Henry actually wanted the number 12 at Arsenal (it's his fave number - he has it for France and when he returned to Arsenal) It wasn't Totti, it was Del Piero. Del Piero gave his no.10 shirt up for Totti when they played together internationally. For high numbers in terms of Italian players, it might be Antonini at AC Milan, he has 77.
I think it's Italian football in general, not necessarily Italian players. Didn't Ronaldinho wear no 99 at Milan? Yet he was no. 10 at Barca. I don't think English teams would like it, they'll offer their star player number 10 or whatever and expect him to take it, not dick about with numbers in the 90s.
Ronaldo (the 'real' one) wore the 99 shirt at Milan, I think Ronaldinho wore the number 89. Italian football is full of random kit numbers. German footie has a few as well.
I like it. Hooper wore 88 at Celtic, but I doubt they'll let him at Norwich. Striker Derek Riordan wore the Number 1 shirt for Hibs a few seasons back. Somebody once wore 10+1 (think it was Blas Perez, but I'm not 100% sure) because the 11 was taken.
Edgar Davids is wearing the number 1 shirt at Barnet. I remember seeing a South American player with 100 on his back before. Don't know who though.
Probably our number 10 is going the way of being our special number, we had Geo and then Koren both having the "City's number 10" song and I can't think of another number being used in it on a regular basis. It could be the Cruyff thing, but it could just be more to do with when there were 3 subs. You'd have your defender (12), your keeper (13), and that would leave your 14 for the attacking minded option. Then when you got to 5 subs you'd try and go with 2 strikers at 15 and 16 so the 14 would still be your midfielder, and probably attacking as it would be someone to change the game. I guess the thinking would be that you can always stick a defender into the defensive midfield position or switch from 442 to 532 by slotting them on if you wanted to tighten things up. That would just lead to it being associated with that kind of player once squad numbers came along. Having Fryatt at 12 for example just seems completely wrong for me. Somebody at Inter used to wear the 1+8 shirt because the number 9 was taken. We're probably talking about back in the 90s when it was on Channel 4 on a Sunday.
Interesting. Ecuador, I think, just retired their number 11 shirt in honour of Benitez. Seems that will be a no go then. For the record, I think retiring shirt numbers is gay .
Maybe we could go through the main numbers and see which number has the most notable players, for example; No.1: Myhill, Bly, Norman (are there any other notable ones?) No.2: ? ...and so on.
Going back as far as 07/08 (using the lists on wikipedia) 1 - Myhill 2 - 3 - Dawson 4 - Ashbee 5 - Walton 6 - Turner 7 - Elliott, 8 - Barmby 9 - Windass 10 - Koren, Geo 11 - You could say it's harsh on Chester and Rosenior given the roles they've played, but I am being harsh.
I don't recall 'keepers being on the subs bench when there was only 3 subs, that's why they always stuck a random player in goal when they got injured. Walton was the best number 5 you could find? Surely Chester would be better? Also Stephen Hunt at 11, I always think of 7 as the right winger & 11 as the left winger.
agree and I hate that .. to have such a elegant player be taken over by a half injured thug ... just wrong
I never really paid attention when I was younger, and certainly not to the opposition benches. I just know I was going when we only had 3 subs, and my earliest memory with regards keepers is us always bringing Wilson on because Bracey had got sent off again. Maybe we didn't used to name them, but it seems odd if it wasn't that common that 13 always used to be the squad number of the 2nd choice keeper if there'd been no pre-squad number precedent. Walton is in there for OLM's benefit, and I wouldn't put Hunt in on the back of half a season. I know Geo is largely there for half a season plus the odd game later, but he was much more closely associated with the number than Hunt was with 11. I exercised a "if I asked 100 fans what number x wore, how many would give me the same answer?" policy. As an example, didn't Koren also have the 7 shirt when he first joined, but how many would say that rather than 10? And surely Myhill wasn't the number 1 when he first joined us? (although Turner is in as the player/status)
