There is a version of this shirt that could have stripes, or a sash, or a crest that takes up half the chest. It does not have any of them. The club decided a long time ago that white was the identity and everything since has been trim.

The purple detail down the side is the part people actually recognise up close. At a distance it is the whiteness that does the work — under floodlights, a white shirt is the most visible thing on a pitch.

If you are printing a name and number, this is the easiest shirt on this site to print on. There is no pattern to fight, no stripe to align the letters against, and a name set on white reads from further away than on any coloured shirt.

It is also the shirt where a print problem is most visible. Check the product photos for a name set that sits flat and square — on white, any lifting at a corner is obvious straight away.

The home shirt is the one to buy if you are buying one. It is the design people mean when they say the club's name, and it is the one that does not belong to a season.

The away designs are where the club has experimented, and some of them are excellent — the dark ones in particular. And like every Spanish shirt, the cut sits between English and Italian: roomier than Italian, more shaped than English. Your usual size is normally right; go up if it is going over anything.