This season’s Champions League draw has thrown together the champions of England and Scotland after Manchester United were paired along with Celtic in Group E.

Also in the group are Villarreal of Spain and Danish side Aalborg.

United and Celtic last met in the competition in 2006 / 07 when Cletic won 1 – 0 at Parkhead and United taking the spoils at Old Trafford, 3 – 2.

As for the other British clubs in the draw, Chelsea will face Roma, Bordeaux and Romanian minnows CFR Cluj, while Liverpool have a tough group which includes PSV, Marseille and Atletico Madrid.

Arsenal will play Porto, Fenerbahce and Dynamo Kiev in Group G.

The four English sides were guaranteed to be kept apart after being made top seeds.

As we recently reported on Footy Boots, you fans are keen to see football clubs change their kit on an annual basis.

You’ll therefore be delighted to find out that Manchester United will be using a newly designed third kit for the new season. And it’s based on a famous night in United history.

In 1968 Manchester United made history in becoming the first English team to lift the European Cup when they defeated Benfica 4-1 at Wembley Stadium. Before the game it was agreed that Utd would play in their Blue away kit as both teams home jerseys were red.

To celebrate the 40 year anniversary of this momentous night Nike has created a kit worthy of that great team and their great night at Wembley. Taking inspiration from that first European Cup win and the Busby Babes, Utd will wear blue as their third kit for the 2008/09 season inspired by the famous 1968 victory. The kit will also be their preferred kit for this season’s Champions League away matches.

The shirt includes a number of details that celebrate the anniversary including the embroidery of the words “May 29th 1968” and “40th Year Anniversary” around the club crest.

The kit uses Nike Fit fabric technology, first used by Nike in national team kits worn by Nike-sponsored teams in the 2006 World Cup. This technology is designed to enhance player performance by wicking sweat through the material and away from the skin.  A full mesh back on the player’s jerseys also aids ventilation.

Rio Ferdinand said: “When you look at the final image you will associate it with the great team of 1968 with the likes of George Best and Bobby Charlton. Obviously they won the European Cup in blue so we hope we can walk in their shoes again with this kit. It’s such a big part of the history of the club”.

Ryan Giggs was also suitably impressed saying “I’m very impressed. It’s good to have a kit to celebrate the 40th anniversary of that amazing night. Obviously that was a great night for the club and there is a massive history behind the game and the players who played that night. It’s great that we can commemorate that history with this kit. For it to look so good and be the same colour as the kit from back then is a testimony to the designers and I think the lads will like it”

If you like it, the kit is available for pre order from today. ORDER NOW

There’s a debate about padded goalkeeper clothing. A bit like the kind of people who think that going to the doctor is indulgent, or people who refuse to read the instruction manual, there’s a strong contingent of people who think that wearing padding is sort of a sign of weakness.

Take the great Everton and Wales goalkeeper Neville “Baggy” Southall as a good example. Now Southall was no ordinary human being – one of the finest goalkeepers ever to grace an English football pitch – and impervious to pain to such a degree that when playing on the old “plastic” Astroturf pitches of the 1980s at grounds like Boundary Park and Kenilworth Road, instead of wearing goalkeeper trousers to protect himself, Big Nev just slapped a bit of Vaseline on his knees. And as would be expected, Southall was no fan of padded anything. Although he would wear several layers of goalkeeper shirts in matches (explaining why he would typically leave the pitch sweating as though Goodison Park shared the climatic conditions of the Libyan desert), he used to take the padding out of the official Everton jerseys as he felt it restricted his movement. Specifically, he disliked elbow padding: “I don’t need elbow padding, because I dive properly and land on my shoulders”. Southall also seemed to wear nothing thicker or bigger than cigarette packets for shin pads.

Irregular man that he was, the Southall perspective in some ways brings out a good point. Padding is after all a pretty new phenomenon. For the vast majority of the history of the game, keepers just wore a different colour jersey to the rest of the team, but no padding or protection to speak of. “And they – Yashin, Banks and co. - did fine didn’t they?”

Well, plenty of the modern goalkeeping manufacturers would disagree. Neville Southall, they would say, is like the guy who smokes 40 a day to the age of 95 and dies a peaceful death from old age: it can happen, but it defies the odds. Most keepers, they would say, can gain great benefit from using padding.

