The 10 worst Southampton FC kits

This week however, we go to the other end of the spectrum. Your favourite may well be here, but don't take it as a personal slight - it's just fashion. Or more accurately, it's just hideously coloured nylon.

10. 2006, Home, Saints

The design itself was pretty inoffensive – wider than normal stripes are not a problem, although the white patch across the middle for the sponsor did make it look a little like a subliminal Swiss flag had been embedded into the shirt. The biggest problem with it was the horrible material and the inability for the flybe logo to last more than a couple of washes.

• Memorable player – Gareth Bale
• Memorable moment – Hammering Southend to secure a play-off place.

9. 2012, Away, Umbro

The design itself is actually not bad – certainly a huge improvement on the home shirt that season. The issues with this shirt arise out of clashing with virtually all of the exact same kits that the red version did – rendering it absolutely useless as a change strip. It was worn only once in the league – away at Anfield – and the only other outing it enjoyed was at St Mary’s in a 5-1 drubbing by Chelsea in the FA Cup third round.

• Memorable player – Jay Rodriquez
• Memorable moment – J Rod putting Saints ahead against Chelsea (prior to shipping five).

8. 1991, Third, Admiral

Bright yellow flames were always going to be a questionable fashion option, even in the early 90s. The blue version actually looked quite good (and narrowly missed out on a spot in the 10 Best Saints kits, after an intervention by members of the Echo features team) but the yellow one was bizarelly combined with white shorts and socks.

• Memorable player – Iain Dowie
• Memorable moment – A 2-1 win at Selhurst Park, after being battered by Crystal Palace.

7. 1993, Away, Pony

If there’s one thing a Saints shirt never needs, its more blue. The thought process on this one was to take the home shirt and just pour a load a blue dye over it. White became sky blue (ish) and red became something close to navy.

• Memorable player – Ken Monkou
• Memorable moment – A winning start for new boss Alan Ball at St James’ Park.

6. 1985, Home, Patrick

Okay, it was the 80s, but did we really need power dressing on the pitch? The kit was an attempt at something different for the club’s centenary, but it’s the shoulder pads which really mark this creation out. You can almost imagine Joan Collins wearing it.

• Memorable player – Dave Armstrong
• Memorable moment – Sticking five past Aston Villa at The Dell

5. 1996, Third, Pony

You may look at this and think it’s cream or even beige, but you’d be wrong. The colour is in fact known as ‘ecru’. Liverpool also had a similarly coloured kit, with the idea being that the shirt would go well with jeans - because that's always the primary concern of sportswear.

• Memorable player – Ulrich van Gobbel
• Memorable moment – If you can think of one, you’ve done well.

4. 2012, Home, Umbro

After eight years in the wilderness, Saints wanted to make a statement on their return to the big time. However, they did it dressed as Liverpool – with a bit of early 90s Forest thrown in for good measure, in the form of pinstripes. The pinstripes – which were white and grey – were essentially lip service to the notion of stripes. It sold well however, perhaps as a warning to limitations of democracy.

• Memorable player – Morgan Schneiderlin
• Memorable moment – Saints announcing their return to the Premier League with a huge scare for champions Man City.

3. 1987, Home, Hummel

There are many good things to have come out of Denmark over the years: Hans Christian Anderson, bacon, Jamie Lannister from Game of Thrones. This shirt however, is not one of the Danes' finer efforts. Hummel made the kit of the national Danish side (indeed, it’s the land they hail from) and then transferred the design to The Dell. If you can overcome the migraine it will induce, you’ll see it is proof that you can have too much of a good thing – namely stripes, despite them only taking up half of the shirt.

• Memorable player – Andy Townsend
• Memorable moment – An Alan Shearer hatrick against Arsenal inspiring Saints to a 4-2 win on his full debut.

2. 1995, Away, Pony

Since 1976, yellow and blue shirts have always had a place in the hearts of Saints fans. This however is designed to offend your eyes to the point you may even consider gouging them out with a spoon. Sponsors Sanderson certainly can’t have been chuffed with the decision to put their logo across the shirt in red, which had the effect of making it pulsate as your eyes try and figure out which bit of the shirt they should actually be focusing on.

• Memorable player – Neil Shipperley
• Memorable moment – a 1-0 win away at Bolton. Yes, things were that bad that season.

1. 2013, Home, Adidas

Perhaps Adidas lost the shirt they designed for Saints and instead gave the club a job lot of Sunday league shirts? Who knows what the thought process was behind the current shirt - it’s the same template used by football clubs up-and-down the country at all levels of the game and the garish choice of gold for the sponsor and poorly stylised version of the crest are incredibly hard to see.

Add in that if you can get the exact same shirt minus the sponsor and badge for almost £30 less than the official one, you can be forgiven for feeling like the club dropped a clanger here. The previous season’s effort was excused for not having stripes as a one-off, but this felt more like a permanent change, which made just Saints another team in red.

• Memorable player – Jack Cork
• Memorable moment – Sitting pretty in the Champions League places for the first half of the season.