Saints will not be wearing the black second kit to face Manchester United but have elected to wear the white third kit used in December in the win at Bournemouth.
Saints will wear white which will be a better choice than the black kit in the eyes of most supporters, although many had hoped to turn Wembley into a sea of yellow and blue agaian as it was 41 years ago when we last faced Manchester United in a major final.
The club statement read.
"Southampton will wear their alternative white kit for the EFL Cup final against Manchester United at Wembley Stadium.
Claude Puel’s men reached the final thanks to a thrilling 2-0 aggregate win against Liverpool in the semi-finals, to set up a clash with United at Wembley, which takes place on Sunday 26th February, kick-off 4.30pm GMT.
Confirmation that Southampton would be the away team for the final meant that José Mourinho’s side would wear their red home kit, with Saints needing an alternative to their usual red and white stripes.
Ordinarily that would see Saints turn out in their away kit of black and grey, however, the first-team squad asked the club if they could wear their change strip of white shirts, red shorts and white socks, to be as close as possible to the club’s traditional colours when they step out onto the pitch.
Although the white shirt is unavailable for purchase, the club hopes that this decision will enable fans to turn Wembley into a sea of red and white for Saints’ first League Cup final since 1979.
In order to help facilitate this all replica shirts will be reduced to £30 for adults and £20 for children* with immediate effect.
*Subject to availability, while stocks last, no further discounts apply."
That is all well and good, but the problem is that Wembley wll already be a sea of Red & White with United wearing this as their traditional colours also.
That being the case surely a Yellow kit would have given the Saints team a boost and enable them to spot their fans in the crowd and give the Saints supporters a colourful tint to the day.
Anyone who was at Wembley that day in 1976 will tell you that United fans were the majority of the crowd that day and this is likely to be the case this time around as well.
But although at times United deafened the Saints support, the yellow stood out in the cacophony of noise and made sure the players knew where their supporters were and it was a foundation on which the Saints fans started to outsing their United counterparts.
A strange decision not to produce replica kits for this one, although it is great to see the club is not selling the current kits which have only a few months left at full price.