Sporting Clube de Portugal 2010/11 Home Shirt

Puma took a risk in 2010/11: curved panels shaping the hoops, an almost entirely green back and a slim fit that divided opinion but has aged well. Tmn returned to the chest, with Super Bock on the back and meo on the shoulder, the full sponsor ecosystem of the era. On the pitch it was a scorched earth season. Villas-Boas's Porto went through the league unbeaten and Sporting trudged to a distant third, with Paulo Sérgio leaving mid season and José Couceiro steering the run in. But what this shirt really marks is a farewell: in January 2011, Liedson left Alvalade for Corinthians after eight seasons and more than 170 goals, the club's highest scoring foreign player departing quietly in the middle of a grey campaign. It was also the last traditional hooped shirt before the classic crest returned in 2011/12. A transitional piece in every sense, from the squad to the boardroom, which elected a new president that March. Sometimes the shirts of the bad years tell more history than the shirts of the good ones.

Here at Hoopster this piece is above all a goodbye: Liedson's last shirt at Alvalade, eight years and more than 170 goals on. Even bad seasons deserve an archive when they bid farewell to men like that.