Sir Elton John has said he is “so proud” of Watford FC as the football club released a new kit marking 50 years since he became its chairman.

The blue shirts and silver shorts will be worn by the Championship team for the first time in their home game against Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.

Watford, who are nicknamed the Hornets, have worn yellow home shirts since 1959.

The choice of blue is inspired by the colour Watford wore during the singer’s early days as a supporter.

Speaking in a launch video for the kit, the 78-year-old musician said: “My passion for this club has never died, and I’m so proud of this club, ever since I was five years old when we played in blue and there were two rickety old stands.

“What can I say? It’s in my heart and my soul, you can’t get rid of it. The supporters of this club have always been in my heart.”

The shirt is inspired by the artwork for his Diamonds hits compilation, and features his E logo, an embossed print of the lyrics of his hit track Your Song, and the Happy Hornet badge, which was the club logo when Sir Elton became chairman in 1976.

Complementing the shirt are silver shorts with E taping running down both sides. The silver WFC crest features on the shorts.

Sir Elton remains honorary life president at the club, having left his second stint as chairman in 2002, with Watford crediting the star with changing “the trajectory and future of the club forever”.

During his time as chairman, the club rose from the fourth division to second place in the top flight in the late 1970s and early 1980s, playing European football and reaching an FA Cup final.

Watford are currently managed by Paulo Pezzolano. The team are 14th in the Championship table, having won just one of their first five league matches.

Sir Elton has enjoyed 10 UK number one albums and 10 UK number one singles during his career.

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He is best known for songs such as Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Candle In The Wind.

The shirts will be in a special edition gift box, and will be available in the club’s shops and online from 9am on Friday. Fans can pre-order now.

There is sincere regret in the words of Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker when he mentions what life in baseball has cost him. His son Troy, now a hitting coach for the Houston Astros, played baseball growing up, and Snitker recalls seeing only three innings of Troy’s high school career, due to the natural scheduling conflict for someone working in Major League Baseball.

Snitker will turn 70 next month, and, by all accounts, it’s his call as to whether he will return as Atlanta’s skipper next season. While he told ESPN, prior to this past “Sunday Night Baseball,” that he hasn’t made a decision on that yet, he mentioned spending time with his grandkids and places where he’d like to travel. Friends of Snitker in the game believe that this will be his last year as manager, after 10 years at Atlanta. If that’s the case, he’ll move into a role with the team’s front office, continuing a working relationship with the Braves that began when they signed him to a free agent contract as a player in 1977.

Snitker’s job is one of a number of managerial or general manager positions that will be watched within the industry as the 2025 regular season comes to a close and teams begin to prepare for 2026.

Below are all the teams that could see changes at the top — from clubs who have execs or managers nearing the ends of their careers to those whose performances this season have led to questions — as well as some potential candidates who could step in to fill those positions.

Managers

Atlanta Braves
Current manager: Snitker

If Snitker steps down, the Braves job will be highly coveted, despite the incredibly disappointing 2025 showing, due to the core talent — Ronald Acuna Jr., Matt Olson, Chris Sale, dynamic rookie pitcher Hurston Waldrep, etc. — and the long-standing stability of the franchise. Alex Anthopoulos, the head of baseball operations, is under contract through 2031.

Some of the names that rival execs speculated could step into the skipper role include: Walt Weiss, currently the Braves’ bench coach; former Cubs manager David Ross and MLB Network analyst Mark DeRosa, who both have history with the organization; and Skip Schumaker, the 2022 NL Manager of the Year who is currently working in the Rangers’ front office.

Texas Rangers
Current manager: Bruce Bochy

When Schumaker was hired by Texas in the winter, there was an assumption in the industry that Chris Young, the Rangers’ head of baseball operations, was setting up a plan of succession for whenever Bochy stepped down as manager. This belief was reinforced when Luis Urueta, the bench coach for Schumaker with the Marlins in 2024, was hired by the Rangers.

To date, however, there have been no conversations with the Rangers’ organization about Bochy’s intentions for 2026, according to sources, and with Texas making a late push for a playoff spot, that discussion is likely to be deferred. It’s possible that Bochy’s situation is identical to that of Snitker — in the end, it could be his call on whether to return. Bochy has told friends he feels good and likes what he does, and he has enjoyed having his grandchildren at Rangers games. Like Snitker, he will be 70 at year’s end.

Whenever Bochy decides to retire, he will be quickly inducted into the Hall of Fame. His teams have won four championships with him as manager, and he ranks sixth all time in career victories, less than 100 wins away from passing Joe Torre.

Minnesota Twins
Current manager: Rocco Baldelli

Baldelli just had his 2026 option picked up in June, timing that might suggest he’s safe for next season, as Twins ownership could simply plow ahead with him at the helm. But a lot has changed with the Twins since that decision was made: The team unloaded veterans and salary at the trade deadline, angering fans.

Baldelli is concluding his seventh year with the team and could face the same reality that every manager does: If an organization wants to signal change — and the Twins might want to do that after a messy 2025 season — one of the cheapest ways to do that is to fire the manager. Sometime in the next few weeks, Minnesota’s ownership will make that choice.

If the Twins do switch managers, then Derek Shelton — a former Twins coach who was the Pirates’ skipper before he was fired earlier this season — could be among those considered, along with former Twins hitting coach James Rowson (now with the Yankees) and others.

Los Angeles Angels
Current manager: Ron Washington (on medical leave)

Washington stepped away from the Angels to have quadruple bypass surgery before the All-Star break, and in theory, he could return to manage the team next year. In the end, owner Arte Moreno, who is not inclined to defer to his general manager on the biggest decisions, will determine whether the 73-year-old Washington returns to his position. Ray Montgomery has filled in as manager since Washington went on medical leave, and the Angels have continued to improve. They have already won more games so far this season than they did in all of 2024, when they finished 63-99.

But Moreno’s history of hiring managers suggests that if he doesn’t pick Washington, he’ll want a bigger name. “He might be more apt to pick [former Angels manager] Mike Scioscia than some unknown,” said one rival evaluator.

Albert Pujols is a big name, but his tenure with the Angels didn’t end well. Would Moreno look past that if he needs a new manager? We’ll see.

Arizona Diamondbacks
Current manager: Torey Lovullo

It seems almost silly to include Lovullo on this list, given the devastating injuries incurred by the D-backs’ pitching staff this year and the fact that they played in the World Series just two years ago. But Arizona owner Ken Kendrick is known to be a challenging boss, someone who demands answers from those who work for him, leaving the door open for change.

However, Lovullo is very close with head of baseball operations Mike Hazen — to the degree that if you ranked the symbiosis of GMs and their managers among the 30 teams, a rival exec agreed that Hazen and Lovullo would be No. 1. Presumably, the desire for a change at manager would have to come from Kendrick.

Philadelphia Phillies
Current manager: Rob Thomson

Phillies owner John Middleton has spent heavily to help build a great team — as he once mused, he knows the fans don’t care about his bottom line — and he will push for change when he sees a need. Thomson, under contract through 2026, is nearing the conclusion of his fourth year as the Phillies’ manager. While the team has a .577 winning percentage in regular-season games under Thomson and reached the World Series in 2022, it has been knocked out of the playoffs the past two years, including an incredibly disappointing loss to the D-backs in the 2023 National League Championship Series.

The Phillies have an older group of players, and if they fall short again, could Middleton look for a change? That’s always his prerogative. Prior to the 2022 season, Thomson intended to retire at that year’s end — but then Joe Girardi was fired and Thomson was asked to step in. He knows how this works.

If president of baseball operations David Dombrowski looks for another manager, it’s worth remembering that he hired Brad Ausmus in Detroit and, by all accounts, had a strong working relationship with him. Ausmus is the bench coach with the Yankees now.

San Francisco Giants
Current manager: Bob Melvin

Melvin is working under head of baseball operations Buster Posey for the first time this year, and when the team collapsed before the trade deadline, rival officials wondered if San Francisco was on a trajectory toward change. But the Giants have surged, putting themselves back into the race and perhaps quelling that possibility. Next year is the last on the deal that Melvin signed in 2023.

