It’s always interesting when a new shirt is about to hit the streets. I read with amusement the article about the impending away shirt that has nothing to do with tradition of the club just like the redcurrant one of last year.

Firstly you have to ask what is traditional. As Arsenal played in the redcurrant shirts in the first year at Highbury it was quite fitting we played in the same colours in our last year there. Did it break tradition when Herbert added white sleeves to our shirts? No it made us different from the rest something I am immensely proud of.

Back to the away shirt. I’m not quite sure where people get the idea it is traditional for Arsenal to wear yellow as our change strip. Apart from the FA Cup final in 1950 we did not wear yellow until the 1968/69 - in fact for all my early away trips we played in either all blue or all white.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the yellow away kits, all the things we have won wearing yellow bring back fantastic memories. The thing we can’t say is it’s not traditional, especially if the version of the new kit is the one I have seen – white shirts with red sleeves! Red and white sounds traditional to me.