We will be unveiling the brand new third shirt for the 2021/22 season on Monday (January 25).
The jersey has been designed to acknowledge the crucial role our season ticket holders have played over the course of the last 12 months, the most challenging time in the club's history.
Back in October we promised to produce a special shirt, featuring the name of each and every season ticket holder who waived their season ticket refunds, together with the words 'Thank you 2020/21' in the neckline. We were overwhelmed with the response.
In the end 765 supporters donated their money to the club to help it through this difficult time after initially signing up for the 2020/21 campaign, only for it to be cut short at such an early stage.
They only saw a grand total of three games against Exeter City, Portsmouth and Bolton Wanderers (and – unfortunately – only one win) because of the impact of coronavirus and the official guidance to combat it.
We will be contacting them all over the next couple of weeks to ensure we have the correct details for the design, so keep an eye on your inboxes for a message from us on that. We will then begin pre-sales in our online shop on Monday with the Erreà shirt expected to be with us in the summer.
We'll make it the club's third shirt for the forthcoming season, with a new away strip set also to be announced in the summer after two years of the current version.
We will not forget every single person who supported us by buying a season ticket at the start of this season, and we fully understand why people requested refunds at such a tough time for so many. We thank them for their support, too.
But it's not just the season ticket holders. We also acknowledge the fans who refused refunds in their droves at the end of last season, lost to the original lockdown back in March. And as a club we are thankful for a number of fan-led initiatives in the past year alone.
There was the headshave fundraiser, with players 'braving the shave' to raise almost £10,000 for local NHS charities. Then of course there were the cardboard cutouts for our play-off semi-final against Northampton Town. More than 1,100 supporters paid to not be at the game, raising more than £32,000 for the club on Crowdfunder.
More recently fans from across the world have purchased digital tickets both through the club and the 1887 Red Army initiatives to the tune of well over £30,000 and counting for the cup matches against Mansfield Town and Manchester City.
So to each fan who's supported us, we say 'thank you'. This shirt is designed to show how the supporters are at the heart of everything we do. Thank you.
Keep your eyes peeled on Monday.
- The special print edition of the Manchester City matchday programme is available to pre-order in our online shop, priced £5 with 50% of the proceeds going directly to FareShare. Please note that this edition will not be dispatched until Friday at the earliest. P&P is £3 if required.
- A digital version will be sent to all supporters buying a digital ticket, as well as a teamsheet and ticket from the game