Let’s have a look at a couple of great examples of major padded goalkeeping products.

McDavid ‘HexPad’ technology
Invented in the U.S.A. – home of the new-fangled contraption and many a fine development in sports technology – McDavid technology has been applied to a large variety of sports including basketball, American football, and of course soccer. McDavid is worn by a huge number of top sporting stars, and has had as endorsees from the goalkeeping world Jussi Jaaskelainen, Francesco Toldo, Morgan De Sanctis, Sebastiano Frey and Angelo Peruzzi. We’ll cover McDavid goalkeeping kit in more detail soon, but the important thing to point out now is McDavid’s method of applying padding to goalkeeping clothing while aiming to maintain flexibility, by creating the padding in small hexagonal shaped units – rather than in large segments of padding. All this is fused into an under layer of goalkeeping clothing, designed to be worn underneath goalkeeping match shirts or training kit.

Reusch Guardian Pro Longsleeve Goalkeeper Shirt
Reusch can hardly make a bad goalkeeping product. One of the longest established goalkeeping specialists, Reusch really don’t mess around! The Guardian Pro goalkeeper shirt is a great example of padding technology taken to the limit. Including their ‘Duraguard™ Technology’, ‘Proguard™ technology’, ‘Pro Tube technology’ and a load of other stuff to fulfil the goalkeeper’s wildest padding dreams.

We’ll leave it to Reusch to explain what those technology names actually mean:

Duraguard™ Technology
“With the Duraguard™ technology Reusch relies on a super-rugged material which has also found its way into motorcycle clothing: Kevlar. What can endure asphalt on the road should also be first choice for the penalty area.”

Proguard™ Technology
“With the Proguard™ Reusch has developed a new elbow and knee pad which offers even better damping qualities than conventional foam. The dual-layer construction featuring a dimensionally stable shell with a soft inside pad is anatomically pre-shaped, lightweight and extremely rugged.”

Protube™ Technology
“One flying dive and the arm padding has moved from its correct position. With Reusch Protube, a cuff in the shirt keeps the pad at the elbow without limiting the goalkeeper’s movement”.

Padding – good or bad then? Obviously the goalkeeper padding manufacturers have some incentive to tell keepers that they can’t live without padding. We also have some sympathy with the likes of Big Nev, especially from the point of view that padding can restrict movement and prevent the development of good technique. But at the same time, there really are clear benefits of padding. Hard ground, Astroturf, tough challenges, bad landings from dives – all these things frequently leave the goalkeeper limping from the pitch with cuts and bruises and even lost confidence. For the goalkeeper who plays on a regular basis, it can be costly to suffer this type of minor injury, restricting training and performance in future games. Technology and equipment that helps out in this way we think must be a good thing. Pad me up!

Go on now, admit it. Up until the build up to the 2002 World Cup, you didn’t have the faintest idea of what a metatarsal was now did you?

Some form of prehistoric dinosaur, a brand of Greek brandy or the posh name for that widget thingy that makes canned beer fizzy?

All of that changed when David Beckham was injured on 10th April 2002, just 51 days before the start of the World Cup finals in Japan and Korea. Beckham sustained his injury during the early stages of Manchester United’s Champions League quarter final against Deportiva La Coruna. He was stretchered off the pitch and the following day, X-ray’s confirmed he’s broken his second metatarsal bone in his left foot.

Cue, much wailing and gnashing of teeth, banner headlines in the popular press and more published medical diagrams than you could shake a stick at.

Since then, the word metatarsal has become part of football’s common vocabulary, so frequent are injuries now to high profile players - Wayne Rooney, Steve Gerrard, Gary Neville and most recently Daniel Agger to name but a few.

Since Beckham’s woes, the argument over protection provided by the modern football boot has raged on and on, and it shows no sign of abating. But amongst all the hysteria, what exactly are the facts?

Footy Boots has consulted with Dr Sharon Dixon, senior lecturer at Exeter University and expert on biomechanics. A leading expert in her field, the work of the biomechanics team at Exeter has been used at 15 presentations at international and national conferences.

FB: Hi Sharon, what, in your opinion, is the most common injury occurring in modern day football?

SD: Ankle inversion injuries (twisted ankle) are the one we see most.

FB: Is the modern football boot up to the job of giving players enough protection?

