when that run came to an end.

Sadly Adidas' first offering was, well, inadequate to say the least. That floppy collar and the wavy white piping did nothing for us, and so it's our great pleasure to welcome a much smarter replacement that proves that sometimes less is more. Very nice.

Unfortunately, the new away shirt undoes all that building anticipation by being light grey, and as if that's not bad enough, they've even incorporated a shadow checkerboard pattern that subscribes to the 1984 school of football shirt design.

There's no nice way to put this - it looks cheap, boring and unoriginal. At least Hull's grey away shirt has a slight air of panache about it, but this, this... needs to be replaced as soon as possible. Liverpool have brought out a third shirt for this season - a pretty good green one - but it'll only be seen in their European away games. Shame, that. It would have been a far better away shirt full stop.

Manchester City
And finally to Man City who've had the dubious honour of having Le Coq Sportif as their kit manufacturers since 1999. For this season, they've produced a home shirt that improves on the rather bland pinstriped affair of 2007/08, and though it lacks a little excitement, we think it's a step back in the right direction.

Out go those pinstripes which proved such a talking point last season, and in comes a plain light blue shirt with a white stripe running across one shoulder and a thin navy blue stripe running across the other. With a nice navy blue v-neck collar, it doesn't look at all bad in our book.

A little more troubling, however, is City's away shirt. It sees a return to the old red-and-black-stripe arrangement, and we think it looks OK... but we're not sure.

What's causing the confusion are those white pinstripes that flank the red and black bands. If it weren't for those, we think this'd be an almost perfect design. Sadly those thin white lines take the edge off it and that means the best we can call it is 'good' and/or 'interesting'.

So there it is, another five sets of shirts for you to judge and assess. We'd love to hear whether you agree or disagree with our rather presumptuous views, so why not drop us a comment and give us your thoughts on any or all of the shirts above.

Our thanks go to Football Shirt Culture and Historical Kits for their help with our research, and don't forget to join us again soon for Part 3 of our report on the new shirts for the 2008/09 Premier League season.

Shirts for 2007/08: Manchester City (home)

Time now to cast your eye over the third of our new shirts for the 2007/08 Premiership season, and today the club in question is Manchester City who give us this...



Le Coq Sportif take over as manufacturers from Reebok and the first thing to note is that the white sleeves have gone. I think that's a good thing, myself - in fact (and I know Footie Bird will want to strangle me for saying this) I rather like the look of it. I think.

Judging from some of the pictures I've seen, it can look stylish or cheap and nasty depending on which light you see it in. Anyway, I think I like it... what do you think? Leave us a comment or simply take part in our online vote below.

(Oh and a big thanks to Footie Bird for bringing the new shirt to our attention!) :)

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VOTING HAS NOW CLOSED FOR THIS SHIRT
The final results were as follows:

Excellent: 53 (22%)
Good: 44 (19%)
OK: 39 (17%)
Poor: 27 (12%)
Terrible: 64 (28%)

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