Sh*t kits are fit for the bin

England's Under-21s may have progressed to the final of the European Championships but it's been a bad few weeks for English football.

Fans of no fewer than three large clubs have hit the roof. Not over ticket prices or transfers but over - you guessed it - the new kit!

The red side of Manchester's worldwide support is apparently united in  its hatred of the new black V plastered shoulder-to shoulder across the front of the new home shirt. 

Unfavourably compared to  a modern rugby league shirt, the design is meant to be a nod to the Red Devils' history  (the 1909/10  season saw a similar design) but, in truth, the shirt is an identical design (not colour) to the Mexico national shirt. 

Traditional it may be but surely one of the richest and most famous football clubs in the world would warrant their own unique kit design? Maybe not.

Nike are not the only kit manufacturers that have a habit of producing a template design, which is then used across a number of club jerseys, Tottenham Hotspur fans are having the same grievance with Puma.

Spurs' home shirt is traditionally lilywhite and navy blue but this year's features a  yellow strap across the collar bone - a move that has sparked fury among the fans, to the point that an online petition has so far collected 2381 signatures in a matter of days.

Choice comments from the petition describe the shirt as 'worst kit ever' and 'pure dung', alongside calls of 'we are not Leeds United' and 'change the yellow to blue'.

The club's kit launch claimed that 'Glory Comes in Three Colours' necessitating the inclusion of yellow. However, a quick google image search reveals that this proposed 'glory' also comes in a kit design identical to that of Olympiakos and Lazio.

I've saved the best for last though, as Manchester United and Spurs fans can all take solace in knowing that, in the world of ludicrous football kits, they got very lucky indeed. One team have gone all out to totally embarrass their already red-faced players.

With another nail in the coffin of a disastrous year – step forward Newcastle United.

I'm totally speechless.

Surely I'm too young for Premiership Amnesia?

During my lifetime, Tottenham Hotspur have not been a successful club. Sure, as a 25-year-old fan we hear older generations talk of a long-gone golden age that brought numerous FA Cups, two league championship titles and even European silverware but my alluding to that sort of "success" would only be to play into the moniker of "living in the past".

This said, there have been triumphs and tribulations spattered among the dark days and close shaves; Lineker's first Spurs hat-trick, against QPR, Gascoigne's free-kick, Iversen's lob in the second leg at Selhurst Park and a few 5-1 scorelines that will live long in the memory.

And, placed alongside relegation dogfights and cold 0-0 draws against rubbish opposition, these are just as memorable as any other football fan's highs and lows.

Yesterday, however, I found my long-term football memory let me down, which was a shock to the system. My short-term memory, i am aware, is struggling - i lose my keys within seconds of entering my flat, I can even lose my train of thought mid-word but I though long-term memory was exactly that - long-term.

My dad can recite the Spurs side to beat Leicester City at Wembley in 1961 - fair enough, it was a big day but last night I watched "The Premiership Years 97/98" and forgot a large chunk of the season .

I gleefully boasted to my uninterested girlfriend at the start about how a returning Teddy Sheringham missed a penalty for Manchester United in front of the White Hart Lane faithful. Explaining how it didn't matter a jot that United went on to win 2-0, seeing as the striker was made to look silly after his bitter summer transfer.

I happily pointed out who was who, which grounds had been knocked down or turned into flats and how long certain managers were to last after thumping the turf in anger.

But my downfall came after seeing Spurs spanked 4-0 up at Liverpool. I knew that Gerry Francis' resignation was soon to follow but I could not for the life of me remember who replaced him. At which stage I was at a loss to remember the rest of the season. Who stepped in? How did we do?

Don't get me wrong, I knew we were crap.. I went to almost every home game but the problem was I had my years mixed up.

Anyway, the problem was momentary and everything came flooding back to be ironed out with the arrival of Jurgen Klinsmann... I even have the t-shirt for crying out loud and I maintain to this day that we would have been relegated would not have been for the German's second spell of service but at that time I was convinced it was the following season.

20 hours later, and the shock is subsiding. In fact, i'm starting to think that if my long-term memory is giving up, and the past in my mind isn't quite the past in the history books, then there is an outside chance I will wake up in the near future believing with all my heart that Tottenham have won the double in my lifetime - as long as I stay away from watching "The Premiership Years"!