As those who follow us on social media will have noticed, we like to draw links between dates and squad-number occurrences.
It’s always a bonus when the year can be worked in but, by and large, it’s a case of using the day and month to represent a change made by a particular player.
Given that 10 is a number towards which attacking players gravitate, October is busy from this point of view and 5 holds a similar kind of appeal for defensive players, so May offers a lot of potential for articles. For instance, Raphaël Varane at Real Madrid moved from 2 to 5, Abelardo Fernández at Barcelona swapped 3 for 5, Darren Peacock (Newcastle United), Michael Keane (Everton) and Benoît Badiashile (Chelsea) all switched from 4 to 5.
There was a brief period where the Manchester United number 6 shifting to 5 was an annual occurrence and of course Alessandro Costacurta at Milan provided a rare instance of a player moving from 11 to 5.
Today is the seventh of May, or 7-5. While two number 5s at the 1994 World Cup, Paolo Maldini of Italy and Paul McGrath of the Republic of Ireland, there were unique circumstances around both cases; one would think that an example would be hard to find at club level. But, of course, there is one – you hardly need to be told that it’s as a result of an unusual story.
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Take a look at the at Blackburn Rovers teams on the left – the last day of the 2003-04 season against Birmingham City and the 2004-05 opener at home to West Bromwich Albion.
If you can discern the red digits against the blue and white halves (the last Kappa kit and the first Lonsdale one, respectively) and ignore for now the odd formation in the second image, we’d wager that one doesn’t look all that ‘tidier’ than the other in terms of squad numbers. However, it was a summer of a quite a bit of upheaval in terms of who was allocated what.
Manager Graeme Souness deserves some credit for having good intentions – at least with regard to some number-assignments, trying to move first-teamers down the order; others became more upwardly mobile after getting on the wrong side of the Scot. However, some of his plans came to ground.
On July 30, 2004, the list for the coming season was published on the official club website. Notable differences from 2003-04 were that Jonathan Stead was rewarded for a strong finish to the season by being given the number 9 instead of 18, while new signings Paul Dickov and Javier De Pedro were 10 and 11 respectively – Dickov displacing Matt Jansen, who was now 17.
Garry Flitcroft, who had learned from a newspaper rather than directly from Souness himself that he had been deposed as captain, had his lowering in status further franked as the number 7 was taken off him, with 12 his new number.
Brett Emerton was now 7, having worn 23 in his first season. Incidentally, the new captain Barry Ferguson, who had worn 24 in 2003-04, was not in his favoured 6, which still rested with Craig Short, and instead the midfielder settled for 16. The 24 shirt was given to Andy Todd, who worn 15 in 2003-04 after his previous 4 was given to Martin Taylor.
In addition, Michael Gray was set to move from 33 to 3, while Dominic Matteo, newly signed from relegated Leeds United, was listed as number 5.
The previous owner of that shirt, Lorenzo Amoruso, was shifted to 4 – at previous club Rangers, he had moved from 3 to 4 and so perhaps that was a preference, though Italy is like England in that the tradition is for centre-backs to wear 5 and 6 with 4 in midfield.
However, it would appear that neither Gray nor Matteo had been consulted and, later that afternoon, a revised list was displayed on the site.
Gray had had 3 taken from him when he fell out of favour at Sunderland and so perhaps he didn’t wish to reignite bad memories – whatever the reason, he was still in 33 while Matteo – 21 at Liverpool and then Leeds – was now in number 22, which had been vacant on the original list.
Vratislav Greško, who had 3 taken from him, opted against reverting back to that in the wake of Gray’s refusal and stuck with his new 23. The number 3 was to remain empty for the season, but Garry Flitcroft (who had worn 23 and then 15 for Rovers before moving to 7 in 1998) spied an opportunity – seemingly, he sought to have the now-unclaimed 5.
Flitcroft would make 19 appearances and left during 2005-06 – he continued the mathematical progression numbers-wise as he took 3 at new club Sheffield United, helping them to promotion before having to retire due to injury. Morten Gamst Pedersen took 12 when he arrived at Rovers on the eve of the season and kept it until his departure nine years later.
While Dwight Yorke started the 2004-05 opening game up front alongside Stead, he did so in the number 15 shirt – Souness, looking to move him on, had taken the more recognisable 19 away – and he departed early in the campaign. Youri Djorkaeff took 15 when he signed but he didn’t last long either and, when Aaron Mokoena joined in January 2005, he became the third player that season to have the number.
Look again at the team for the West Brom game in August 2004.
First of all, the odd formation is covered here by the 4,000 Holes fanzine. Both Gray and Matteo played, but with the latter in midfield – had they kept the intended numbers, there would have been a situation where 7 was right-back (Emerton filling in for fellow Australian, number 2 Lucas Neill) with and 5 in midfield.
Matteo would get to switch to his preferred 21 for 2005-06 while new manager Mark Hughes would restore Andy Todd to 4, Amoruso moving to 23. Another change in the summer of 2005 saw new arrival Robbie Savage take number 8, necessitating a move for Tugay Kerimoğlu – but the Turkish midfielder deserves an article all of his own.
