Man City’s new ‘rain-soaked’ 2025-26 third kit is a washout

Manchester City have gone all out to make a big splash with the source of creative inspiration for their new third kit — the dreary Mancunian drizzle.

City have opted to pay homage to the famously near-perpetual rain clouds over Manchester with a perplexing jersey that is sure to split opinion between those who think it is a quirky cult hit and those who believe it to be among the worst football shirts ever designed.

Certainly among the wetter cities in the UK, Manchester has on average 86.7 centimeters of rain every year. However, it is positively tropical in comparison with the very wettest such as neighbouring city Preston (103.4 cm), Welsh capital Cardiff (120.3 cm) and Glasgow in Scotland (1,370 cm).

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The kit is predominantly steel grey — such are the skies above Manchester — with a rain droplet graphic added to both the shirt and the shorts to give the material a “wet look.” The trim is equally jarring with splashes of ultra-vibrant neon green providing about as much visual contrast as is physically possible.

To further enforce the core theme of grim Northern precipitation, the club crest features both a blue-to-green gradient and an iridescent covering that resembles water drops forming on a window, while on the inside of the neck is the motto “rain or shine.”

City’s new third kit for 2025-26 might just stand a chance of joining Chelsea’s garish orange-flecked 1994 away shirt and Manchester United’s infamous “drab camo” away jersey of 1996 in the grand pantheon of the Premier League’s most horrendous grey kits.

Still, it may yet become beloved of those City fans who are used to the rain. Club legend Sergio Aguero even jokingly admitted that he would miss the constant downpours upon departing Manchester in 2021.

“When I arrived in Manchester, they all warned me about the weather,” the Argentina striker said in his emotional farewell message. “The players all told me that it rained a lot and it was never good weather but I thought: ‘Yes, but we just need to train and play. What else?’

“It makes no difference if it rains. The players also complain when it’s hot! So, I don’t understand why they talk about how bad the weather is so much.

“That’s why I have been here for 10 years. If I didn’t like the weather here, I would have left before now. I have to play and train — rain or no rain — it doesn’t matter to me.”