Looking at the finest football things happening on the web at the moment, it’s hard to ignore the pun-tastic action over on Twitter (started by us, but if you can’t brag on your own blog, where can you do it?) Yesterday it was Musical Footballers, today it’s Food Footballers, and the picture above reveals our exclusive starting eleven. Who would come out on top in a match between the Music and Food teams? Keep your suggestions coming…

All this was started by the news that Dion Dublin had invented his own musical instrument, The Dube. We hadn’t seen it at this point, but thanks to Two Footed Tackle, we’ve now unearthed footage of The Dube: prepare to be underwhelmed.

Elsewhere, there’s been plenty of other stuff going on around the web this week. Robinho’s ‘will he, won’t he, of course he will’ move away from Manchester City has dominated the breaking news ticker on TV, and once the move was confirmed one particular fan must’ve felt more upset than any other. As Off The Post report, not only does this unlucky chap already have a useless Kaka tattoo, he now has an also worthless Robinho one. Hopefully he’ll wait a bit longer before his next visit to the tattoo parlour.

In more serious news recently, it was nice to see John Hartson working as a pundit on TV given his horrific recent health issues. This interview he’s done with The Guardian is a tremendous read, but be warned, it’s not for the faint-hearted. Going into unflinching detail regarding his cancer, you’d have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by his experiences.

If you’re after something a bit more light-hearted, then Kickette is always a good bet. As we’ve warned previously, it’s often full of half-naked footballers, but this is something Safe For Men. Two of Arsenal’s finest, wearing blankets on the bench like Scouts on their first camp, it’s an easy laugh, but a good ‘un.

Finally, this weekend there’s a big event happening in the world of football – but no one is really sure where it’s happening. As the BBC report, the Arsenal vs Man United match will be the first shown in 3D here in the UK, but the exact pubs where it’s being shown are being kept under wraps for fear of over-crowding. If anyone finds one of the pubs and goes along for the occasion, let us know how it goes. We’ve got one concern though – after a couple of pints, do we really need anything else to confuse our vision?

We’ll often talk about silly football-related things to pass the time here at Umbro House, but usual they don’t go as far as this. Today’s chat about Dion Dublin launching a musical instrument morphed into a challenge to find the best puns involving footballers and music, which expanded even further thanks to the joys of Twitter. So much so, that we felt the need to compile a team out of the best ideas, a squad that we think would be a match for anyone. So what do you think? Which are your favourites? We still want to hear any more musical footballers if you come up with them – we’re certainly going to be racking our brains for suggestions. Thanks in particular to Michael Ward, N Oram and the always excellent Kai Wayne for their contributions!

In a second look at some bright young talents this week, Umbro’s Player Recruitment Executive James Beaumont highlights someone who managed to even put Arsenal’s young guns in the shade.

‘With the Arsenal Academy being like a conveybelt of multi million pound investment bonds waiting in the wings to mature, the young Gunners attract a vast array of attention, and the FA Youth Cup clash against  Ipswich earlier this week was no exception.

The venue was Barnet’s Underhill Stadium, an uninspiring ground that has a gradient steeper than an Olympic ski slope. It’s not exactly what you would expect for the breeding ground of future world stars. But, if you can play on a League Two bog, I suppose you can play on anything – isn’t that the motto Arsene?

Despite the history of Arsenal, and the fact they won the competition last term, Ipswich ran out two nil winners. Connor Wickham, a powerful yet technical centre forward who is contracted to Umbro, caused havok all night long. Those in attendance got a treat in seeing a future Premiership star – and it didn’t take a genius to work out who the scouts and agents had come to see.

Young Connor has already scored for the first team despite being only 16, but you could see why he has forced his way into the thoughts of Roy Keane. He is an obvious threat in the air, but it was his touch, awareness and technique that really stood out. The England youth international slotted home Ipswich’s second goal after 15 minutes – which proved to be enough to knock out the holders.

It was a great night for Connor and his team mates, and yet another impressive display from a young gun at Umbro!’

When it’s a ball of sellotape. Or newspapers. Or a giant sponge masquerading as a piece of sports equipment. We’ve been reminising about the lengths we used to go to on the school playground after being inspired by two blogs in a matter of days. First of all, we spotted the picture above, which featured on the Design Revolutions Roadshow website. It’s a really smart piece of design from Marti Guixe, which reminded us here at Umbro of our youthful days when real footballs were banned from the playground. To compensate, one schoolboy was tasked with crafting a makeshift ball out of newspapers and tape the night before, which was promptly kicked into pieces the next day by a hoard of marauding lads aiming to be the next Gazza or Lineker (there’s a clue to how long ago this was!). This ace bit of design uses a similar concept, but is much smarter – and would be perfect for an office based kickabout!

On a more serious note, we also spotted the design above on the PSFK site, another place for spotting innovative new design. They highlighted this concept from South Korean designers Unplug Design, which allows relief packages sent into impoverished areas of the world to be reshaped into footballs. You might think that playing sport would be the last thing on people’s minds when faced with poverty or disaster, but a game of football can offer an escape from day to day troubles. Children in these areas often use plastic bags, stones or bits of plants in place of a ball, but this design would offer them something a little more durable, whilst also helping to provide the aid they need. It’s a really neat idea.

Both these ideas have certainly got us thinking about the lengths we’ve gone to for a kickabout, but we want to hear from you – what unusual objects have you converted into a makeshift football?