Squad numbers!
My favourite time of the year (not really)(but almost): squad numbers!
1 MARK SCHWARZER
2 MORITZ VOLZ – shame, if he’s going to Boro would’ve been nice for Stoor to have 2
3 PAUL KONCHESKY – proper left back number
4 JOHN PANTSIL – quite a coup for John, this. Good number, 4. I hope John uses it well
5 BREDE HANGELAND – excellent, as it should be. He’s a proper number 5
6 ANDRANIK – as hinted at in the past, and suggestive of an important role in the team
7 SEOL KI-HYEON – this should belong to a regular player
8 ANDY JOHNSON – okay
9 BOBBY ZAMORA – makes sense
10 ERIK NEVLAND – ten? I like Erik, but he’s not a ten. Well done him though
11 ZOLTAN GERA – about right, although harsh on Diomansy. Will get this on the back of my Ferencvaros top
12 DAVID STOCKDALE
13 DANNY MURPHY – his preferred number. A better use of ten though I’d have thought
14 EDDIE JOHNSON
15 DIOMANSY KAMARA – as noted, a bit harsh, unless he didn’t want 11 in the first place
16 ALEXEY SMERTIN – 37, to 8, now 16
17 COLLINS JOHN – dropped from 15. Weird
18 AARON HUGHES
19 PASCAL ZUBERBUHLER
20 STEVEN DAVIS – from 10 to 20
21 JIMMY BULLARD
22 FREDRIK STOOR – a double 2 I suppose. May get this on the back of my Sweden top. Probably check to see if he’s any good first though
23 CLINT DEMPSEY
25 SIMON DAVIES
26 LEON ANDREASEN
27 ADRIAN LEIJER
28 ROBERT MILSOM
29 ANTTI NIEMI
30 WAYNE BROWN
31 DAVID HEALY – oh dear, demotion from the main #9
33 TONI KALLIO
34 CHRIS BAIRD
Hmmm… Who to get on my shirt! I’m drawn to Zamora, I just have this feeling he’s going to be massive for us this season, more so than AJ. Maybe home kit with AJ and Away kit with Zamora.. It’s only money after all! I may need to get a loan to cover the cost though! :)
I suspect football clubs and managers really don’t get how important all this is to us. No doubt we read too much into it. You’re right about the number 7, and why is Smertin as high as 16.
At last! My reading-way-too-much-into-it thoughts:
* Diomansy usually wears 15 for Senegal, correct? He may have picked this.
* I’m going to guess Seol only gets 7 because Simon Davies prefers 25.
* Stockdale is on the bench, Zuberbuhler (19, first number after 11+7) is the 3rd keeper
* Maybe Volz will get a chance to compete for RB after all
Good use of 1-11, for the most part. A few guys obviously picked a favorite number (Davies, Hughes, Bullard) which allows squad players to have lower numbers. I guess thats ok.
yeah, there’s something about Kamara 15 that seems familiar, that must be it.
also, Volzy’s the longest serving player, so I guess he’s entitled to keep 2 as long as he wants it.
good to see the numbers finally released. They were protected information like the Manhattan Project. Let’s hope the name above #4 is “Paintsil” rather than “Pantsil.”
Numbers don’t always denote position as they used to. McBride, a classic #9, never wore that number for us. Dempsey, arguably a #10-type player would have requested #2 when he arrived, had Volzy not been holding it. Instead, he took the number that Beckham and Michae Jordan wore. Remember that Boca was pretty much the regular LB when CC assigned that number to him. Hmmm; Murphy’s wearing my old baseball/basketball number. Guess I have to root even harder for the Captain.
I’ll wait until September 1 to decide who’s name will be on the away jersey I buy as soon as I get a co-signer or two.
Dang, Chris Baird is still on the team?? :)
BC – only just!
13 is my lucky number and my general choice when I get a shirt for teams that I play for. Maybe I should also give Danny a bit more support this season.
40 is the number I’ve got on my new Fulham kit though. I’ll be wearing it to most games so pop over and say hi if you see me (it was a big birthday this year so you might spot the 4-0 first!).
Thanks to Mart, this from the Southend site:
http://www.southendunited.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10444~1366108,00.html
Let me enlighten you on my first day training last Friday and give you a little insight to my first few days at the Club. Parms showed me around the training ground and had all my kit laid out in neat and tidy order, he even got me a seat right next to goal machine Paul Furlong. I thought what a top man Parms seemed.
I was asked to choose a squad number and he reeled off the list of what was vacant. I said: ‘number 7 please Parms.’ I felt that seemed quite right for a winger and I had worn the number before, but he replied: “No pal Anthony Grant has taken that one”. ‘What Granty the tough tackling creative midfielder?’ “Yeah” oh OK I said, what else is left then? He went on to say anything in the twenties wouldn’t be a problem. 23 then, basketball player Michael Jordan and a hero of mine first started the with the number 23 trend and now David Beckham is pulling it off. Told that wasn’t a problem I was happy that was out of the way.
Training came to a close and back came Parms telling me that I couldn’t have 23 as our new left-back Dan Harding has taken that one. A little surprised I thought to myself that I had been custard pied on two numbers that surely I would get my third choice, number 20, it would appear not!
At this point I thought perhaps Parms wasn’t the kit man and I had taken his place in the squad or something, but nevertheless off I went to prepare for Saturday’s match.
Saturday comes round and at 1:30pm we all report for the home game against Peterborough. Not sure where to go like a school kid on his first day I looked around the changing room for where to sit when I see my name, BETSY, with 21 underneath.
I’ve only been custard three times and that nice guy Parms has given me number 21. I was in shock and waiting to here his excuse, “ah sorry Kev 20 it’s Matt Harrold’s number.” I replied with a few choice words that can’t be repeated on the web but ended with number 21 would do.
Parms does seem like a nice bloke but I will never let him live this one down. I wonder if the club had signed David Beckham he would have got his chosen number. I leave that for you to decide.
ah, as my old grandmother used to say: “Kevin to Betsy!”