1999/01 · Home

The first Celtic shirt with ntl: on the chest, after fifteen years of CR Smith, and one of Umbro's last proper hooped shirts: ribbed panels on the shoulders and sides, V-neck with green and white trim, double-piped cuffs, all in textured knit. The Umbro flag size label inside and the black "Official Umbro Product" tab at the neck are the period signature. This one has a blank back and the yellowed white of a quarter century of wear.

The mould served two seasons that could not have been more different. In 1999/00, under John Barnes, the home cup defeat to Inverness Caledonian Thistle and a title lost by 21 points. In 2000/01, with Martin O'Neill just arrived, the 6-2 over Rangers in August, Larsson's 53 goals and the treble: league with 97 points, League Cup with a Larsson hat-trick against Kilmarnock and Scottish Cup with a 3-0 over Hibernian.

Here at Hoopster, this shirt is the before and after in the same fabric: it dressed the worst Celtic of a generation and, without changing a thread, the best.