Times they have a changed at Southampton Football Club and gone are the days when they would keep fans waiting on the new kit design.

Saints are going to unveil their new kit for 2015/16 ahead of the kick off against Aston Villa on Saturday and they have also thought deeply as to how a change of kit can influence patterns on the pitch.

Initially I had doubts about the "Player Integrated Stripes Strategy" but the more I read it the more I take from it .

Colour and pattern psychology is going to be very important to Premier league clubs in future and it is great that our forward thinking club is first to adopt it, I am very impressed by the statistics that state that by using this revolutionary system that 0.1% improvement on the pitch can be achieved 100% of the time, that may not sound great but in today's modern game the lightweight hi tech material of the modern football shirt can play a vital part and a ball brushing past a shirt if suffering a 0.1% deviation can be the difference between a goal or a player becoming a scapegoat.

Dr Barry Gale is the pioneer of this strategy and speaking to to the Club's official website he said.

“In the last ten years I’ve established myself as one of the top one thousand colour and pattern psychologists in the world. Despite being a huge fan of the beautiful game, to date my expertise has mostly been used for interior design - I was actually junior colour consultant on DIY SOS for three years.

“My role at Southampton is a crucial one. Where clubs have been going wrong all these years is not fully understanding the complexities players — and fans — face in moving to a new kit. As part of the Show Your Stripes campaign, I have developed the Player Integrated Stripe Strategy, which I believe can deliver 0.1% on-pitch improvement 100% of the time. It’s marginal gains on a massive scale.”

This is of course not the first groundbreaking thinking employed at St Mary's, former Chairman/CEO/Leader/Emperor/Caesar Nicola Cortese was no stranger to forward thinking and his firm belief that events on the pitch could be influenced by the Chairman/CEO/Leader/Emperor /Caesar stirring his coffee with spoons used only by himself, has been born out by results on the pitch when compared to previous Chairman/CEO/Leader/Emperor/Caesar's preferring to share their cutlery with all and sundry.

So their is plenty to take from the "Player Integrated Stripes Strategy" and im sure there will be a steady stream of fellow Premier League clubs beating a path to Staplewood in order to stop their own Premier league chances going down the pan.

Sadly it may come too late to stop Nathaniel Clyne leaving for a number 2 shirt at Old Trafford

Photo: Action Images

Zambucco added 16:05 - May 14 The video is amazingly funny
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