West Ham United’s new home kit won’t be released until Monday, but we have a leaked picture of what is presumably it thanks to Football Shirt Culture.

Designed and manufactured by Umbro and sponsored by SBOBET, the new jersey features a checkerboard design on the front in claret, and a very minimal blue trim as opposed to previous seasons when the sleeves were blue. The shirt features a polo-shirt collar, while the shorts are white and the socks are claret with blue trim.

If this is seriously the new West Ham United jersey for the 2009-2010 season, then it’s horrid. There’s nothing wrong with clubs going with retro designs, but we don’t need Umbro going back to the horrible designs of the early 90s with checkerboard designs and other flashy elements. Claret and blue, by themselves without flashy enhancements, are fine as they are.

I’m not 100% convinced that the design above is the new West Ham United shirt, though. Reason being is that the Hammers released a promotional photograph recently of Hollywood actor Ray Winstone promoting the upcoming release of the new shirt. In the picture, none of the features of the new shirt are included on the shirt Winstone is wearing. It’s quite possible that Winstone was given a claret shirt to wear. Or it’s possible that the above design is fake. Whatever the case, we’ll find out on Monday for sure. Let’s just hope that West Ham United and Umbro will unveil something more impressive than the shirts pictured here. They’re a traditional club that deserves better.

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