Cricbeat

Wayne Rooney’s name was requested on more replica football shirts around the world in the 2010-11 season than that of any other player in the Premier League, according to official data just released.

Torres quite probably owes his No2 position to his time at Liverpool rather than Chelsea – because Liverpool simply sell more shirts, evidenced by Stevie Gerrard at No3 and Luis Suarez at No8.

Typically United have sold between 1.2m and 1.5m shirts per year since 2005, with Liverpool next (900,000-plus in recent times, it is understood), followed by Arsenal and Chelsea.