A couple of years ago I wrote to ‘The Gooner’ bemoaning the “redcurrant” kit worn in our last season at Highbury and urging Gooners everywhere not to buy what I saw as a cheap marketing gimmick which betrayed of our true history. Needless to say, nobody listened and the kit was the best selling in our history.

Now, I don’t like to say I told you so, but just look what is happening to our away kit now. If reports are to be believed, it will look more like a Spurs kit than anything to do with Arsenal. I know we have varied from time to time from the traditional yellow, but how on earth can the club sanction a white kit?

Well it’s easy for them now, they know that a huge number of fans from around the globe (and I believe international sales are crucial here) will buy any old tat they hoist on us regardless of tradition.

More galling still is that the club, obviously only too alive to the potential backlash from true fans, is marketing the change by taking Herbert Chapman’s name in vain with a campaign that seems to suggest that the only tradition worth anything is one of innovation.

Let’s be clear, this is not about innovation. All Chapman’s innovations were for the good of the team, including the white sleeves.

This is just another attempt by the club and Nike to sell kits around the world to fans more concerned with fashion that the traditions of the club.

I can only hope that the sales of the redcurrant kit were an anomaly caused by fans wanting to mark the last season with something different. But alas I suspect that Nike will once again break all records and we can look forward to years of kits which have nothing at all to do with Arsenal.