If you’re an Ajax supporter, you’ll be interested to see what the new Ajax home jersey looks like for the upcoming 2010-11 season.

The new Ajax home jersey, designed and manufactured by Adidas, features the familiar red and white shirt with the red stripe going down the middle of the famous Dutch club’s jersey. The shirt also features the traditional Adidas stripes going down the sleeve.

What are your thoughts about Ajax’s new home jersey for the 2010-11 season? Click the comments link below to share your opinion.

Real Madrid CF have announced a pre-transfer window agreement with Ajax for striker Klaas Jan Huntelaar. The move is intended to cover the long-term injury of Ruud van Nistelrooy, who has undergone surgery as I reported earlier. The Spanish champions have been chasing Huntelaar for the past two seasons and are pleased to have finally worked out a deal (that could rise to 27million euros) with Ajax for the 25-year-old.Huntelaar will become the sixth Dutch player at Madrid, along with Van Nistelrooy, Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder, Rafael van der Vaart and Royston Drenthe. I think this is a fantastic move for Real Madrid as both of their main strikers Raul and RVN are over 30 and they have used Saviola only sparingly since signing him from Barcelona. Madrid have been struggling in La Liga, at least by their high standards. They are currently in fourth place after a 3-1 defeat to Getafe at the weekend, and have also struggled in the Champions League. They lost home and away to Juventus and had narrow wins over BATE and Zenit.

The hope is that Huntelaar’s arrival in January will provide a spark to the club and that he will be able to keep up his phenomenal strike rate. Huntelaar burst onto the scene with SC Heerenveen scoring 34 goals in 46 games. Since moving to Ajax, he has totalled 79 goals in 97 games. He also scored 18 goals in 22 games for the Dutch U-21 side before moving to the senior team where he has collected another 10 goals in 18 appearances.

ESPN’s Dominic Raynor has written an article outlining what he feels are the reasons behind the move.

I had a great conversation with Jonathan Starling of the Third Half podcast last week. We discussed the upcoming UEFA Cup group stage, UEFA’s stance on debt-laden clubs, the situation at Ajax and many other topics.

I’ve posted the Champions League Talk segment of the show here as a separate podcast file but if you’d like to hear the full show (which has segments with writers from Bundesliga Talk, La Liga Talk and Major League Soccer Talk), please download it from EPL Talk podcast distribution site or subscribe to the EPL Talk podcast feed via iTunes.

UEFA held the draw for the UEFA Cup group stage today and some fascinating pairings emerged. Both Martin Jol and Steve McClaren will take their new clubs back to England as FC Twente will face Manchester City and Jol’s Hamburg will take on Aston Villa.

This year’s groups are looking really tough and the field contains eight former UEFA Cup winners, and six former European Champion Clubs’ Cup/UEFA Champions League winners.

The top three teams in each group qualify for the knockout stages, to be joined by the eight third-placed teams in the Champions League groups. Here are the groupings with my picks to advance. A couple of potential upsets are on the cards. I think Ajax might not make the Round of 32 with their form being so inconsistent. They’ve been drawn in with some very good teams and it’s going to be tight to see who goes on.

Potential for upset exists in Groups B and E as well where Olympiakos and Portsmouth might struggle. Portsmouth have had a poor start to the season and are looking shaky at the back. Olympiacos are simply in a tough group and may struggle to beat out Hertha Berlin, Benfica and Galatasaray (a team featuring ex-Liverpool attackers Harry Kewell and Milan Baros).

I’ve picked Rosenborg to advance as they are nearing the end of their season and should be in good form/shape and as they are not likely to win their domestic league, they will look to these games to give their season some positivity.

Group A:
Schalke 04 (Germany)
Paris St Germain (France)
Manchester City (England)
Racing Santander (Spain)
FC Twente (Netherlands)

Group B:
Benfica (Portugal)
Hertha Berlin (Germany)
Galatasaray (Turkey)
Olympiacos (Greece)
Metalist Kharkiv (Ukraine)

Group C:
Sevilla (Spain)
VfB Stuttgart (Germany)
Sampdoria (Italy)
Standard Liège (Belgium)
Partizan Belgrade (Serbia)

Group D:
Spartak Moscow (Russia)
Udinese (Italy)
Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia)
Tottenham Hotspur (England)
NEC Nijmegen (Netherlands)

Group E:
AC Milan (Italy)
SC Braga (Portugal)
Wolfsburg (Germany)
Heerenveen (Netherlands)
Portsmouth (England)

Group F:
Hamburg (Germany)
Aston Villa (England)
Slavia Prague (Czech Republic)
Ajax (Netherlands)
MSK Zilina (Slovakia)

Group G:
Valencia (Spain)
FC Copenhagen (Denmark)
Rosenborg (Norway)
Club Brugge (Belgium)
St Etienne (France)

Group H:
CSKA Moscow (Russia)
Deportivo La Coruna (Spain)
Feyenoord (Netherlands)
AS Nancy (France)
Lech Poznan (Poland)