Umbro Blog

There might have been a whole host of football going on this week – Champions League, Premier League, Football League – but it was all overshadowed by one of the most iconic moments you can get in football – those occasions when an outfield player has to go in nets. Robbie Savage was the lucky player to take the reins after an injury and a red card to Derby’s two goalkeepers, but he could do nothing about his team slipping to a 4-1 defeat. In honour of this very special occasion, The Mirror have chosen their top 5 best and worst moments when an outfield played has stepped between the posts, a great read that also includes some vintage footage of Bobby Moore donning the gloves back in the 1970s.

Of course, the news that should have been the biggest headline of the week was the confirmation of Chester City’s demise. It’s a sad state of affairs, and something that the rest of football should reflect on as almost every club deals with their own financial problems. As always, the intrepid TwoHundredPercent hit the nail on the head with this excellent blog on what Chester’s demise means for their fans and for football in general.

Interviews with footballers can often be quite dull, if we’re honest, full of standard questions to standard answers that offer no real insight into the character. Three exceptions to the rule appeared on the web this week: a refreshingly honest interview with Gary Neville in The Observer, in which Mr Man United spoke openly about being an ageing footballer – be warned though, the photo they’ve used could put you off your lunch. Secondly, The Guardian interviewed  Alan Shearer for their irreverent Small Talk feature – but someone should probably have warned the England legend about the type of daft questions he would be asked, as he clearly wasn’t expecting them. Those questions are nothing however, when faced with this piece of absolute internet gold. Swiftly moving from the surreal to the plain barmy, Andrey Arshavin anwers questions from fans on his own website, and acts as a mix of philosopher, agony aunt and existentialist as he’s forced to consider whether rain is, in fact, angel’s tears.

Finally this week, we spotted an interesting mention to Umbro earlier this week, when The Right Winger picked out their top team of Premier League players wearing our boots. You can check it out here, and see if you agree – personally, we were surprised that Gael Clichy didn’t make the team, especially when you look at him in these photos modelling our new Stealth boots! And surely you’ve got to have Phil Jagielka in there – after all, he can always go in nets in an emergency!

When we revealed the limited edition red Speciali boots a couple of weeks ago, a lot of you were understandably excited about them, and interested to know when they’d be available to buy. The good news is – they’re out now.

You’ll have to be quick to snap up a pair though, as there’s only 300 of these limited edition Specialis available. As you can see from these pictures, the boots come in a very special presentation box, complete with everything you’d need to keep them in tip-top shape – leather care, a boot brush and shoe horn. Head over to Pro Direct or Kitbag now to take a closer look and to grab a pair for yourself.

If red isn’t your thing, but you still fancy treating yourself to a pair of very special Specialis, there’s also some of our limited edition boots customised by artist Stuart Semple and fans around the world still available. The boots, which have been worn by Darren Bent, Deco, Michael Owen, John Terry and Gael Clichy, add a spark of individual personality to the classic Speciali look.

The latest story from our struggling five-a-siders…

This week’s match saw us pitted against “Gumtree FC”, an encounter that would surely be billed as a relegation dogfight if it were broadcast on national TV, which for the record, I think it definitely should have been.

The Juicebox’s position hasn’t changed for many weeks now, what with us holding the whole of the league up on our shoulders. Gumtree FC – who must have found their players through the website – were only three points ahead of us sat in seventh, and although their goal difference was 8 to the better, a victory would have gotten us right back in the mix.

No sooner had we kicked off than we had conceded a quick fire double, we started too slow and paid the ultimate price. 2-0 down and we’d barely even kicked off. I tried to think positive “At least its only two!”, I screamed at my teammates.

David was trying to get out of his tracksuit bottoms to be substituted on, but what for most people is quite a basic manoeuvre, he managed to make look like a challenge equal to climbing Mount Everest. He couldn’t pull them off in time and as a result remained on the bench for a while longer.

He eventually got onto the pitch around the time we managed to go 3-0 down. Catching us on the counter attack with a long-ball and using the no offside rule to their advantage, a lone striker rounded Alex to roll the ball into the net.

Finally, what had seemed like a rather lengthy first half drew to a close. A team talk was in order, and seeing as the armband rotation had fallen on Alex this week, he took it upon himself to get the team motivated, “ch-ch-ch-changes?”. He had somehow managed to combine his love for David Bowie with the idea to makes some substitutions. Genius.

It didn’t take long for the rest of the team to get into the Ziggy Stardust mood with Kilshaw making an exquisite cross-field ball perfectly reach Olly’s feet, who managed to pull out a left footed rocket, bound only for one place. The back of the net. 3-1. We were buzzing.

That buzz was to be short-lived as they struck again. 4-1 down and damn near doomed. This would not do. Again Alex came with words of wisdom. “We could be Heroes! Just for one match!” Lifted by the spirit of Bowie, we played with a bit more grit and determination, and a lot more sparkle. Then Locky scored a solo scorcher, using his silky skills to get the ball past three members of Gumtree FC, before dragging their keeper out of position and sliding the ball into the net. 4-2. Game on.

It wasn’t long before we were back on the attack, this time with Kilshaw searing up the wing. He put a cross into the mixer and Rob stormed in at the front to bundle the ball home. 4-3.

Time wasn’t on our side, in fact time was very much against us – the final whistle blew soon after. A 4-3 loss was not so bad, and if the first half hadn’t counted at all, we would have won 3-1. We were clutching at straws. Maybe next week Bowie will sing the Juicebox onto the field? Or we’ll just lose again?

Our friends over at football-shirts.co.uk have been running a great competition this season to find the most popular kits in the Premier League, and they’re asking for your input as we reach the semi-final stage. Here’s what they had to say…

“The football shirt devotees over at at football-shirts.co.uk/fans have been narrowing down the best kits of the 2009/10 season, with fans voting since August in a knock-out cup for the best kits this season.

The shock of the early round saw Blackburn narrowly knock out Liverpool’s kits, whilst Manchester United’s shirts survived a scare to come back from behind against Stoke to eliminate the Potters.

In the first round proper Burnley won the battle of the claret and blues taking out Aston Villa, whilst Tottenham won the battle of the London clubs taking out Fulham.

Two of the quarter-finals saw the Lancashire sides do the double over London clubs, with Blackburn beating Spurs and Burnley defeating Arsenal.

Umbro make 30% of the shirts worn in the Premier League this season, but interestingly have managed to take three of the four spots in the semi-finals, with the other spot taken by Burnley.

Hundreds of votes have already been cast in the two semi-finals, but there is still time for you to make a difference as to who reaches the finals of competition, voting will be open until Monday 22nd March,  and you can vote here: http://www.football-shirts.co.uk/football-kit-comp”

So, if you fancy showing your support for Man City, Blackburn or West Ham in the semi-finals? Get your votes in then!

Earlier this week, we launched our competition to win a pair of our new Stealth boots, and we’ve been overwhelmed with the response so far – we’ve had a ton of entries, so plenty of you are obviously counting your chickens. We’ve also had some interesting responses to the video and images that we’ve made to celebrate Stealth, ranging from cool to bizarre to complete what on earth is going on? We’re glad it’s got you talking anyway!

We’ve got a little more Stealth stuff for you here today. First of all, we’re sure you’ll have noticed the pictures here that feature Gael Clichy looking tremendous as he models the new boots. The Stealth boots will be worn by leading Premier League stars such as Gael Clichy, Phil Jagielka and Michael Mancienne until the end of the season, so be sure to keep a look out for them on the pitch.

In the meantime, we also thought that you’d like to check out this video, which offers a sneak peak behind the scenes of that crazy Stealth video and the photo shoot with Gael Clichy. If you fancy winning a pair of our new boots, then you’ve still got time to enter our competition – head here for details on how to enter.

The latest band we’re featuring in our Tailored In Manchester series are electro-pop trio Run Toto Run, a group that are getting some serious attention on the back of the couple of singles they’ve put out so far. In their short time together, Run Toto Run have already been played on every radio station you can think of, and were the toast of the music blogs for their inspired cover of Passion Pit’s ‘Sleepyhead’. It’s fair to say then that they’re one of our top tips for 2010. In the video above you can check out our interview with them, interspersed with clips from their latest mind-bending video for their single Catch Your Breath. They’ve certainly got vivid imaginations…

If you want to hear more from Run Toto Run, check out Umbro.com or the band’s own website. We’ve also got a whole set of pictures from the band’s visit to Dale Street over on Flickr for you to check out.

On Friday, we revealed our new Stealth boots for the first time, and now here’s your chance to win a pair! We’re giving away 5 pairs of Umbro Stealth boots, which have been designed for the smarter, craftier player on the pitch. With that in mind, you need to be at your smartest if you want to be in with a chance of winning them. To enter the competition, you need to watch the video above, and then answer this question:

How many chickens can you see in the video?

