A point so obvious it's appalling it has to be made.
A plain shirt without any unnecessary or silly design furniture, and with a key historical reference is 'the worse one ever' - like in preference to the Chewit wrapper, or the ridiculous pin-striped Sandtex effort or the radioactive turquoise abomination? I think some people should take up watching figure skating if they wanted revolting, garish outfits in sport.
It's clearly not the "worst ever", but it's very, very dull. The ones you mention are at least cult classics. So bad, they're good.
The historical link is pretty irrelevant given no-one remembers the original, and the kids don't care about such things.
(Only surprise is that the club didn't switch to red socks at the last minute, after signing AJ.)