WHY SAY ANYTHING?

The number 7 shirt at Manchester United has been worn by some great players. So what? Exactly the same can be said about almost every number throughout the team particularly back in the sensible days when the team wore the numbers 1 to 11.

The number 10 shirt has been worn by David Herd, Denis Law, George Best, David Beckham and Wayne Rooney, to name but 5. The number 8 shirt has been worn by Denis Law, George Best, Wayne Rooney and now by Juan Mata.

Look at the supposedly insignificant number 6 shirt. Worn by Duncan Edwards, Nobby Stiles, Martin Buchan and now the first one to let it down, Paul Pogba.

So to say, as some do, that the number 7 shirt is legendary is way over the top!

Firstly, the actual shirt number is NOT legendary, just some of the players who have worn it. We would hardly class Angel Di Maria, Alexis Sánchez, Michael Owen, Memphis Depay or Antonio Valencia as legends and wearing that shirt certainly didn’t improve any of them. In fact, in some instances, it appeared to make them worse!

So the outcry from some “fans” about Edinson Cavani being given the number 7 shirt is a bit pathetic.

If the player himself was asked his favourite number he would probably have picked 8, 9 or 10 but as Juan Mata has the number 8 and is a senior player he wouldn’t have been offered that one. Anthony Martial cried his way to the number 9 shirt this season and is doing nothing to justify wearing it so that is a possible change next season. Number 10 is Marcus Rashford at the moment and that would also be a possibility next season as he doesn’t seem too fussed about which number he wears.

At the end of the day, when numbers had a purpose and weren’t just some kind of decoration, the number 7 was always worn by the right winger so, in fact, it didn’t make sense at all for:

Bryan Robson – a left-footed midfielder
Michael Owen – a striker
Angel Di Maria – a left footed left winger

Just as it won’t make sense for Edinson Cavani to wear it!

Sum up Ole…..

In life there are different kinds of people. It is the same in the workplace. Without getting into profound discussion as to why there are different wiring diagrams for almost every human being, we will split it into 4 for the sake of this article. See which one you think fits Ole Gunnar Solskjær:

1.Consciously Competent

This means he is very good at what he does and knows why. (Sir Alex Ferguson, Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola would be good examples)

2.Consciously Incompetent

This means he is not very good at what he does, knows why, but doesn’t know what to do about it. (Ed Woodward, David Moyes and the man who lives next door to WSA)

3.Unconsciously Competent

This means he is good at what he does but doesn’t know why. (Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian MBappe)

4.Unconsciously Incompetent

This means he is not very good at what he does, doesn’t know why or what to do about it and probably won’t admit it. (Boris Johnson, Steve McLaren and most Sky Sports presenters)

Our guess is that Ole would fit into category number 2 but you may disagree, that’s OK, it’s allowed, so long as you let us know why in the comments section.

One final question…..

Now that Edinson Cavani has become the latest geriatric football player to come and collect his pension in the Premier League, we would like to know the following:-

Which other South American players have joined a Premier League club for the FIRST time, after the age of 30 and been successful?

Answers on a postage stamp or, more realistically, in the comments section below.