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Football

15th Dec 2016

The reason why Southampton have a very tidy new shirt that you are not allowed to buy

Not fair

Mikey Stafford

Fair play to Southampton, they make a nice kit.

Back to the days of Matt Le Tissier’s ill-fitting shirts, they always made the red and white stripe thing work better than Sunderland.

24 AUG 1994: MATT LE TISSIER OF SOUTHAMPTON TAKES ON BLACKBURN's TONY GALE. Mandatory Credit: Anton Want/ALLSPORT

This year’s iteration somehow finished behind Sunderland and Stoke in the definitive SportsJOE Premier League jerseys rankings, but there are suspicions the writer involved is a closet Portsmouth fan.

Southampton, despite their involvement in the Europa League and the rampant capitalism that runs through the core of modern football, only brought out two shirts this season – home and away… how quaint.

The home one is red and white, of course, and the away one is black, black as the capitalism that runs through the core of modern football.

It’s quite nice too. Here is a picture of Gabriel Paulista trying to nick one from Shane Long.

LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 30: Shane Long of Southampton is tackled by Gabriel Paulista of Arsenal during the EFL Cup quarter final match between Arsenal and Southampton at the Emirates Stadium on November 30, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

However, because they are away to south coast rivals Bournemouth this weekend, they of the black and red stripes, the Premier League have ordered Southampton to come up with an alternative kit to avoid confusion.

The Premier League are sticklers for these colour clashes in a way the GAA simple are not. The soccer lads would lose their minds at a Clare-Tipperary hurling match.

All Ireland Hurling Final Tipperary vs Clare 14/9/1997 Niall Gilligan of Clare and Conal Bonnar of Tipp Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Patrick Bolger

Anyway, the Saints have come up with a rather tidy little solution. Pure as the driven snow, it is.

However, as it is a one off, and Southampton owner Katharina Liebherr, plus Under Armour, clearly already have enough money, they are not going to make it available to buy.

It’s a shame it is not going to make it to the club shop, because the reaction of fans was positive.

Some however, found it impossible to scorn not its simplicity.

Most however, for that, will love it all the more.