You know the way that the anniversaries of tragic events are commemorated rather than celebrated? Well, we commemorate Luke Shaw Day (deftly switching to the American notation so that it’s 3-23).
While not a Manchester United fan, this was a squad-number move that hit hard as it was the opposite of a tidy-up operation. Having looked like the first-choice left-back of the present and future for club and country when he joined from Southampton in 2014, the number 3 shirt, just vacated by Patrice Evra, was a perfect fit.
However, fast-forward a year and the departure of Tom Cleverley (who remembers the attempts to establish the ‘TC23’ brand?) allowed Shaw to revert to the number he had had for the Saints – incidentally, he did initially wear 34 after breaking into the first-team squad at St Mary’s.
While Shaw did have 23 at the 2014 World Cup, he has worn 3 at the last three major tournaments. Eleven years on, he remains the United 23, while 3 was worn by centre-back Eric Bailly and now Noussair Mazrazoui, who can play on the left flank but is just as comfortable, if not more so, on the right.
There are of course various reasons for a move out of the 1-11 bracket, but Shaw is by no means in a minority of one at Old Trafford. A special prize to the first person who tells us – here or on one of our social channels – all of the Manchester United players to have done so, as well as the numbers which have never had upwardly-mobile occupants.
