Graeme Le Saux scored one goal for England – but what a goal it was, a swerving half-volley against Brazil in the 1995 Umbro Cup.
He had number 3 on his back that day but often wore a Brazilesque number 6 for England when playing left wing-back in a 3-5-2. It wasn’t unfamiliar for him, having been allocated the shirt for Blackburn Rovers when the Premier League introduced squad numbers in 1993.
Quite why the Jersey native ended up with 6 is still something of a mystery. He had joined from Chelsea during the spring of 1993 and wore 3 in all of his appearances as he replaced the injured-dogged Alan Wright.
When the Blackburn list for 1993-94 was published, Wright was given 3 – presumably due to longevity – but one might have expected 6 to go to club captain Kevin Moran, who had worn that in his 43 starts across all competitions in 1992-93.
Instead, the Dubliner was number 21 for his final year of professional football, which ended with him going to a second World Cup with the Republic of Ireland.
Otherwise, the Blackburn numbers were quite straightforward, though the departure of Gordon Cowans – he went back to Aston Villa – helped to solve another potential issue.
With Alan Shearer suffering a cruciate ligament injury during 1992-93, Blackburn signed Kevin Gallacher from Coventry City and he scored four goals in nine appearances, wearing 9 each time. Obviously, that was always going to go to Shearer but Gallacher was given 8, which he had sometimes worn for Coventry.
1992-93 final game
1992-93 final game, 1993-94 squad numbers
1993-94 opening game
The squad at the beginning of the season featured 22 players with signings during the season – David Batty, Paul Warhurst, Ian Pearce and goalkeeper Tim Flowers – taking the next four numbers and playing roles of varying importance as Rovers ran champions Manchester United close.
Number 16 Tony Dobson did leave early in the campaign but that shirt wasn’t filled until Chris Sutton’s record transfer from Norwich City in the summer of 1994. The other mid-season departure was Patrik Andersson, who had been assigned 17 – he would go on to help Sweden to finish third at the World Cup in the USA.
The only number changes among existing Rovers players for 1994-95 saw a triangular switch between goalkeepers to reflect the picking order – Flowers 26 to 1, Bobby Mimms 1 to 13 and Frank Talia 13 to 26.
One other thing of note with the numbers was aesthetic – after complaints around legibility in 1992-93, Rovers began 1993-94 with a white panel on the back but in September they switched to a modified version of the previous style.
The Blackburn squad in full was:
