50 Years of Hurt Never Looked so Good!

I have a confession. I really do not care about the England national team very much. I want them to do well and I’ll get behind them a bit at the major tournaments, but when they lose, I’m not even slightly bothered. When they win, I’m ever so slightly happy. But truth be told, the only thing I really care about is whether the Arsenal players involved did well, or whether they got injured. It sounds selfish and overly partisan and I suppose it is to a degree.

When I was younger I did and I watched iconic moments like Beckham’s free kick against Greece and Ronaldinho lobbing David Seaman and breaking our little hearts as we watched on a big screen at primary school. The last England shirt I got was a goalkeeper shirt from around the 2004 era. Since then, the increase in meaningless friendlies and the tedious cycle of England’s build up to tournaments followed by abject failure led to me becoming disillusioned with the whole national team thing. That and also transitioning from youthful innocence to growing to loathe the players of Man U, Liverpool, Sp*rs and later Chelsea and City. It’s difficult to get behind players you’ve spent the whole season hating.

That’s the why the shirt I got from the guys at ‘Art of Football’ is perfect for me. The ’50 Years of Hurt' collection they have is full of excellent designs based on historic moments from the lat 50 years of English football, including the Beckham free kick I mentioned before, Butcher’s bloody head and shirt and of course the final goal from the ’66 World Cup Final. But for a bitter, partisan grump like me, wearing a shirt with a Sp*rs hero like Gascoigne is simply not an option, no matter how good he was. I only had eyes for the customisable shirts and that’s where this collection really comes into it’s own.

This shirt suits me down to the ground, because I was able to customise it with the five Arsenal players available on the AoF website: Seaman, Wrighty, Adams, Campbell and Wilshere. Not only that, but the shirt came beautifully presented in it’s own box and a newspaper stylised wrapping. They’re only little touches, but it’s certainly a lot more impressive than receiving a shirt crumpled up and stuffed in a plastic bag. You like to see the people making the shirts have a bit of pride in the product they’re sending you.

I was very impressed with the shirt itself too, from the soft, comfy material, to the smart design of the players printed on it. They’ve got it just right, in that the players are backed by an interesting ‘paint splash’ effect, but they’re simple and contained enough as to not look messy. It’s got enough going on to be interesting without looking cluttered.

The best bit about this shirt though, is that it is unique to me. There are 50 players to choose from, stretching from players in the current England set-up (Wilshere, Hart, Vardy), all the way back to the 60s (Hurst, Ball, Greaves). In between there are legends like Brooking, Barnes, Shilton and Beckham and you can choose any five for your shirt. With so many combinations, you’re likely to end up with shirt that pretty much no-one else has. It’s also a perfect gift, particularly with Father’s day coming up. Find out your old man’s favourite England players from when he was a kid and let the Art of Football guys do the rest — or drop some serious hints if you're the old man in question.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to not care too much about England's oh-so Arsenal-esque dropped points from last night whilst wearing my new Arsenal themed England shirt!

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