Tottenham Hotspur Football Club play in white shirts and navy blue shorts.

They have done for the 40 years that I have watched them, and for countless years before that. We are known for these colours in Britain and around the world. It holds a beautiful simplicity.

Paul Barber says that, “We are privileged to have a great heritage and tradition at Tottenham Hotspur and the new range of kit pays homage to the three key Club colours used in previous kit throughout the Club’s history.”

Rubbish. Putting money into Puma’s bank account more like. Acquiescing meekly to the might of a German corporate creative team who know everything about making money, nothing about our heritage and who care even less. The yellow flashes on the shirt are pathetic. Value our culture and tradition by keeping the home shirt white.

Anyway, yellow and white does not even look good. I’m not exactly an authority on haute couture, but I really don’t believe that fashion has totally embraced the white and yellow look this summer, or indeed any summer in recent memory. I shall check this lunchtime when I walk into town, and if this means staring intently at women’s chests, I shall declare in my defence that it is purely in the interests of scientific research.

This is not some luddite rant about the good old days when my mum sewed a Spurs badge onto a plain white football shirt and that lasted year in, year out. It’s not even a yearning for the time, not so long ago, when Spurs stood out from other clubs by changing the home shirt only every other year, although it must be stated clearly that there is absolutely no need for a third shirt.

Football has become a leisure pastime, one among several, for many people. Fine by me, if that’s how they see it. A football shirt then is a brand, again one among several, like a Fred Perry or Nike shirt, and bought for that purpose. Where I live in Kent, the Chelsea shirt has become a fashionwear leisure item, worn by men and women who I would hazard a guess do not have a lasting allegiance to the Blues, but that’s not the point. It’s seen as something to look good in (I don’t get it either). If you want to be part of the crowd, wear Chelsea.

But the white first team shirt at Tottenham means more than that. Have the third shirt as the leisure item but leave the white shirt of Lilywhites, I said Lilywhites, alone. Leave it for the people who care, who really matter. Not the customers of JD sports, but we, the fans.