NO matter what age or level you are, there’s no better feeling than getting a new pair of football boots. Or for a goalkeeper, a new pair of boots and gloves!

When I was small, I remember pestering my dad for weeks on end to take me to the local sports shop to get the gloves and boots worn by the likes of David Seaman, Peter Schmeichel and Nigel Martyn.

I used to stay up to watch Match of the Day, take notes on all the latest kit and then badger my parents into submission. Then it was down to the park with my friends to try and replicate the saves of the top keepers. 

As I progressed and started to play at a more competitive level, I remember I used to get a new pair of boots and gloves every summer before pre-season. There used to be pages and pages of boots at the back of the magazine, FourFourTwo, and I would spend weeks agonising over which I’d get for the season.

My little boy, Lake, who has just turned one is already kicking a ball around in the garden and I’m sure it won’t be long until he’s pestering me, just as I used to do.

Nowadays, I’m lucky. My boot and glove supplier, Adidas, send me a new range of gloves and boots every two to three months with all the latest styles and colours to match their new product ranges. My package will contain moulded boots (size 11), studded boots and a range of gloves so that I can use some in training and keep some back for matches.

That may seem like a lot but with us training five to six days a week, we put our kit through some serious wear and tear.

I always make sure that both my children’s names are on each boot, so I will have my little girl’s name, Baylie, on one boot and then my little boy’s name, Lake, on the other. It’s just a small thing but I like to do it so that when I put my boots on, it makes me think of them.

I’m not too fussed about changing boots or gloves but I know there are some keepers who are superstitious and refuse to change. They may have had a few good results or a clean sheet and prefer to stay with what they have. 

Boots and gloves have evolved so much even compared to when I was a kid, which doesn’t feel that long ago. They are now so much lighter and are designed to be a lot tighter.

We have a cool piece of equipment at Staplewood which stretches the boot if it’s beginning to become a bit tight. I’ll usually use this on a matchday. We also have a heater that will loosen the boots when they become stiff, which is usually towards the end of the boots’ life.  

When we’re playing away from home, our kit and equipment team will bring all the team’s boots up in their van. They bring around 2 or 3 pairs of boots for each player for the game, just in case there are any issues, so they look after us very well in that regard.

One thing we have at the training ground is the tradition that a member of the youth team squad is assigned a first team player at the beginning of every season. They then clean their boots throughout the year. 

It will mainly be the lads in the Under-18s and 23s set-up, and whoever gets assigned my boots, I usually give them a little something at Christmas. Some are faultless, making sure the boots are on the pegs before training but I think Jack Stephens is still trying to figure out who his boot boy is as they haven’t been terribly reliable.

You may all be thinking what happens to all the old boots and gloves throughout the season. Well, all the players have a close connection with our Saints Foundation team, and we send over boxes full of our old boots, gloves and kit which then all go to a great cause.

I am already craving that feeling of putting my boots and gloves on again and getting back to training, once everything goes back to normal.

Hope you all have a great weekend and stay safe – I’ll be back at the beginning of next week with my next instalment.

Macca

Twitter: @Alex_Macca23/Instagram: @alexmccarthy