SD: The football boot of today is focussed primarily on performance. By working with professional players, companies have developed football boots that are light and comfortable. This may or may not be a good thing when it comes to injury.

FB: Is safety being compromised for style?

Safety may be being compromised for comfort and performance. For example, older style football boots that covered the ankle provided more protection from ankle inversion injuries. They may, of course, have resulted in greater injuries elsewhere on the body.

FB: What qualities should a player look for when choosing a football boot?

SD: Comfort, flexibility, ease of performing turning movements without studs sticking (hard to judge in the shop, but perhaps lab data on this could be made available).

FB: What advice would you give to parents looking to buy football boots for young children?

SD: For young children, a flexible football boot that allows the foot to move naturally is likely to be best. Restricting foot movement may limit the natural development of the foot. A young foot should not need support. It is probably wise to also avoid blades as there have been knee injuries linked to these sticking in the ground during turning movements and also players have received bad cuts from these. The jury is out on this, but seems sensible to go for conical studs that will rotate easily in soil or 3G surfaces.

FB: What can a player do, if anything, to prevent foot injuries whilst wearing modern footwear?

SD: Adequate training and conditioning to prepare for matches and avoid football boots that do not allow twisting movements easily.

Newcastle United has received a written transfer request from James Milner.

Despite starring in United’s Carling Cup win at Coventry City, where he scored one goal and made another in the 3 – 2 win, Milner seems determined to leave the North East and return, possibly, to Aston Villa where he was a hit when on loan 3 years ago.

Milner’s hopes of a move however might flounder as Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan wants to keep him at the club as he is regarded as an integral part of United’s long term plans.

A statement on the club’s official website read: “Newcastle United can confirm that it has received a written transfer request from James Milner.

“The club is very disappointed that James sees his footballing future as being away from St James’ Park. He is a valued member of the squad and it is only a year ago that he signed an improved long-term contract.

“We have yet to receive an offer for James that has matched our valuation of him.

“However, should such an offer be received then the club would be forced to consider it, given James’ apparent desire to leave.”

Villa are believed to have already had one bid of £7million rejected by the Magpies, who value the former Leeds United man at £9million.

Fabio Fee

Here’s a worrying thought. Fabio Capello earns in a week what David Brailsford earns in a year. Brailsford’s name might not be familiar to you but the exploits of his charges will be. For Brailsford is the Performance Director of British cycling and is the man credited with delivering 14 medals from the velodrome in Beijing. True, he’s been in the post a lot longer than the Italian but you get the impression that if he’d walked in to England team training the day before the game against the Czech Republic, Brailsford would have got more out of the national team than Capello managed. Brailsford doesn’t do losers, plucky finalists or also rans. He does winners.  Capello and his management team could do a lot worse than spending a bit of time with Brailsford getting to know his methods. After that shocker at Wembley, it certainly couldn’t do any harm.

GB United 2012

Having been in Beijing to witness first hand the football tournament at the Olympics, I am more convinced than ever that Great Britain must enter a team for the Games of 2012. The final between Argentina and Nigeria was played out in front of a 90,000 packed house at the Birds Nest as Messi, Riquelme and Co beat the African’s 1 – 0 to take the gold medal. Even if BOA officials agree to only form a team for 2012 and never again, it has to do so, whatever the objections of the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish. Fifa say it isn’t a problem and national identities won’t be eroded, the government is keen (or at least, haven’t found a way of cocking it up yet) and with fervent home support, the team should be competitive. Even if it turns out to be a purely English side under a GB banner that will be better than nothing. We invented the game for goodness sake so let’s play on the biggest stage of all.

Beijing Becks

China may be full of 1.3 billion people who are constantly reminded that we in the West are a bunch of opportunistic capitalist pigs, but the locals that packed in to the Wukesong Culture and Sports Centre didn’t seem too concerned about that when they turned out in their thousands for the basketball final between the USA and Spain. And, you’d have thought that the likes of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, not to mention Pau Gasol of Spain would have been the big draws. Well, they were until an image of ‘our David’ was flashed up on the giant screen. In an instant 200 photographers forgot about the match and the 16,000 strong crowd followed them as everyone tried to work out where Beckham was sitting in the stadium. As it happened, he was located just behind the best looking woman in the joint who was soon under the Beck’s spell as he offered her a breath mint. He may be in the winter of his career on the field, but off it, the boy’s still got it. And in spades.

