5 alternative Christmas presents for Albion fans
Christmas is a little under two weeks away and if you’re anything like us, then you won’t have started your gift shopping yet. In fact, we’ve got it pencilled in for Sunday 22nd December, the day after Sheffield United at home – hangover permitting.
We have carried out a little research however and what we’ve found is that if you’re buying for a Brighton fan, you may need to remortgage your house to purchase anything from the club shop.
A replica shirt which will be out of date in six months? That’ll be £52 please. Fancy a training jacket? £65. Even a pair of standard blue Nike football shorts which you could buy from Sports Direct for a tenner are £22 just for having an Albion badge glued on.
If all this seems a little steep, then help is at hand. We’ve put together this list of five alternative Christmas presents that you could buy for the special Albion fan in your life, none of which will break the bank.
Art of Football Print
When done well, football and art go together like Shane Duffy and a pint of Guinness in Molly Malone’s. Art of Football are one of the leading makers of football-based art with the latest addition to their Brighton collection being the Classic Kits Range.
They’ve taken nine of the Albion’s best ever shirts and combined them into one design which you can either purchase as a framed print or on a t-shirt. It’s an excellent tribute to some of the most stylish kits we’ve seen down the years. Needless to say, it contains nothing produced by Nike.
Among the other Albion related products from Art of Football are prints of the Amex, tributes to Anthony Knockaert and a dog wearing the 1978-79 promotion winning shirt. Put simply, there’s something there for everyone.
Shop for the Art of Football Brighton Collection
Brighton Taxi Board Game
Hands up, we’re a little biased when it comes to this present as we helped write the questions for it. But the Brighton Taxi Board Game truly is a thing of beauty. You are a taxi driver zipping around a board looking to earn as much money as possible.
How do you pick up these fares? By answering trivia questions on the Albion. 500 of them to be precise, focusing on the Albion’s history, players, managers and successes. We even managed to sneak a few questions in about some of the not-so-good times, too.
It’s a brilliant gift for any Brighton-mad fans, especially if you’d rather spend Christmas Day doing battle over how many goals Chris McPhee scored in the 2003-04 season or who Anthony Knockaert was signed from than the traditional game of Monopoly.
We’ve even got a special discount code for WAB readers to use, which gets you 10% off the purchase price and free postage and packaging. Just enter WAB10 at the checkout to claim yours.
Shop for the Brighton Taxi Board Game
Cult Zeros Player T-Shirt
Ever since we first discovered that it was possible to buy a t-shirt with Doug Loft’s face printed on it back in 2008, we’ve been in love with Cult Zeros. The premise is so simple – they take a popular player, turn their face into a kind of sketch and then print it on a t-shirt along with a slogan of your own choice.
In the past, we’ve had “All you need is Loft” captioned underneath Doug’s handsome face. Mark McGhee and “Drinking Pints of Whiskey” adorned another. We even broke away from the Albion to get Romanian left back Razvan Rat on a t-shirt with “Get your Rat out” as the message. Don’t judge – they were different times.
There are 126 different Albion players to choose from currently, ranging from the likes of Peter Ward and Bobby Zamora right through to Dirk Lehmann and Aidan Newhouse. And in the unlikely event that they don’t have the individual you want, you can even request a new player to be added and they’ll do the rest.
Shop for a Cult Zeros Brighton t-shirt
NSK Scarf
Why pay £15 for a pretty bland scarf from the official club shop when you pick up something a little more interesting from the NSK for only a tenner?
They’ve got nine different designs for sale, ranging from ones telling of the glory of Sussex by the Sea to standard Albion ones. Our favourite though is their ‘half-and-half’ scarf. Forget the nonsense that you see whenever we rock up at Old Trafford or the Emirates, this bit of knitwear features one half dedicated to Brighton, the other half dedicated to Hove. It’s the only half-and-half scarf you’ll ever need.
Bloody Southerners by Spencer Vignes
Yes, we know that Bloody Southerners isn’t exactly a new Christmas present having been published over a year ago. But if you need a gift for an Albion fan and they’ve not yet got their hands on a copy, then it’s a book that they won’t be able to put down.
Written by Spencer Vignes, it reveals the true story behind the extraordinary coup that saw Mike Bamber convince Brian Clough that his next job after leading Derby County to the Division One title and the semi finals of the European Cup should be to take over Division Three strugglers Brighton.
The book contains stories from the players who were at the Goldstone at the time and lifts the lid on a tumultuous nine months at the Albion. An excellent read for all Brighton supporters.
lets hope we stay up <3