Tim Howard reveals he turned up to sign for Man United in the colours of their hated rivals Man CITY

Tim Howard has hilariously revealed how he went to a meeting to sign for Manchester United - in the kit of bitter local rivals Manchester City.

The American goalkeeper joined the English giants from MLS side MetroStars in a shock move back in 2003.

And Howard, speaking on former United team-mate Ben Foster's 'Fozcast' podcast on YouTube, opened up on the circumstances of his arrival - admitting he accidentally wore light blue - and risking the ire of fiery manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

He said: 'This is how young and dumb and innocent I was. I'm playing for the MetroStars, I'm in Boston, we're playing the [New England] Revolution and I know that's my last game and in the days to come I'm going to travel to Manchester to sign.

'So I thought: 'right, I'm going to go to [department store] Macy's and get myself a nice shirt and tie combination to go with this big baggy suit that I have, it's going to be great'.

'So I get this nice light blue shirt, and a tie with beautiful diagonal navy blue, white and light blue stripes, and I've thought 'nailed it'.

The incident obviously did not rile Ferguson up too much because Howard started that season as first choice between the sticks, replacing Fabien Barthez as No 1.

The 121-cap international later lost his place but ended up making 77 appearances in all competitions for the Red Devils before enjoying a long career at Everton.