Double Dealing Daniel

His star striker has thrown a wobbly and his side has been beaten in their opening two Premier League games by, wait for it, Boro and Sunderland. No wonder Spurs Chairman Daniel Levy looks about as happy as a primary school teacher who’s just seen one of the kids take a tinkle in the Lego box.  And some would say serve him right. It’s all well and good having a bash at Manchester United for their pursuit of Dimitar Berbatov who’s “under contract” when, barely 12 months earlier, you’ve flown off to Spain and signed up a manager who was  “under contract” to someone else. What goes round comes round. Ramos to vamos anyone?

So, has striker Dimitar Berbatov played his last game for Spurs? The smart money would suggest that the Bulgarian striker will never again be seen at White Hart Lane.

Berbatov was left out of the squad for the weekend’s home loss to Sunderland for what the club described as a ‘lack of focus’.

Today, his agent arrived in London for talks with the club hierarchy in an attempt to put an end to the stand off.

Emil Danchev met manager Juande Ramos and chairman Daniel Levy but was promptly told that his client wouldn’t be allowed to leave White Hart Lane for less than £30 million.

The London club are threatening to let Berbatov “rot in the reserves”, according to reports, rather than sell him for less than they believe he is worth.

That though might be more difficult than it sounds as despite interest from Manchester United and a couple of Spanish clubs, Spurs have no firm offer on the table.

And it might be that the London club try and find a quick solution having lost their opening two Premier League games of the season to those North East power houses – Middlesbrough and Sunderland!

Deco has already emerged as one of the best signings of the summer. We take a look at the little man’s pedigree and choice of football boots.

Deco, 30, is the Portuguese international who signed for Chelsea in the summer of 2008. Born in Brazil, he arrived in Portugal aged 19. He won the Champions League and UEFA Cup with FC Porto, before moving to Barcelona in 2004.

Overlooked by the Brazilian national team, Deco adopted Portuguese citizenship after completing six years of Portuguese residence. On his début for Portugal, he scored in a rare win for Portugal over Brazil.

During his last season at Barcelona, Deco was hampered by injury and managed just 14 starts. When new Barca manager Pep Guardiola arrived he was happy to let Deco leave the club, suggesting that Deco was past his best. However Luis Felipe Scolari, who had managed Deco as National manager of Portugal, made him his first signing at Chelsea, with a fee of £8 million changing hands.

Since arriving in the UK, Deco could not have had a better start to his Chelsea career. Never noted for being prolific in front of goal, Deco has scored in each of Chelsea’s opening games, helping Chelsea lead the Premier League after two games. Although very early in this campaign, Deco looks to have fitted in very well to Premier League football and could be the difference to Chelsea this season.

Deco Football Boots

Deco has a football boot deal with Umbro. His choice of football boots for the season are the Umbro SX Flare.

• Anatomical sprint fit outsole with glass fibre shank rigidity incorporating wishbone technology.

• Michelin injected rubber providing increased grip and touch control. The upper is made from breathable, lightweight ceramic duratec kangaroo leather.

• Lightweight thermo-polyurethane heel counter impact control.

Order the SX Flare football boots here

Order the Deco replica shirt here

Deco wears Umbro SX Flare football boots.

Golden Balls David Beckham has suggested that he could manage a Team GB football team at the 2012 Olympics.

London has now officially become the next Olympic city, after Guo Jinlong, Mayor of Beijing handed over the Olympic flag to London Mayor Boris Johnson. British icon David Beckham was on hand to add, and maintain, his global celebrity status.

Beckham Coach

Beckham appeared on the top of a red London double decker bus that was driven on to the track with London - Beijing - London written across the side and the No 2012 on the front. Beckham then duly kicked a football into the cheering crowd.

Beckham afterwards said he wanted to see a GB football side competing at the 2012 Olympics….

We deserve a Team GB in London and I hope it gets sorted.

When asked if he would like to coach the side, he replied:

Who knows? Let’s see, anything is possible.

Alex Ferguson has already been elected as a favourite to manage the side, with Sebastian Coe and Gordon Brown both said to have asked the Scotsman. Perhaps with Beckham as coach?

