Premier League champions Manchester City have unveiled their new away kit for the 2024-25 season and we can say without a doubt that it is destined to become an instant fan favourite.
While to the casual observer it may look like a fluorescent assault on the eyes, those in the know will know that the shirt is almost a stitch-for-stitch remake of the one they wore on the road during the 1998-99 season.
Of course, City were not the all-conquering Pep Guardiola-coached, Abu Dhabi-funded giants we know today back then. Indeed, 25 years ago they were toiling in the third tier of English football while local rivals Manchester United had dominated the decade, ending it with a Premier League-FA Cup-Champions League treble.
With bright yellow and navy stripes, the shirt was initially regarded as an ugly duckling in its day. But that didn't stop it achieving cult status among City fans and, a quarter of a century later, the original can still be seen regularly in the stands at the Etihad on match days.
Puma's 2024-25 version hasn't lost any of its style and the bright colour scheme remains as striking as ever. Even the thin sky blue borders between the stripes are typical of the era.
City fans fondly remember the 1998-99 campaign for one legendary game, the frenetic finale to the Second Division play-offs at Wembley, in which their side went down 2-0 after 89 minutes and still secured promotion.
Gillingham looked to be on the brink of relegation to the First Division (now the Championship) when they scored their second goal in the final minute of normal time, but City hit back with goals from Kevin Horlock and Paul Dickov, who equalised in the 95th minute to send the tie into extra time and the entire stadium into collapse.
City, who had spent the season in England's third tier for the first time in their history, earned an instant return to the First Division when they won a tense penalty shoot-out 3-1 thanks to a vital and decisive save from goalkeeper Nicky Weaver.
Who would have thought that, a generation later, City would make English football history by becoming the first team to win four consecutive league titles, as well as claiming their own treble?
As a tribute to City’s exploits on that fateful day, the club even had Wembley hero Dickov model the new 2024-25 version of the neon and navy kit he and his teammates wore as they wrote their names into club folklore.
It's not the first time City have worn these particular colours again, either, having celebrated the 20th anniversary of their Wembley classic by once again combining fluorescent yellow and navy stripes on their 2018-19 away shirt.
But when it comes to honouring one of the most pivotal moments in their club's history, City can be forgiven for doing it again.
