Manchester United players could be looking for summer transfers if these leaked photos of their 2009/10 prototype kits get the go-ahead.

New kit designs for Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea and Manchester United have been published on The Spoiler and early indications suggest it is United's players who could come off worst.

Designers of the white and red away shirts have used a lace-up collar to finish the neckline similar to that last seen on their green and yellow shirts in the mid-1990s . The second effort is kinder on the eye, with a '60s feel about it.


Liverpool are next, and it is pretty much as you were with the away kit design, apart from a slightly more pond-like shade of green.

Anfield officials have already said they will stick with their current home jersey, and also appear relatively happy with the travelling strip.

Chelsea appear to be contemplating adding a zip to their home and away kits, with new designs giving off a slight impression of body armour.

And congratulations to Arsenal who have come up with a design that represents actual change [and still resembles a football shirt].

This season's lemon yellow could make way for a demure shade of racing green. However, Arsenal fans have already noted that the last time the club wore green was the 1982/83 season - when they finished.

- Telegraph.co.uk

The England defender has hailed the sacrifices made by his country's servicemen and women...

Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand was on duty with the England squad yesterday, meeting some of Britian's disabled ex-servicemen, wounded in recent conflicts, to sign autographs and chat.

He took the time to thank all members of the United Kingdom's Armed Forces for the sacrifices that they made, believing that it put the task ahead of him and his team-mates into perspective.

"They are the heroes," he told The Manchester Evening News.

"You are speaking about people who are going out and risking their lives for the country.

"We have seen so much on TV about how these guys go about their work and the sacrifices they make for our well-being, for us to be able to share the same room is a privilege.

"We know how to play football and lose matches but what they do is a bit different to losing a game of football.

"They are more worthy of the word hero than we are."

Meanwhile, Chelsea defender John Terry, attending the event along with David Beckham and Ferdinand, also spoke of his pride in the veterans' sacrifice, and how he would have liked to have served his Queen and country, though he wasn't sure he was up to it.

"They love their football, they like to look up to us but I would like to be in their shoes and do what they do," the Blues skipper told The Daily Telegraph.

"It's great they want to do that and they are brilliant at their job. I would love to [serve], of course. Put your life on the line for the country – I would love to, but I don't think many of us could."

- Goal.com

Back to back defeats for the first time in the league in four years, six goals conceded and only one scored, a possible 10-point lead more than halved and humiliation at home to their fiercest rivals. Manchester United may want to forget March 2009 as quickly as possible, but to Patrice Evra what looks alarmingly like a slump is no more than "a little accident"

The French defender is as baffled as the rest of his Old Trafford team-mates as to how they have had their aura of invincibility shattered, first by Liverpool and then Fulham as what looked like a Premier League title procession has turned into a dogfight.

But Evra remains confident United will be able to put their blip behind them when Sir Alex Ferguson's squad reconvenes after international duty next week.

He said: "I have been at Manchester United for three years now and this is the first time I have lost two straight matches. But I am sure it is just a little accident."

Evra's confidence is matched by that of team-mate Rio Ferdinand, who believes the champions' greater experience, as well as their putative four-point lead, stands them in good stead for the resumption of domestic hostilities in nine days' time.

But the England international believes Ferguson's side will have to win all of their remaining league games if they are to see off an increasingly stern challenge from a resurgent Liverpool side.

"That's always the case at this stage of the season," Ferdinand said. "We have gained some great experience that it comes down to winning at all costs, so hopefully we can lean on that."

However, midfielder Darren Fletcher conceded that their task will be made harder by the combined effects of suspension, international travel and their commitments in the Champions League.

"We would have been desperate for another league game but unfortunately the international break has come along," he said. "Hopefully it's just a setback but it's easy talking about it, you have got to prove that on the pitch."

Ferguson will have to juggle his resources as best he can for the visit of Aston Villa a week on Sunday, a game that comes just 48 hours before the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final clash with Porto.

Nemanja Vidic, nominated by Ferdinand as United's player of the season, will miss the game through suspension, while Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes will join him on the sidelines.

United will also face a battle to engage the services of Ji-Sung Park, who is in Seoul for South Korea's derby with the North next week, and Anderson, who is in the Brazil squad for a double header with Ecuador and Peru.

Of the 20 United players called up for international duty, though, it is Carlos Tevez who will concern Ferguson most. With Rooney missing, the Argentine should be in line to face Villa but he will have to overcome the long flight back from La Paz, where Diego Maradona's side face Bolivia on Wednesday, as well as the effects of playing at an altitude of 3,600 metres.

- Telegraph.co.uk

Manchester United are set to have the AIG logo on their shirts for another season despite attempts by the crisis-hit American financial giant to rebrand its "wounded and disgraced" name.

United are seeking a new sponsor to replace the £56.5 million four-year deal with AIG which expires at the end of the 2009-10 season.

The European champions are confident of securing a lucrative agreement by the autumn, with both Saudi Telecom and Indian financial services company Sahara linked with replacing AIG

But with next season's United strip – due to be launched in China on the first-leg of the club's Far East tour in July – already in production with the AIG logo in place, moves by AIG to change its name to AIU could leave United with a redundant sponsor for the duration of the 2009-10 campaign.

A Nike spokesman said: "For the 2009-10 season all Manchester United shirts and training products have been produced with the AIG logo in line with the company's continued sponsorship of the club.

"The speculation surrounding AIG had very little impact on the process of manufacturing this product."

AIG has been bailed out four times by American taxpayers in recent months after incurring colossal losses during the global credit crisis.

