THEY were simple times, when the shirt a footballer wore on matchdays was as modest as his wage.

Look back at the grainy old pictures of the beautiful game and you will see players decked out in basic, bulky and functional strips.

You know the kind – the ones in which a radical change of design meant switching from a collar to a V-neck.

Yet, these days, football shirts are lucrative money-making devices, exploited to their fullest extent.

So it is somewhat surprising that Saints have opted to hark quietly back to those simpler days by celebrating their 125th anniversary with a sponsor-free kit next season.

That will, to some extent, buck a trend that has seen football swallowed up by a seemingly unstoppable juggernaut of commercialisation.

Sponsorship is now everywhere.

Companies shell out millions for the right to have their name appear on the chests of Wayne Rooney and co once or twice a week.

And the far-reaching tentacles of big business extend further across the sport’s landscape than just the front of a shirt.

Stands, whole stadiums, players, managers, kitmen, physios and even the footballs themselves can be branded.

Nothing is sacred any more to most football clubs.

But that all-consuming pursuit of the almighty buck didn’t always exist.

So what was the trigger?

Well, perhaps this entire greedy obsession that overshadows today’s game can be traced back to the emergence of shirt sponsorship in the 1970s.

David Moor, who runs the website historicalkits.co.uk, is an expert in the field of football strips, how they have changed and their impact on the sport.

“It absolutely was the first foot in the door for big business,” he said of shirt sponsorship.

“I think football lost that connection then with the community.

“Having said that, I think there are clubs, and Southampton are probably one of them, which take their role in the community very seriously.

“But places such as Portsmouth, Cardiff, what happened at Leeds, and the big four in the Premier League, they’re moving further away from their traditional role in the community.

“Instead, they are being seen purely as businesses to be bought and sold by anonymous companies for tens of millions of pounds.

“I think that is a result of that commercialisation, which actually started with sponsorship and replica kit sales.”

Although there were some earlier attempts at introducing shirt sponsorship, the first top-flight British side to successfully do so was Hibernian in 1977, who carried the name of kit manufacturer Bukta.

The first team in the Football League was Liverpool, with Hitachi, in 1979.

Saints followed suit in 1980, with Rank Xerox becoming their first sponsors.

Around about the same time, an alarming trend elsewhere gained pace.

Football clubs suddenly realised there was another avenue they could exploit – their very own walking cash machines, the supporters.

What better way to bleed a bit more money out of them than changing your home kit design every few years, before selling the replicas at a great markup?

Chuck in away and third strips, European shirts and so on, and clubs can be bringing out at least one new kit every season now.

“What drove that was the growing realisation that you could flog these shirts to supporters,” said Mr Moor.

“There is a lot of pressure on people to buy the new kit and if you look at the price and what they cost to make, the clubs are making a huge profit out of them.”

Mr Moor wants price fixing to stop so replica kit prices will fall.

He also hopes to see an end to all this talk about fancy “technologies” and cutting-edge fabrics.

These days, they can apparently keep you cool, draw moisture away from your body, and some are even “breathable”.

“If they worked as well as all these manufacturers claimed then you wouldn’t have top professionals wearing undergarments,”

he said.

As for Saints’ decision to go sponsor-free, club historian Gary Chalk thinks it will look good.

“I don’t mind shirt sponsorship,”

he said. “It brings in revenue which is a good thing. It will look nice without a sponsor but I don’t think fans are really that bothered anymore.”

However, Mr Chalk would not welcome a return to the white shirt with red sash.

For him, Saints are all about red and white stripes.

“I don’t like that idea at all, if it’s true,” he said “I wouldn’t mind a one off shirt like that, but stick to the red and white stripes.

“There’s no other kit for me. I’m a traditionalist.”

DESIGN SAINTS' NEW STRIP!

Think you can design a new Saints kit? Why not have a go at designing your own unique kit for the 2010/11 season. Send your sketches to Andy Bissell, Southern Daily Echo, Newspaper House, Test Lane, Redbridge Southampton, SO16 9JX or email your ideas to andy.bissell@dailyecho.co.uk. The winner, who will be announced in the Echo on Saturday, February 27, will get £50 to put towards buying the new Saints anniversary shirt as soon it’s available. All entries to be received by Friday, February 19.