With only eight days to the first pre-season friendly the rumour-mill is hotting up. Fresh from the pages of the Middlesbrough Evening Gazette comes a story linking United with midfielder Neil Maddison. Maddison has played for Southampton and Middlesbrough, as well as his current club, Darlington and is 33 years old. At only 5’10”, though, he might be considered too short for the Atkins diet.

A random posting on the message board of the Oxford City web site reckons that former United ‘keeper Phil “God” Whitehead was sighted training with their squad on their first day back for pre-season. It might just be that the out-of-contract ‘keeper is keeping fit with the City boys, or maybe we could see him in action on Tuesday week?