Tell us what you think by voting in our poll, located on the bottom right of this page.

Djibril Cissé has made an ideal start to his career at Sunderland, but why does he need a third leg?

Djibril Cissé joined Sunderland on loan from Marseilles, having suffered two broken legs and being let go by Liverpool, Cissé has a point to prove. He started to prove that point in his first appearance for Sunderland, coming off the bench to get a late winner against Tottenham.

Back to that third leg. You’d think having broken his leg twice the thought of having to put up with another one might be a bit much, but no, Cissé is talking of growing a third limb.

However, the French international is not after a limb to replace one of the previously damaged ones. He wants another one to honour Prince Kobe, his two-month-old baby. Cissé true to form, has inscribed the names of his two older children, Ilona Celeste and Cassius Clay, on his football boots, but is lacking space for the Prince.

Djibril Cissé:

I have another child, so I will have to get another leg. I have a big point to prove after the way I finished at Liverpool. It was always my plan to come back to England. I had a few offers but I chose Sunderland because of the manager and I think the club have big ambitions and a really good infrastructure, good players.

This win shows what we are capable of. We can surprise a lot of teams. I’m made for England, it suits the way I play. I still have my house here, my wife is English. El-Hadji Diouf told me they have good ambitions. I think we will be quite lively together. I never played against Keane luckily. He was a big factor in my decision to come here.

“Keep changing the kit”, that’s what football fans voted in our poll to find out how often fans would like football clubs to change their football kits.

Replacing football kits annually topped the list with 43% of the votes ahead of a bi-annual change (41%).

The poll conducted here on Footy Boots had 1,000 votes with the following results:

• Annually - 43%
• Every 2 years - 41%
• Every 3 years - 11%
• More than 3 years - 5%

Poll conducted August 2008.

Of the 20 teams in the Premier League this season, just two teams will be keeping their home shirts from last year, Manchester United and Newcastle United.

The trend for clubs to change their football kits regularly is well received by fans, despite protests suggesting that football clubs are taking advantage of their supporters.

Andy Kay Footy Boots editor:

Football clubs have been taking a bit of stick for releasing football shirts so frequently, so we wanted to see what our vistors had to say. It’s pretty clear that they appreciate new merchandise being released regularly.

Related story: Football Kits Now Annual

England stumbled to a home draw against the Czech Republic and Pompey manager Harry Redknapp didn’t mix his words about the performance.

Those who watched England’s friendly against Czech Republic on Setanta will have heard Harry Redknapp’s rant about the England teams performance.

Redknapp highlights:

1. That was one of the worst performances I have seen from an England team.

2. It is unbelievable. He has to be in the centre. We are killing Gerrard.

3. If Steve McClaren had been in charge of that team there would have been uproar.

Redknapp was right in what he said. England were all over the place against the Czech’s, with most of the team looked like they were playing their own game, with no unity and little structure. Their effort is not in question, but what is in question is their confidence and the technical know-how of their game.

Dull England

England matches, particularly friendlies, have long lost their appeal. The England team overall has long lost its magnetism and ability to compete with the top nations of the world.

The England team must revert back to a club atmosphere where the team fights for each other, has a never say die attitude that personifies English football. A team that connects with youngsters watching, not a bunch of overpaid, arrogant celebrities.

Lotto Goalkeeper Gloves – underrated range formerly worn and developed by Petr Cech.

England 2, Czech Republic 2. Another game that will see England players and boss pilloried in the press, with the usual bitterness and bias that we all expect. But from a goalkeeping perspective, the game saw a decent performance from Czech stopper Petr Cech, who made some solid saves in a first return to the big international stage since his confidence-shattering mistake in his country’s catastrophic exit from Euro 2008, after he dropped an 88th minute cross… Cech, in spite of recent lapses, is still a man mountain, a goalkeeping extraordinaire, keystone of the Chelsea defence and still generally rated as one of the best goalkeepers in the world. We looked at England’s David James’ latest HO SOCCER gloves last week, and so this week we take the chance to look at his opposite number Petr Cech’s old goalkeeper glove sponsor, Lotto.

