Today marks 25 years since Giggs, Beckham, Cantona and Cole shuffled off at halftime looking dour in grey and re-emerged into the Southampton sunshine resplendent blue and white.
The now infamous decision to become, so far, the only Premier League side to play one game in two different kits did little to impact United’s fortunes on the day.
The prevailing theory both then and now is that the switch was brought on by the United players' supposed inability to pick each other out against the aggressively red and white backdrop of the dell.
Certainly this player led revolt against the kit was the line trailed by Ferguson in post match interviews at the time, "The players don't like the grey strip. The players couldn't pick each other out”. But as makeshift centre-back for the day Gary Neville has since stated, the decision was very much out of their hands "There were no conversations. it was 'get the kits off'
Maybe, just maybe, Fergie just really fucking hated that kit.
United had, to that point, lost just five games all season, with the grey strip being used in three of the defeats. Ferguson had already rejected the kits usage in several games during the season and would quite happily have done away with it entirely but it’s more than likely that monetary commitments to supplier Umbro factored into their wearing of it that day.
So as United headed into the dressing room 3-0 down at lowly Southampton it’s not hard to imagine that there was only one thing in Fergie’s mind, getting rid of that bloody kit.
It’s hard to believe Fergie really pinned the sides' dismal first half display entirely on their attire. Just as likely was that the players were still rattled from, just the previous weekend, getting a front row seat the worst injury in Premier League history after David Busst of Coventry had been maimed on the Old Trafford turf.
To no one's surprise United did not overturn their deficit in the second half, though they did at least pull one back through a late Ryan Giggs goal. Also to no one's surprise, the grey kit was never seen again.
A 10 grand FA fine swiftly followed but Ferguson was not feeling repentant, later calling it "the best £10,000 I ever spent" - He really didn’t like that kit.
Words by Andy Gallagher
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