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.

Photo: Action Images

the_saint added 16:50 - Jan 31 Why not sell the new one they would make a killing think they have missed a trick there
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dirk_doone added 17:07 - Jan 31 The players made the right choice. We'll all proudly wear red and white at Wembley. Let's hear no more talk of yellow. Who would want to wear that? It's almost as bad as pink
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the_saint added 17:18 - Jan 31 We won with yellow in 76 but have lost 79 league cup the zenith delta and 2003 fa cup with it so let's put that yellow is our lucky colour to bed
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Mushty added 18:15 - Jan 31 We wore the blue flame abomination for the ZDS final, we definitely should never wear that again. The new white one was never going to be mass produced, it was originally for one game only. Although it would now sell in the thousands, there's not enough time to produce it, ship it and get it out there. If you're a shirt-wearer it wouldn't need a lot of imagination to replicate the white shirt yourself.

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the_saint added 18:46 - Jan 31 Oh yes mushty I tried to forget about that horrible kit they did Indead play the final in that one.
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ItchenNorth added 21:09 - Jan 31 Good kit the white. Hopefully they'll put it on sale, even if after the final; it'll be snapped up.
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bigfatsaint added 14:04 - Feb 1 The club seem to have screwed up with the kits this season. Firstly the PL badge issue on replica shirts, the badges supplied by SFC are smaller than the real thing! secondly, the planned euro special shirt was shelved because SFC messed up with a striped back knowing this was not allowed in European competitions. Now, they plan to wear a shirt at a major Wembley final that the fans cannot buy. This must be unique but not a surprise!! The white shirt is probably the pick of the shirts this season and one the supporters would buy in 1000's. I think they should have consulted the fans before making this latest decision.

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SaintBrock added 15:57 - Feb 3 If there was any fairness, both sides should change strips as this is on neutral territory and nobody should have an advantage. Strachan's surrender monkeys of 2003 FA Cup Final non-fame hopefully took the yellow strip with them.
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