VW's [sorry, can't help it. I occasionally drive an old Transporter] affiliation with the Celtic shirt number 67 is obviously quite poignant and sentimental to him. I wonder if the club will let him keep that number..?
This is what he said: Seems pretty confused about which countries are in East Africa. I thought we sent Jaidi out to Tunisia to set up an academy?
Well, the 67 choice was for the Lisbon Lions, so nobody's really sure if he'll keep that as a tribute to the team who gave him his big break, or if he'll update to his new team and go with 76.
Surely will be the lowest spare number. Unless they are going to do number shuffles...annoying if you've got a number on your replica shirt.
More of a winger's number, he's more likely to get 14, since they tend to add multiples of 10 if the preferred number is not available for the position.
Squad numbers aren't shown on the official site so maybe there will be quite a shake up with the ins and outs of the transfer window. I have really struggled to understand some of the Celtic fans' comments about us which has clearly shown that they really don't know what is going on in the PL and especially what is happening with us. Some fans seem to think that there is a natural order in football and that the top teams will always be top and the strugglers will always struggle. They clearly aren't aware of our Academy either. Perhaps what my mate used to say is true "No Scot with half a brain would want to live in Scotland" and that all the clever ones left years ago. There are certainly some pretty thick ones on the Celtic message boards.
I agree about 11 but people don't seem to care about that any more. I remember Milan Baros being 5 at Liverpool and 7 isn't really a striker's number but Rickie still wears it.
He wears 7 because of its significance to this club though. Mostly our players do wear conventional numbers for their positions, or the conventional number plus 10, 20 or 30. Eg: Boruc 31, Fox 13, Cork 18, Shaw 23, etc.
A proper dig, especially when he pointedly says that the player, Celtic, and Southampton all got what they wanted. Wonder who didn't?!
I've read quite a few comments of fans from other clubs since we signed Wanyama, few are actually interested in congratulating us on our buy. I've seen quite a few, not just Celtic fans, saying he has gone to a small town club or 5-a-side pub team etc. Last time we were in the Premier League we were the Wigan of that time I suppose, tiny stadium always struggling near the bottom with only a few class players. That image has clearly stuck with other sides, everyone below us in the grand order of things see themselves as we do and think we are a small town club, and everyone above us in this grand order look down on all clubs below them. The fact that we have only won the FA cup means we wont be thought of as a force to be reckoned with in football until we actually do. Look at Fulham for example, they have been in the Prem for a while now, established themselves quite well, but the only thing that they get any credit for is being a London club. I'd like to say our time will come, personally I'm not so sure, but I'm happy to be part of the top two divisions for now, hopefully producing a good cup run or the odd season in the Europa League. The top 4 just look so impenetrable right now, let alone the top 1, so I can't see the trophies flowing anytime soon. Still, i've gotta be happy with the signings we have made, and with Cortese's ambition, and one thing we certainly do have on our side is the academy. If Shaw does sign today, that will at least be some kind of statement to the other clubs, but in the long run I think we are just going to be viewed as a small town club until we win the title or become an established Champions League side, sad but true.
Don Corleone said “A friend should always underestimate your virtues and an enemy overestimate your faults” I'm happy that our opposition regard us as provincial and small. That way they will tend to come to us unprepared. Vin
Yes but I doubt we're going to be strict about it. I mean Yoshida wears 3 and he's not a left back and personally I see 13 as the sub keeper's number. I'm pretty sure the club just let the players pick from the available numbers because it's not particularly important.
Since Cortese has been here we have had a re-shuffle of numbers every season haven't we? Last year 8 was taken from Cork and given to Davis. Ramirez also had number 10 kept until we confirmed his signing, as it was Guly's the season before (I think).
Most, though not all; Puncheon wears 42, of course, and Lallana's pretty attached to 20. Take Swansea. Last year, after a rather successful first season, people we're surprised that Jonathan de Guzman would stoop to play for them...and that was just a loan. The financial changes are going to upset the balance in that regard. People are getting something of a crash course this summer; there have been a whole slew of "how are they getting him!?" signings that mostly come down to the fact that the 14 teams in the league who only grudgingly exist to some actually have cash on hand these days, and coupled with the spotlight of the Prem (and the fact that they might see the pitch more than once a month) make for fairly attractive destinations for a great many players.
If that's true it might just be that Ramirez and Davis really wanted to wear 10 and 8 (8 was Davis's number at Rangers) while Guly and Cork aren't bothered what number they wear.
