Curse of the good numbers
Jari Litmanen won’t be playing for us then.
What is it about the players in ‘premium’ numbers?
Our 1 to 11:
Keller - Volz - Bocanegra - Konchesky - Christanval - Stefanovic - Seol - Smertin - Healy - Litmanen - Kamara
Not great is it? I’m a purist and want the best players in the best numbers. Our numbers are all messed up.
McBride had the 8 shirt until his preferred number 20 became available. I’m with you though, i like to see the best players in the “premium” numbers.
Am inclined to agree - what the hell business does Gallas have wearing number 10 for the gooners?! Having said that, the first real memory I have of squad numbers is Italia 90 when Platty and Gazza both had irregular numbers, and so there is a certain fondess. I’m beginning to suspect Italia 90 was either a dream or a figment of my youthful imagination on current evidence.
A strong Fulham team:
29-17-18-32-4-25-21-26-23-14-20
!
Dempsey has used the moniker “Deuce” previously, I think from his rappin’ days. Anyways, because of it he was going around for a while in the number 2 shirt for the USA. Just like a fullback in the 10, an attacker (for the lack of a defined position) in the 2 shirt just seemed wrong.
Rich-
Do you think that this is typical red top sludge, or do you think this is legitimate. From everything we’ve seen of RH, I can’t see him blowing his mouth off to the media about this, even though it may be true and he may be frustrated.
After going back and reading again, it does have quotes, doesn’t it. Hmmmm?
I don’t know. It seems reasonable, and as you say, has quotes. There’s a video preview on the official now, is it on that? I’ll go and listen!
I was actually wondering if Dempsey was wearing 11 for the USMNT the other day as a kind of different take on his Deuce nickname
about the numbers … was a time when the numbers meant what position you played. That pretty much changed when Bobby Charlton kept the #9 even though he wasn’t a centre-forward in the old 4-3-3. In the 60s and 70s, most strike pairs generally wore either the 8 and 9 or the 9 and 10. The exception being Wolves who had a brilliant striker who preferred the #4 shirt. Sorry Midlands, I’ve forgotten his name — past 60 you know.
The #10 shirt is only hallowed [i.e. in many countries your best and most creative player] because Pele wore it. This trend continued in South America and spread. In the USA squad, the shirt went from Tab Ramos to Claudio Reyna to Landon Donovan. Now you regularly hear, “he’s not really a striker; he’s more of a #10.”
When substitutes came in, the ONE sub always wore the #12 shirt with the players on the pitch wearing 2-11. I honestly can’t remember a goalkeeper with a number on his shirt in the 60’s when I caught the fitba disease.
The first time I ever heard of a player with a number outside 12 was when Johan Cruyff wore #14. I was overjoyed because I always wanted to wear #13 [which I'd always worn in baseball and basketball]. Unfortunately, by that time in my life, it was hard for me to get a game.
As near as I can figure, permanent squad numbering came about for kit marketing purposes, and with it came numbers in the 30s and above. Notable numbers? Well, the ManU #7 was pretty hallowed from Best on, but — because of cross-marketing — when Beckham went to Madrid, he chose the most famous number in the world, Michael Jordan’s 23, the same number Deuce chose when he discovered his beloved #2 was taken by Volz. [For some reason, Deuce has taken to wearing #8 with the USMNT]. This “dual branding” began, as I remember, in Houston. Nolan Ryan was traded to the Astros in the 80s and chose #34, the number worn by Earl Campbell, the star of the then Houston Oilers. They did a lot of cross-marketing work together.
History lesson terminated … for a while. Us old gits like to talk about our salad days.
Well since you mention it, Don, perhaps I should go a step further.
The original numbering was set to follow the old formations from way back when:
—————————————–1————————————————-
——————————————————————————————–
———————–2———————————–3——————————
——————————————————————————————–
—————4———————–5—————————–6——————–
———————————————————————————————-
———————–7—————————8—————————————-
———————————————————————————————
—————–9—————–10————————-11————————-
As the old W-M formation got outthought, this eventually changed to:
———————————–1———————————————————
———————————————————————————————
———2————–4——————-5———————3———————–
———————————————————————————————
——–7—————8——————6———————11———————-
———————————————————————————————
————————9——————10———————————————-
with 5,6,8 and 10 being a bit more fluid than the rest.
Now it’s carnage. As Don says, it sells shirts….
Well done gents. It’s amazing what one can learn at CCN.
He he. But the 1 to 11 was there for 60 odd years. Most of us grew up with it. So while the change was quite exciting, I really do like to see the best players in the right shirts.
Don, your number 4 up front was presumably a player who could play in defence and attack.
WMC about the #4 — I had the wrong Midlands club. A decent Indian lunch brought back the name of WBA’s Tony Brown — a great striker who wore #4.
Last bit from me about football numbers. I read this in Radio Times many years back when they celebrated the 50th anniversay of football on the wireless. To help fans keep track of where the play was on the pitch, they provided a chart of a pitch divided into squares — each with a number. The section marked #1 was the penalty area.
And, so it was the BBC announcers who, when an attack fizzled out and turned into a back pass to the goalie, coined the phrase “and it’s back to square one.”
HD, you are the man. Check this out and take a look at the downloadable pdf.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/sport/football/backtosquareone/
By the way, on Litmanen, a slightly more reliable source:
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11681_3357573,00.html