Both real chickens and chicken heads need to be counted. To make it a little easier for you, we’re giving you a number of answers that you can choose from. Simply pick which of the following answers you think is right, and email us your choice on blog@umbro.co.uk.

Is the answer…

a) 43

b) 45

c) 47

d) 49

We’ll then pick five winners at random from the correct entries, and they’ll be the lucky winners of a pair of Stealth boots. If you’re lucky enough to win, you’ll be able to pick from the white and red or red and blue colourways. The competition is open from today until 5pm on Friday, March 19th, and the only way of entering is by emailing blog@umbro.co.uk.

If you want to increase your chances of winning, then head over to Club Website, where there’s another competition underway to win some Stealth boots.

Good luck, and get counting!

Here’s the new boot from Umbro: Stealth. It’s designed for the smarter player, one who knows what to do on the pitch: how to hunt down the opposition, evade tackles and leave other players cowering in their wake. It presents a simple question to a footballer – are you a fox or a chicken?

If you think you’re a fox, here’s what Stealth can offer you. Created with speed, power and comfort in mind, the new Stealth boot is designed for players who take the lead on the pitch. A streamlined last and two lateral studs in the middle of the boot offer increased speed, while the carbon fibre shank and heel counter provide the power you need. Combined with cushioned insoles offering comfort, Stealth has all the assets that a player will need to outfox the opposition.

So you’ve heard all about the Stealth, but what does it look like? Take a closer look…

Stealth will be available to buy in the above colours from April 1st – if you want to find out more, take a look at umbro.com. To accompany the launch of the new boots, we’ve created some pretty cool ads and this pretty bonkers film, all inspired by the question Are You A Fox Or A Chicken? We hope you like it…

A week of international friendlies wouldn’t normally be the most exciting seven days in football, but with only 100 days left to the World Cup, and with plenty of questions still remaining about what players will be travelling to South Africa this summer, there was plenty of intrigue in this week’s action. A blog dedicated to this summer’s tournament, Kwaitoball take a look at all of this week’s friendlies in this brief but succint post. Not so sure about the idea that Wes Brown had a bad game though!

Of course, any thoughts on this summer’s action will also be considering a World Cup song for England. Here at Umbro, we’ll probably be looking at this nearer the time, but Football & Music have entered the fray with a competition to find their favourite. They’re going to be posting potential England anthems on their site on a regular basis, with the audience invited to vote for their favourite to progress to a later round. You can check out the first two candidates – ‘God Save The Team’ and ‘From England With Love’ – on the site now.

One story that was a little overshadowed by the friendlies and other stories this week was the untimely passing of Macclesfield manager Keith Alexander. When Saturday Comes, always a publication that sees the real sport underneath all the soap opera-style nonsense, offered a typically insightful obituary on a man who was tremendously well-respected throughout football. You can read it here.

As the BBC’s man of the lower leagues, Paul Fletcher can always be relied on to provide some insight into life outside the Premier League, and his latest look at League One is an interesting one. Here, he takes a closer look at the teams pushing for promotion, with a focus on in-form Southampton as they push for a play-off place. Having started the season with a 10 point penalty, it would be amazing if Southampton started next season in the same league as their old rivals Portsmouth.

Finally this week, we return to the World Cup, or rather using the fact that it’s now less than 100 days away as an excuse to ramp up the excitement. Who Ate All The Pies are using the occasion to showcase 100 fantastic pictures from past tournaments. You can check out Parts 1 and 2 here, and keep your eyes peeled for later instalments.

Following the success of the Tailored kits for England, Ireland, Manchester City and a number of teams in South America, we’re very excited to reveal the new Umbro kits that we’ve designed for the Swedish national team. Of course, you might have already seen the kit – the Sweden team wore it for the first time during their friendly against Wales on Wednesday, and ran out 1-0 winners. Obviously the kit played a key part in inspiring the players on the night!

One of Sweden’s longest serving players, Anders Svensson, is certainly impressed by the Tailored approach. Asked about the new kits, he said: “One might think that every match kit is the same, but the fact is that you quickly feel the enhancements here as soon as you start playing. I personally think that the new kit is quite neat. It’s a classic design.”

High praise indeed. It wasn’t just the Home kit that was unveiled this week – Sweden’s beautiful blue Away kit was also shown for the first time. As you can see here, it’s difficult to decide whether the Home or Away is better!

If you want to see more of the new Sweden kits, including the new Anthem jacket that will accompany them, check out our Flickr stream.