A couple of days ago, in one of our myriad posts on troubles in Manchester, I shared what I had learned earlier in the day: that in France, the Green and Gold protesters are not said to be wearing Norwich scarves, but Nantes ones. The reason should be fairly obvious, but I will spell it out anyway. You see, in France, Nantes are the club that put bright yellow and bright green together in an unholy union.
In that same thread, The NY Kid offered to send me along a Nantes shirt which would be perfect for this recurring feature. However, by the time I read his reply, I had already found one of my own. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Nantes home shirt from 1983-85.
Yes, someone played actual matches in this shirt. Yes, actual fans followed the team that wore this shirt. Yes, they rip off Norwich wholesale.
What I can’t get over is the fact that the team (as well as FFF, I assume) allowed the sponsor logo to overlap the team badge. Yes, that blip at the top of the transparent “1″ is the team badge. Once again, this is a case of being able to read the sponsor from 200 meters away, but unable to make out which team it belongs to unless you happen to be checking out the dude’s pecs through his shirt.
While that is frustrating, the saddest thing for me about this shirt is the choice of green used by adidas for the stripes. Like Ned, except for non-Norwich related reasons, I am a proponent of green and yellow going together. That is, as long as the right shade of each is chosen. You know what the right shade of green is for this yellow? The one screenprinted on for the sponsor. You know what the exact wrong green is? The green in the shirt that used to be called Seafoam by Crayola, a color only available in boxes of 64 or larger.
Which, sadly, makes this shirt one of those which actually looks much worse without the sponsor. And as a guy who keeps an eye out for Aberdeen shirts without corporate interference on them (eBay is a great place to find shirts just off enough that the manufacturers weren’t bothered to get screenprinted), this is a harsh reality to face. When the shirt looks better with the sponsor than without, you know you have screwed it up.
In addition to the seafoam green, the hands-on-hips pose makes it look gay.
I think thats rather nice.
Norwich have been in yellow and green since 1907