Forget about Michael Carrick. Don’t dwell on Women’s Bigger Cup. Fret not about Pierre Sage. No, the big football story of the day is Big Website’s Ultimate 1-50 , a rundown of the male footballers best associated with each squad number. It’s lighthearted reading designed to entertain, maybe even inform, and perhaps spark a few memories and a touch of debate. Or, if you prefer, a rage-bait waste of time that shames the internet. Where the hell is Roy Keane! How dare you leave out Bobby Moore! And Pelé? A list without Pelé? I don’t want to live in a world where there are lists without Pelé. Such is the world these days, though surely a certain amount of respect is due to an exercise that shuns Lionel Messi and Zinedine Zidane but can welcome in Salvatore Sirigu and Mateusz Klich. And true, it might be a challenging read for those (and, let’s be clear, we’re absolutely definitely not referring to ourselves here, no sirree) old enough to have been brought up in an era of 1; 2, 5, 6, 3; 7, 4, 8, 11; 9 (big man), 10 (little man). The days of two substitutes who wore Nos 12 and 14. The days of a quarter of wine gums in your pocket and misty rain drifting across the floodlights and … oh my god Asamoah Gyan is wearing No 3 and playing up front. This is not a drill. Repeat this is not a drill. Burn it all down, the game’s gone. There is something about it all that does invoke strangely strong reactions, but every day is a school day. So, yes, there remains a hallowed aura around 1-11 but even some of the game’s greats – we’re looking at you Gerd Müller and Johan Cruyff – are best associated with numbers outside of the traditional undectet. And, as Jonathan Wilson brilliantly illustrates here , there’s a risk of being a bit Eurocentric when it comes to numbering – Argentina’s tactical evolution, for example, meant their traditional back four lines up 4, 2, 6, 3, with the No 5 in central midfield. Brazil too has No 5 as the defensive midfielder, with the standard back four as 4, 2, 3, 6. And don’t get us started on Hungary at Wembley in 1953 – Nandor Hidegkuti, you rascal! So do yourself a favour and dig into today’s offering. You might learn something. Or you might just get really, really cross about Curtis Jones. Either way, it’s win-win.
The FSA Awards are fast approaching folks and, though Football Daily has been cruelly overlooked yet again, Big Website has been nominated for a gong as well as Football Weekly, Women’s Football Weekly and Suzanne Wrack. If you want to show your support by casting a vote, you can here .
Join Billy Munday for piping hot MBM coverage of Inter 1-3 Manchester City in the Women’s Bigger Cup from 8pm GMT.
“If I look back on my own personal experience as a professional player, when I won the [Rumbelows] Cup I played with a broken ankle for 90 minutes, so that gives you the answer if I want to win or not. Let’s be honest, selling off the World Cup behind the back of the Fifa Council, the whole Fifa family, it’s a full betrayal. Morally and ethically it is unacceptable. And if [GIanni Infantino] had the balls, he would go out in front of 200 cameras, put his hands up and say ’yes, I made a mistake, I resign’” – Ramon Vega gets the battle-fever on as he talks about the combative qualities he hopes can transform him from underdog to top dog when he stands in the Fifa presidential election.
double quotation mark Appreciate it’s all highly subjective but quite how you can give the all-time No 17 shirt to Kevin De Bruyne without so much as a mention of the legendary Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu is beyond me. What other player has gone from non-league to Premier League with the same club ? OK, it’s a bit niche but a far more worthy winner in my completely unbiased (honest guv) opinion” – Kev Goddard.
double quotation mark All this talk of 4-4 draws ( yesterday’s Football Daily ) is very intoxicating for Chesterfield fans of a certain vintage. First up, the 1992 draw at Anfield where we threw away a 4-1 lead after a Liverpool comeback inspired by Istvan Kozma (no, really). Dave Lancaster scored two that night and observed that he had thought beforehand there might be eight goals in it, but not that we’d score four of them. And then in 2004 at Saltergate against Grimsby, where we threw away a 3-2 lead to go 4-3 down, before equalising with a last-minute penalty thanks to David Reeves. The attendance that day was 4,444. Makes you think …” – David Ede.
double quotation mark To stop managers continually going outside their technical areas, why not erect a ‘banners and poles’ surround, the sort of thing you see on pavements outside pubs and cafes? If the idea sounds a bit too simple, just mention the opportunity of more advertising space” – Peter Storch.
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