Not only are West Bromwich Albion playing their football with an old-fashioned insistence on style and width, but their shirts are scheduled to go on sale next week without a sponsor's name. At this rate, Jonathan Greening and his team-mates will be running out in long baggy shorts and supporters will be standing on terraces at The Hawthorns with flat caps and smoking tabs.

The newly promoted Barclays Premier League club are in talks with several companies with a view to finding a main sponsor to replace T-Mobile, but with three weeks to go until the start of the top-flight season, the new kit will go on sale on August 1 with nothing beyond a simple Umbro logo and the club symbol between the dark blue and white stripes.

Fans buying the shirts have been promised that a sponsor's logo will be put on free of charge at a later date. “Albion can also confirm discussions regarding a new club sponsor are continuing with interested parties,” a club statement read. “While the negotiations are ongoing, the club is launching its new kits to ensure they go on sale before the Premier League season gets under way on August 16. Initially, the club will unveil and sell shirts without a sponsor's logo.

“However, should the discussions with potential shirt sponsors reach a successful conclusion, supporters who have purchased unsponsored shirts will be given the opportunity to have the new sponsor's brand welded on.”

Since shirt sponsorship became de rigueur in the 1980s, it has been a lucrative source of income for professional clubs. Only international teams and Barcelona, of the elite clubs, were left plain. But, two years ago, the Catalan giants bucked the trend when they paid Unicef £1million a year to bear the name of the children's charity.