All Change
All Change!
Being stuck down here at the southern tip of Africa, the amount of Scottish fitba' that I get to see is somewhat limited, usually only a snippet (usually only the Old Firm) on Sky News on a Saturday night or Sunday morning. However, with the great coverage on the web (a bunch of photos posted after every game) I can keep up not only with what the players look like, but what the strips look like these days.
I have been rather surprised recently to see how many occurrences there are of teams changing from their (so-called) first strip to an alternative kit, seemingly for no reason. The photos from the McDairmid Park game show St Johnstone (the home team) in yellow and blue, forcing 'Well to change to black and white. Then, at home to Celtic, 'Well appeared in all claret, with Celtic suddenly losing the hoops and gaining black shorts! Lastly, Dundee become Coventry look-a-likes for seemingly no logical reason!
In St Johnstone's case, they hadn't won a match all season, so maybe they thought the other strip would bring a change of luck (ha!), but in most of the other cases (and I saw it on a few occasions last season, too) I can only surmise that sales of the first strip had stagnated and the club accountants said, "Wear the change strip, maybe we can get the gullible fans to buy some more!" This practice of changing the strip each season has been in force for a while now, always for commercial reasons, but seems to have become ever more prevalent, especially with certain teams now producing a "Champions League strip" to add to the first strip, change strip and alternative strip!
Ironically enough, Man Utd, long regarded as one of the most commercially exploitative clubs, have recently brought out a gold centenary strip, which has the white and black strip on the reverse, effectively giving the fans two strips for the price of one. This is a practice that other clubs would do well to follow, even if they don't have the world-wide fan base that the Red Devils do. How about it 'Well, what about next season's top being amber, with a claret version on the inside?
I would love to have a 'Well top to swan around Pretoria in, but with the pound at close to R14, it's not on. I'm reduced to scanning the auction sites for old, second-hand tops at (hopefully) a price that even I can afford (remembering to add bank charges, commission and postage), so you'll forgive me if I am a bit cynical about the whole business.
Garry Paterson
Pretoria, South Africa
'Well below the equator
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