Regular readers will know that we like to build squad-numbers content around dates, though as the year pushes on, the first few days of a new month make for slim pickings.
Yesterday, we were able to make an observation regarding Barry Venison at Liverpool but today, September 3, we feared we had hit a brick wall until we remembered a bout of musical chairs at Tottenham Hotspur in the summer of 2012.
While Gareth Bale had moved from number 16 to 3 in 2008, he began to morph from an average left-back into a top-quality winger and so another switch was required. He marked time in pre-season friendlies ahead of 2012-13 wearing the number 9 shirt.
A case could have been made that, given the strong heritage at the club of wingers wearing 9 (Tony Galvin, Chris Waddle and Darren Anderton, to name a few), it would have been a good fit – and indeed it foreshadowed what he would wear when he returned to Tottenham on loan from Real Madrid in 2020-21.
However, a better solution was found thanks to a reshuffle.
The Wales international moved to number 11, which had been held by Rafael van der Vaart – the Dutchman shifted to 10, replicating the switch made by his compatriot Robin van Persie at Arsenal in 2010.
In 2011-12, 10 had been worn by Emmanuel Adebayor on loan from Manchester City, but when that move was made permanent just after the start of the season, the Togolese striker was assigned 25, which he had previously worn for Arsenal and City.
At Tottenham the number 25 had belonged to left-back Danny Rose – who took the 3 vacated by Bale.
Having played in the opening two matches of the season, van der Vaart left Tottenham, rejoining one of his former clubs, Hamburg (where he was reunited with the number 23 he had previously had with the Rothosen, Real Madrid and the Netherlands national team.
Van der Vaart’s last match was at home to West Bromwich Albion, in which he was substituted for Adebayor. It proved to be the only time the striker wore 25 for Tottenham as, with 10 free again, he was able to move back to what he had had in 2011-12.
Bale would only have one season at Tottenham’s 11 before becoming Real Madrid’s 11 but it was quite the swansong – he scored 21 goals in 33 league appearances as they agonisingly missed out on a Champions League spot.
His departure wouldn’t officially happen until after 2013-14 had begun, which made for some more number-swapping, which we will look at in a future article.
