It’s been a while since I last posted a blog on shirt collecting, due to a number of other things taking priority.

Now that I’m back and have given plenty of time to think of what I could possibly write about next, I want to look at what our intentions are, when we purchase a shirt. To make this easier for everyone to understand, I’m going to use football management as a metaphor, in order for you to think and reflect on if you really need a certain shirt.

The manager of team ‘X’ has 11 players on the field and during a game they apply their ‘how’ (decision making) to execute the intentions of the team. Before the match the manager highlighted to the team that they need to apply explosive pressing, high up the pitch, in an attempt to win back ball possession. For this to be successful, he will need certain players to ‘fit’ this style of play. There is a problem though…he has a superstar in his ranks who doesn’t like pressing, so now he looks out of place and this doesn’t work for the team.

The manager then has a decision to make. Does he keep this superstar in the team, but by doing this, he doesn’t contribute to the overall intention? Or, does he sell him and look for a replacement?

Hopefully you are now understanding the picture and the correlation between football as the game and shirt collecting.

Let’s now look at the shirt side of things.

Even before looking for that new shirt or old classic, you have to have a certain idea that you wish to progress with. This idea could be known as your ‘philosophy’ and what you stick to when collecting. For example, you could have a philosophy of only buying Inter Milan shirts. This is ‘what’ you want to do. Now, you have to determine ‘how’ you will achieve this objective of collecting Inter Milan shirts. You could use Twitter, eBay or Facebook for example, to achieve your how.

One evening you’re scrolling through social media and a classic River Plate shirt is for sale at a very reasonable price. What do you do now? Do you stick to your philosophy and scroll on, or do you make a commitment to buy the shirt? After all, it’s a lovely shirt at a great price, so why wouldn’t you make the purchase?
The problem now could possibly be that this new shirt (like a football player), doesn’t fit your ‘style’ or ‘intentions’ as highlighted above.

If you then use this type of behaviour and your application in purchasing shirts (which is fine by the way), you may never have any clear direction of what you want your collection to look like. Only you will know exactly what you want, as this is your own decision. It could be that you have an emotional attachment from the ‘good old days’, hence seeing a certain shirt provokes that stimulus and then you want to purchase. Maybe the colour scheme or template attracted you and now you can’t see yourself not purchasing the shirt?
After a number of purchases we are still hungry and looking for that next shirt. Why do want to continually purchase you ask??…because of the dopamine hits we get each time. The more we feed it, the more we want. This can be extremely dangerous with a hobby that can be expensive, so my advice would be as follows;

Sit down and write what your shirt collecting philosophy is
Then explore how you will go about your business to achieve your objective
Consider external factors such as finance, space, how many shirts you have and if you do really need it (understanding the difference between wanting and needing is an interesting topic, that will be discussed in the future)
Does that next shirt ‘fit’ in your collection, just like that player in a certain style of play (would Chris Woods fit into the style of play that Pep implements, at Man City)
If a team has 6 centre forwards, would they pay another £80 million to have one sat on the bench or not even in the squad?

By answering the above questions, it should give you clearer direction and guidance in shirt collecting. While you can still purchase what you like, narrowing down the possibilities of your intentions, should give you a clearer path in reaching your objective.

In my next blog, I’ll explore the situations you may find yourself in when making a purchase and when the process could possibly end!