There has been much debate on other threads about the club's new shirts. I don't intend to restart that debate here. I am fairly neutral on the issue. However what does concern me somewhat is the many comments saying that club history and traditions are irrelevant and that the only important thing is the future. I'm afraid that is simply wrong. To deny one's history is to deny oneself. The club is today a product of all its history, good, bad and for the most part, indifferent. The problem is for most of us we tend to only go back as far as we can actually remember, so for me its Ted Bates, Ron Davies, Martin Chivers even. I have no recollection of Alf Ramsey, Ted Drake, CB Fry etc so I can't relate to it. Younger 606ers will go back as far as Tiss or maybe not even as far as our last season in the Premier League. But it is important that we place where we are today and where we will be in the future into a historical context. Examples are everywhere in football. Manchester City will never be the worldwide phenomenon that Man United are because they lack the specific history of the latter. Starting with the Busby Babes, followed by the Munich air disaster and then the Charlton, Best, Law era that culminated in the European Cup, their history says as much if not more about United's position today than Rooney or their last league title. Teams like Wigan who for many will simply be a regular Premier League team are to me still more of a non-league team who have over achieved. I'm sure their supporters won't forget where they have come from. History is not about standing still. It is about progressing and learning from the past. I think that our current chairman, manager and owners recognise this and are doing things in a way that suits the type of club we are. They have not simply thrown money at the team like Chelsea or Man City. It has been a steady progression, improving the academy, improving the facilities and gradually building a team of which we can be proud. The shirt issue is a bit of a red-herring really. Of course, for the majority of our history we have been red and white stripes and of course their have been exceptions. The new shirt is still red and white and some obviously love it and some do not. I don't believe for one minute that its design somehow denies the club's history. However, I would urge everyone who says that the club's history isn't important to re-think that opinion. Even if we become one of the top teams in Europe we need to remember our origins and remain humble.
the past has as much effect on present as the future. History only becomes important when people think more about the past than the present. As someone said on another thread most peoples memory of southampton is of a relegation battler which hopefully will be a tradition we break out of
I don't think anyone is saying that history is not important except when it is used as reason to claim that a different shirt design is a betrayal which this one clearly is not. Blue shirt, white shorts? Maybe that would qualify. I must say I don't care too much what happened to the club prior to my childhood. I believe we made two cup finals decades before I was born. Frankly, It's irrelevant to me.
Really good read. Thank you. You have made some very good points. I don't think anyone is saying we need to forget our past and move on but realise that the past is the past and not something that will change. In twenty years time we may look back to today and say "remember that awful / wonderful red kit we had for a season" that was 2012/13 when we won the FA cup. Embrace the now! It's a defining moment in our history. A step back into the premier league. Whether you like the kit or not, or whether you are as passionate about the past as the future is different for every single person. What matters is that we all love Southampton, we buy the shirts, we go to the games, we sing the players names, we cheer when we score and we hold our head in our hands when we lose. The fact our kit has divided opinion has at least give us more to talk about. It could be worse....we could be Portsmouth.
Apart from one FA Cup and coming second in 1984, our history isn't particularly glorious. I guess there are lessons to be learnt from the sucession of tight-fisted chairman who's height of ambition was to plod along comfortably. Didn't Lawrie Mac leave because the club lacked ambition and didn't the chairman at the time say something to the effect of it not being the Southampton way to hold lofty aspirations? I don't deny it, because it happened, but not much of it is in the least bit significant unless you were old enough to be there.
Basically, we have a history and most of it was ****. We have ambitions to break new ground now and while remaining Southampton is important, keeping tradition less so because it got us nowhere.