Cech was in Lotto gloves from 2004 – the year of his outstanding 2004 European Championship performances in which he won goalkeeper of the tournament – and the year he signed for Chelsea. In 2005 he beat Dida and Buffon to the famous IFHHS World Goalkeeper of The Year award, and also set a Premiership record for 1,025 minutes without conceding a goal. He also appeared in Lotto goalkeeper gloves at the 2006 World Cup in Japan, before moving on to his current sponsor adidas at the beginning of the 2007-08 season.

Cech’s time with Lotto draws attention to something that has often been overlooked: the professional standard Lotto goalkeeper gloves are a really well produced, excellent quality range. Featuring only 3 models, it’s a very focused range, but each glove is very different from the others, and all are well constructed with high quality materials and include some interesting technologies.
Surprising claims? Well, probably they shouldn’t be. Lotto’s current ‘pin up’ keepers include Roma’s Brazilian international goalkeeper Alexander Doni, and Sevilla’s Italian international Morgan De Sanctis, who travelled to the Euro 2008 tournament as backup to Gianluigi Buffon. All the Lotto keepers have an involvement in the design and production of the gloves, which in part explains the very interesting diversity of technical features in the current Lotto range.

What’s striking about all the Lotto gloves is how well constructed they are – the materials used and quality of production really is excellent. We look at the top three Lotto gloves and examine some of their key features.

Lotto Drago goalkeeper glove

Brand new top level release from Lotto, worn by Morgan De Sanctis with the Italy squad at the Euro 2008 championships. De Sanctis was the Lotto keeper most closely involved in the design and development of the gloves.

The Drago is a hugely padded, protecting glove, with a real focus on support, solidity and protection. The padding in the upper backhand really is extensive! As a result, it’s probably not for goalkeepers who prefer lightweight gloves. But for those concerned about hand protection and support, it’s a very good option. The Drago glove still offers the flexibility of being able to choose the desired level of protection, and the thermoplastic finger supports (“ESO-Frame”) to support the fingers, and the gel inserts in the wrist area (“G-Force”), which add additional support to the lower hand, are both removable.

Lotto G-Force Evo goalkeeper glove

The glove made famous by Petr Cech, and developed with extensive input from him, now with some slight updates for the 2008-2009 season. The negative cut of the glove was a request from Cech, and Lotto are proud that instead of releasing a flat cut version to the general public and keeping the more expensive negative cut style only for their pro keepers, they made the negative cut version available to the public. This gives the G-Force Evo gloves a very slim fit, snug on the hands, which is exactly what Cech specified in the glove’s development stages.

As well as the G-Force technology – hand protection in the lower backhand and wrist area, as opposed to the more common finger area – Cech placed huge emphasis on the development of lightweight gloves. So unlike the Drago model, the G-Force model is a slimmer, lighter weight glove, without the finger protecting plastic inserts in the backhand.

Lotto Neo Concept goalkeeper glove

Our pick of the range. The glove first developed by Lotto for Cech’s first two seasons with the brand, and was very much inspired by Cech’s demand for a lightweight and flexible glove. A very traditional, flat cut glove, but well constructed, super lightweight, and extremely good value. The Neo Concept goalkeeper glove features extensive use of lightweight mesh fabric in the backhand, as well as stretchy black neoprene fabric around the thumb area, keeping the glove really flexible and light.

Roma’s Doni also wore the Neo Concept during the 2007-2008 season, in spite of the option to wear or develop more expensive models, as he liked its simple design and super lightweight construction so much. A glove developed and worn by some of the world’s top keepers, at £29.99 RRP? Definitely worth a look….

Nike are running a competition which will allow the winners to design football boots for this Premier League clash.

Nike is giving football fans a unique opportunity to design the match-day football boots of some of the game’s biggest stars.  Top Arsenal and Manchester United players will do battle in NIKEiD football boots when the teams meet at The Emirates Stadium on Saturday 8th November.  Supporters of both clubs will get the chance to submit designs by visiting www.NIKEiD.com and have an influence on one of the games of the season.

Fans will be able to design football boots for Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez, Rio Ferdinand, and Arsenal’s William Gallas, Cesc Fabregas and Theo Walcott.  Fans will be able to vote for their favourite design with players picking a football boot from the top ten most voted for to wear in what is set to be one of this season’s biggest matches.

As well as designing online via NIKEiD.com, fans can also visit the Nike Boot Room at Nike Town London to work with the NIKEiD design consultants to create their pair.