Baltimore Orioles
Current manager: Tony Mansolino (interim)

On the first day he was introduced as the replacement for Brandon Hyde, who was fired on May 17, Mansolino made it clear that he was on the job in an interim capacity. But following a disastrous start and a desperate organizational need for pitching, the Orioles have played over .500 under Mansolino, and he has strong support among some current players.

It’s unclear whether that sentiment will be decisive as general manager Mike Elias picks the next manager. On a related note: What is clear is that Hall of Famer and Baltimore legend Cal Ripken Jr. is happy in his current life and not interested in the O’s managerial job, according to sources.

St. Louis Cardinals
Current manager: Oliver Marmol

Any change at general manager makes for a climate of change, and Marmol has one year left on his contract at a time when Chaim Bloom is about to take over the Cardinals’ front office. But the team has played better than expected this year, and Marmol has had regular communication with Bloom. Given Bloom’s deliberate style and the fact that the Cardinals are not expected to spend aggressively this winter, some rival executives believe Bloom will want to work in concert with Marmol before making a decision for 2027 and beyond.

Front office executives

Washington Nationals
Current GM: Mike DeBartolo (interim)

Washington fired general manager Mike Rizzo just before the All-Star break, with DeBartolo serving as the interim GM since then.

Nationals ownership has started the process of talking to candidates to find a replacement — Guardians assistant GM Matt Forman, Cubs GM Carter Hawkins and Diamondbacks assistant GM Amiel Sawdaye are among those being considered. DeBartolo could be in play, but the fact that the Nationals’ leadership is talking to others outside the organization suggests the team is prepared to hire someone else.

Mark Lerner is the most prominent member of the Nationals’ ownership group, but a large group will collaborate on this decision. The expectation is that the new head of baseball operations will lead the search for the next manager. (Bench coach Miguel Cairo was named interim manager after Dave Martinez was fired alongside Rizzo in July.)

Colorado Rockies
Current head of baseball operations: Bill Schmidt

This might well be Schmidt’s last season leading the baseball operations department for Colorado, according to sources, and rival executives expect that the Rockies, who have been largely disinclined in the past to hire staffers from outside the organization, will be more open to doing that than they have been in the past. Thad Levine, who worked for the Rockies two decades ago before moving on to assistant GM and GM jobs with the Rangers and Twins, respectively, is often mentioned as a possibility.

Toronto Blue Jays
Current president: Mark Shapiro

This is the last year of Shapiro’s deal, and the Jays have had a summer of successes: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. signed an extension; the Jays surged into first place in the American League East; and more fans turned out to enjoy the renovations to Rogers Centre that Shapiro oversaw. An announcement that Shapiro has signed an extension is expected at some point. If Rogers Communications, the sole owner of the Blue Jays, holds to form, that might not happen until the offseason.

Athletics
Current GM: David Forst

No team has had a stranger road in recent decades than the A’s, who left the city of Oakland after last season to play in a minor league park to buy time for a new home to be constructed in Las Vegas. And throughout that process, owner John Fisher has been heavily criticized.

Along the way, Forst — one of the team’s figures of stability and a protégé of Billy Beane — has constructed a roster deep in young position player talent. But his future with the organization is unsettled, with more conversations to come.

Seattle Mariners
Current head of baseball operations: Jerry Dipoto

Seattle is fighting for a playoff spot, and following the trade deadline acquisitions of Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor, Mariners fans will be incredibly disappointed if their team doesn’t reach the postseason. But Dipoto has built a consistent contender in recent years with a strong farm system, and he seems to have a very functional relationship with Seattle ownership. It would be a surprise if there were changes at the top of the Mariners’ hierarchy even if they fail to reach the postseason.

Pittsburgh Pirates
Current GM: Ben Cherington

Manager Don Kelly, a Pennsylvania native, is well-liked and well-respected, and his stock is rising after taking over in early May following the firing of Shelton. Cherington, who oversees Pittsburgh’s operations, has drawn fan scrutiny, on the other hand. But as one rival official said: “When is the owner [Bob Nutting] going to spend more money? He’s probably too cheap to fire Ben, if he wanted to make a change.”