Great article LFF I think the disgregarding of tradition may be a generational thing, in that the youngsters tend to think "here & now" whereas us 40+ generation having lived through many good times and many bad times and honour the tradition of the likes of Terry Paine & Ron Davies. To say our history has been "****e" is plainly wrong as many of us can look back to the 60's, 70's, 80's...... with pride and a smile on our face. Have we won loads of trophies? No! But we are Southampton and proud of it. If we wanted to be associated with trophy hunters we would support Man Utd or who ever is top of the pops at any given time. To me tradition in being a Saint or English or British is important and am proud of where I have come from and where I would like to go in the future The new kit is plainly not what I expected and not what I want to see my team play in. I certainly will not be snubbing the tradition of the Saints by buying one let alone wearing one
This argument is so annoying that I'm really struggling to put into words how I feel about it. Who here is denying our history? No one. It's called history because it has happened and always will have happened. It's documented in books and videos and memories, and we're not going to suddenly forget it all because we've got a different bloody shirt! No one has said that our history is not important, but I'm saying it's irrelevant. It's in the past and will not change. Someday, this season and this shirt will be part of our history too.
How is changing a kit snubbing a tradition?. Ffs get a grip it's a football kit, it's not like we have totally rebranded and got rid of our past. Itis still red and white after all, not like we have changed the colours or anything as channonfodder said. Our past is still there plainly to see, we our still the same football club. Yes we should remember our past, but this is now. Times are changing as they say, we should be embracing it and I for one am looking forward to it. Just because people dislike a kit, they keep moaning about tradition. You simply dislike the kit, if changing the kit design ment losing our tradition then we would had lost it even before you were alive.
Too right, forget the past and start thinking about the future. Besides, it's only a game for crying out loud.
Our main tradition is that we are a family club with a strong fan base. We have never tolerated cheats or encouraged rough house football, but like to see entertaining games. Can't see what's changed...in fact NC and ML said that is the main reason they were attracted here. Nicola has a dream of producing a club that is known for good football and we were available at a reasonable price. The Leihberrs have been spending money on us...13 million on the Academy for starters, but generally things will be sensibly run. After three years, we are back in the PL and SMS is being renovated. But they have made our white stripes very narrow...why do we put up with it?
Jeez Dark Lord, i don't normally slag an opinion, but that last remark is pathetic and smacks of you throwing your dummy across the room. Get a grip man. It's a kit for crying out loud. I absolutely resent the suggestion that mark gives that I'll be snubbing my club's history/tradition when I buy this new shirt, which I will. One could say that you are snubbing the current Saints by not buying it, but that would be just as daft a statement. We get it, you don't like the kit, but seriously get a grip. I love our history and tradition and I am just as proud of it as you (probably). I just happen to accept a small change for a season, or maybe two. Oh and I am a 40+ generation member and the biggest tradition we ever had, was playing in a tight, tiny, cramped little ground that no-one liked to play at, called The Dell. Changing from that was one of the best things this club has ever done, but it is still a glorious part of our history and tradition. Sometimes you have to embrace the now and the future, with a fond look back at the past.
Whatever Southampton players wear is a Southampton kit, always has been. I imagine in 1896 there would have been a few people saying "Stripes? Isn't that what those fellows at Stoke wear?" but as we know we continued to wear the stripes until 1976. If we wear something like this new kit for a few years and then revert to stripes, or a slash, some people will moan but most of us will be quite happy.
Tradition is why football in this country is 20+ years behind practically every other sport in this country and why England are still crap. Sticking dogmatically to what we've always done and being too proud to acknowledge that someone else does it better and do it that way is something that holds many people back. Like the senior generations who refuse to have telephones, TVs, computers etc because they got on fine without them. New developments, just like history, happen and methods need to adapt accordingly. Just because something is traditional, doesn't necessarily make it the way forward. I won't buy the kit for 3 reasons: 1) It's the club's way of dragging more money out of me. I've already got my season ticket and NC can quite easily forego his next ivory buttscratcher for the sake of a kit sale. 2) If I really want the kit, I'll go to the concourse sale at the end of the season when they're shifting the remaining stock for a fraction of the original price. 3) If I'm spending good money, I like to spend it on something I'll get plenty of use out of. There will be a new kit next season and I'm unlikely to wear it much.
If you wanna talk about tradition then you have to remember that our first kit was the red sash one and not red and white stripes ...So we've been playing with wrong shirts all this time.
Bollocks. England have changed their strip and they are still crap. Saints changing their strip is not going to revolutionise English football.
