Shirts for 2007/08: Derby County (home)

Think of the Premier League and Adidas, and what do you get? Liverpool? Chelsea? Maybe, but now you can add another name to that list - Derby County.

Yes, you heard correctly - Derby County, returning to the Premier League this season for the first time since 2002, and what better way to celebrate than with a sparkly new shirt...



Now for all its simplicity, I can see this one being a little controversial. Why? Well firstly there's that Adidas badge which appears to be high up on the shoulder like the Le Coq Sportif badge is on the new Manchester City shirt. Personally, I'm not too offended by it, but I know some of you are.

Then there's the 'Adidasness' of it... or rather, the lack of 'Adidasness'. Look at any Adidas shirt being worn by any team around the world these days and the chances are it has lots of curly paraphenalia all over it (see Liverpool's away shirt for details). This one doesn't, but then that could be because it looks like it might have been selected from the Adidas budget-range catalogue.

Having said that, it's a nice, uncomplicated design (if a little unexciting) which, when worn with the accompanying black shorts, should look at least a little fetching.

If you're thinking of purchasing one for yourself (and go on, admit it - you are, aren't you?) go to the Derby County website where they're waiting to give you one for £40 (as it were).

While you're contemplating that, why not tell us what think of the new Derby home shirt by leaving us a comment or two? If you're not feeling too verbose, how about logging your opinion in our online vote below? It's all very simple, and if you do run into difficulties, feel free to ask a grown-up for some help...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Excellent: 39 (44%)
Good: 25 (28%)
OK: 10 (11%)
Poor: 12 (13%)
Terrible: 3 (3%)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

New Badge Alert (kind of...) - Derby County

Well looky here - another new Premier League club badge... well, sort of.

Not really a new badge in the truest sense of the word, but instead a new interpretation of an old badge courtesy of Derby County.

Replacing this, we now have this...

Out goes the gold ribbon below the ram and in its place comes a double-circle featuring the full name of Billy Davies' newly-promoted team.

The badge will appear on Derby County's new Adidas kit which is launched next month, but in the meantime, how do we feel about it? Myself, I think the circle looks a lot better than the ribbon, but the lettering looks a little bit, well, 'seventies-ish'. That being the case, I think it might look a bit old-fashioned before long, but we'll see.

Perhaps the real question to ask here (particularly to any Derby fans dropping by) is whether you prefer the circular badge, the ribbon badge or the badge which preceded them both which had just the plain old ram and nothing else? Speaking for myself, I'd go for the latter of those three but this one seems harmless enough.

Let us know what you think. Does it give you that ram-bo feeling or does it leave you a little (ahem) sheepish?