“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there”.

Observing the fanfare surrounding the launch of a special 120^th anniversary kit to be worn on Saturday (that video, shot in the Guildhall, will surely win a BAFTA), and thinking back to how the club commemorated it’s centenary back in 2004, I was reminded of this quote, by the novelist L.P. Hartley.

For the centenary, we returned to striped shirts after four seasons of solid amber, the crest on those shirts was slightly amended (with ‘1904-2004’ on the banner instead of ‘The Tigers’), there was Mike Peterson’s book ‘A Century of City, we played Tottenham Hotspur in pre-season, and that was pretty much it.

That seemed to cut it twenty years ago, for an anniversary as significant as a centenary. It’s all about the art of the possible, I guess, and what is possible has changed greatly.

Nowadays, clubs are expected to pump out non-stop content on Facebook, TwitteX, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, as well as creating videos for their own websites, for club channels, for the scoreboard on match-days. High quality videos with drone shot footage, atmospheric lighting and slow-motion segments.

All the while, people with the attention span of a squirrel on Red Bull are replying “Announce player X…” and “When’s the new shirt on sale?” mere seconds after a teaser image has gone online.

That’s why marking a milestone anniversary with a one-off kit, available in limited numbers, and trailed with social media icon changes and graphics is a thing. That’s what is expected now.

Though frankly, why shouldn’t we go big on such an anniversary? Since that relatively low-key centenary, we’ve bothered Wembley Stadium, disturbed the Premier League and troubled UEFA competition. Even setting those things aside, we have a history that, while not trophy-laden and glory-packed, is very much our own. Let’s celebrate it.

And how better to mark such a milestone than with sexy black and (in lieu of amber) metallic gold garb available in hype generating, thirst inducing small quantities that will have people who didn’t get hold of one actively driving up desirability by moaning online? I have no other suggestions

So let’s have a good look at this kit…

I’ve heard the shirt described as “a work of art”, and it’s easy to see why. A sleek black Kappa Kombat chassis, featuring the lovely embossed herringbone pattern seen across the whole kit-set, enhanced by metallic gold bands that go through the Jacquard weaves on the wrap-over V-neck and sleeve cuffs.

The metallic gold theme is continued on the shirt body, with gold Kappa ‘Omini’ on the upper arms and chest, sponsor Corendon’s marks applied in gold coloured vinyl, and best of all, a golden embroidered tiger-head, removed from the trappings of the plectrum shaped crest.

Sensibly the shorts and socks are kept simple, black with gold trim.

This is 24 carats of ACE!

The use of metallic gold CAN be gimmicky, aesthetically and culturally, especially from a team with no history of success, but I don’t think that’s the case here. From an aesthetic standpoint, used sparingly applied to a backdrop of black, I think it looks classy, and culturally, well just like a married couple reaching fifty years of matrimony, we’ve earned the use of anniversary gold from 120 years of footballing endeavour.

While I very much like the shirt, I find the accompanying jacket even more loin-stiffeningly lovely. With it’s golden piping, embroidered tiger-head and repeating ‘Omini’ sleeve banda, it is outrageously good. Did you ever, ever think you’d see Waggy rocking Kappa? Looking like an associate of Paulie Walnuts in the Sopranos? What a time to be alive.