This week Gary Neville explained why he picked the Stone Roses’ iconic 80’s anthem ‘This Is The One’ as The Reds walk-out song at Old Trafford when he became club captain in 2005. The song, he says, reflects the “true authentic spirit of the city of Manchester”.
Almost 20 years later, Manchester United, Adidas and The Stone Roses have come together to create a new line of casual and training wear based on the band’s first album cover and designed by their guitarist and diehard United fan John Squire.
James Pollitt, 25, assistant manager at Classic Football Shirts Manchester, says the band has a proud connection with the club: ”The Stone Roses are the Manchester band that most signifies United. City have Oasis, Stone Roses is United. They are Man United encapsulated.”
Three of the four original members of the band – Ian Brown, Mani and Squire – are lifelong Reds, in fact when Brown won an NME Godlike Genius award, he insisted it was presented to him by one of the 1999 treble-winning side, Teddy Sheringham.
Pollitt said: ”The kit celebrates the culture between football and music, it is prominent everywhere but especially in Manchester it means a lot.
”Where you’re from, who you support, it means a lot because the music accompanies that.”
Creator: Sean Reynolds
Copyright: ©2012 Sean Reynolds Photography
Despite the fact that the band’s first album was released in 1989, Pollitt felt that the kit would still resonate with younger fans, saying: ”You just grow up with it if you’re from Manchester, The Stone Roses pass down through generations for Man United fans.”
The kit release has received a mainly positive online response, with the sole criticism revolving around the pricing.
”Maybe I am just de-sensitised to the prices of football shirts because it is my job”, says Pollitt, “but it’s just the way it is with pretty much any Adidas release – you do tend to get a backlash on the price.
”They have not marked up the price on that shirt or collection, which they could have done because it is such a limited edition, a special shirt.”
Both the men’s and the women’s first team sides wore the new kit in their pre-match warm ups against Aston Villa and Southampton last Sunday.