Norwich City choosing a blue away strip may swing dangerously close to an Ipswich kit but the Canaries have history with blue - and even wore the colour during their Uefa Cup run in 1993.
City have been through an array of colours for their secondary kits in recent seasons, going with a ‘rhubarb and custard’ style red with yellow trim for the away strip in the Premier League last season, with a greyish purple for the third kit.
During the 2018-19 Championship title-winning campaign it was mainly white, with yellow and green diagonal strips, and the third strip was a luminous green number.
The two seasons before that the away kit was mainly black, with a purple third kit during 2017-18 and a white version of the famous ‘egg and cress’ strip during 2016-17.
But the away kit was green shirt with yellow shirts during 2015-16, with 2014-15 featuring a two tone red kit.
In 2013-14 it was a white shirt and black shorts, 2012-13 an all black outfit, 2011-12 green with white shorts. Prior to that it was white or black ever since the green strips which tied in with the colours of shirt sponsor Lotus between 2003 and 2006.
It was in 2002-03 when City last wore blue and white, for a special shirt marking the club’s centenary year, which featured the names of club legends and season ticket holders as part of the pattern. The shirt was split into blue and white halves and the shorts were blue - but it was more of a sky blue colour.
As most City fans know, Norwich players wore blue and white during the club’s formative years, until yellow started to take over as the dominant colour from 1907. Blue shorts and white shirts were also worn during the 1920s but yellow and green had assumed control again before the decade was out.
It was a red strip which was the actual away kit during 2002-03 but the centenary kit was worn during a 1-0 loss at Wolves in Division One - having also been worn by a team of City legends at the start of the season during a Carrow Road exhibition against Harwich & Parkeston, who had been the club’s first opponents back in 1902.
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It was also a red kit during 2001-02, which featured particularly prominently during the play-offs, as semi-final victory was sealed at Wolves, but in the late 90s there were two dark blue away kits, featuring a dash of yellow and green.
While between 1994 and 1996 it was a blue tartan pattern - brought back to life this year as fan group Along Come Norwich produced face masks during the Covid-19 outbreak, with the profits going to good causes.
While during the Uefa Cup run of 1993-94 the third kit of navy blue shirt and shorts with yellow trim was worn during the 0-0 draw at Vitesse Arnhem which sealed progress to the second round, as the hosts wore yellow.
So while it’s not often that you see Norwich City in blue, this year’s choice does have roots in club tradition - and is also a nod to NHS workers, similar to the colour of medical scrubs, amid the UK’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
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