And the company's security team has been forced to warn US-based employees to take special precautions and "avoid wearing any AIG apparel with the company insignia" as a result of growing hostility towards the company following revelations of bonuses paid to employees from bail-out funds.

The company's Manhattan offices have already been renamed AIU Holdings and chief executive Edward M Liddy has admitted that AIG have no option but to change their discredited name.

Liddy said: "I think the AIG name is so thoroughly wounded and disgraced that we're probably going to have to change it."

United are due to receive the final £14 million instalment from AIG ahead of the start of next season, but the American company, rather than United or Nike, would be forced to foot the prohibitive cost of any logo changes on next term's kit.

The club will play in the four-team Audi Cup in Munich at the end of July. The two-day competition, held at Munich's Allianz Arena, will feature United, Boca Juniors, AC Milan and Bayern Munich.

United will face Boca on July 29 following their four-game tour of the Far East before tackling Milan or Bayern in the final/third-place play-off on July 30.

- Telegraph.co.uk

Peter Davenport revealed to Setanta.com that Manchester United seriously considered appointing Brian Clough as club manager.

Retired Manchester United striker Peter Davenport recently revealed that during his time at Old Trafford, he believed that the club were seriously considering appointing Brian Clough as United's manager just before the Red Devils secured the services of Sir Alex Ferguson.

Clough has been the subject of many discussions of late, as the biographical film of his time as a manager, 'The Damned United', has just been released in cinemas.

Both Ferguson and Clough are figureheads of top-flight management, and Davenport had the privilege of playing under both gaffers, signing for Manchester United from Nottingham Forest back in 1986.

Ron Atkinson was sacked during Davenport's tenure at United, and in the quest to find a new manager for the side, the ex-striker felt that chairman Martin Edwards was keen on having Clough take over at the club.

Despite press reports suggesting a link between the two at the time, Edwards denied that any offer was made to Clough before appointing Sir Alex at Old Trafford. However, Davenport has now revealed that Edwards spoke to him three times about the whole affair, requesting his opinion on Clough as a manager.

"Martin was always intrigued at the possibility of getting Brian Clough," claimed Davenport.

"He asked what he was like, how he operated, and Martin would have been very pleased if Clough had ever been in the frame for the United job. I think he would have got it.

"At that stage Clough was at the height of his powers, had won the European Cup twice. But Forest had finished higher than United [in the First Division] a couple of seasons before, so the teams were in similar positions.

"I don’t think he [Edwards] ever made a move, but I think he had a lot of respect for Clough."

- Goal.com

Darren Fletcher has admitted that Manchester United are desperate for game-time in order to get their faltering title challenge back on track.

Two consecutive defeats at the hands of Liverpool and Fulham have derailed United's campaign and they are eager to play again to prove their worth as champions.

"We would have liked another game straight away to respond to a couple of difficult games," said Fletcher.

United have conceded six goals and scored only once in their two defeats, while Liverpool have scored 13 in only three games. This is a trend that Fletcher and his colleagues will be keen to reverse.

"We would have been desperate for another league game. But I think Liverpool would have been wanting the league to continue, so you never know. We just have to deal with it." The 25-year-old argues the only way United can prove their form is just a blip is by getting out on the field and playing. "It's easy for me to say it's only a blip but we have to go out on the park and show it's only a blip," he said.

Scotland face Holland in a World Cup qualifier on Saturday, and Fletcher is relieved his United team-mate Edwin Van der Sar has chosen to remain in retirement. "I don't know if the manager [Scotsman Sir Alex Ferguson] had a word in his ear because he was playing Scotland!

But he made the decision and I like to think that's good for Scotland," said the midfielder.

- Telegraph.co.uk

The Reds defender is backing their rivals from up the East Lancs Road to crack under the pressure...

Liverpool centre-back Martin Skrtel thinks that the pressure exerted by him and his team-mates on Manchester United will be too much for the Red Devils to handle, and Liverpool's 19-year-long drought for the league title will come to an end this season..

Liverpool mauled their rivals 4-1 at Old Trafford a week and a half ago, and United slipped up again when they were beaten 2-0 in west London at the weekend by Fulham. Skrtel is sure that there will be further errors from Alex Ferguson's men as the season's end nears and the pressure grows ever more intense.

"I think yes, because there are eight games left or so," he told deniksport.cz.

"They are also in the UEFA Champions League. A lot of points are still up for grabs, and although they have a match against Portsmouth in hand, they will not have it easy against them.

"I just hope that we will stay in-form, they will slip-up and we will jump over them in the table."

The Slovak also feels that his club manager Rafa Benitez deserves much of the credit for Liverpool's more sustained title challenge this year, and hailed the effect the Spaniard has had on his personal game, adding, "It is good for us players as well as for the fans and the whole club, because Benitez has done a great piece of work during his time at Liverpool.

"He is enormously popular here and I think that he is a coach of great qualities. He has also helped me personally.

"He has taught me a lot. Thanks to him we work a lot on tactics and game discipline. I have improved in both aspects."

Liverpool thrashed Aston Villa 5-0 at the weekend, a result many felt has ended the Midlanders push for a top four finish. The Villans face United next though and Skrtel did not rule Martin O'Neill's men out from still having a vital part to play in the destination of this season's Premier League crown.

He concluded, "It will not be an easy game for them. Aston Villa are still aiming for a Champions League spot and will not give them anything easy.

"We will see. It would be great if they could play better than against us and steal a point or three from United."

- Goal.com