Back in the good old days of football, shirt numbers meant very little. If you’re of a certain age you remember where everyone wore 1 to 11 equally based simply on whether they were on the pitch, or not as the case may be.
Substitute numbers were equally as sensible although a lot of clubs ignored the No 13 for bizarre superstitious reasons – a trend that continues today for many in fact.
Our squad numbers for the 2018/19 season..
👉 https://t.co/O7OUpE3qL6 #swfc pic.twitter.com/39QSu4wpQZ
— Sheffield Wednesday (@swfc) July 19, 2018
With the advent of the Premier League and marketing, which I think was code for ‘make more money’, shirt numbers have taken on a life of their own – and of course, fans can now pay extra to select their favourite number and their favourite player and so on.
For a period of time, they remained sensible enough to notice gaps and at least identify positions that could be strengthened during transfer windows, but that gets harder each year. As players have their own favourites, seeing a gap between 1 to 11 no longer means you’re after a winger at No 7. Equally having shirt numbers up at No 45 doesn’t instantly mean Fernando Forestieri has been demoted down in advance of a sale – to pick out two non-surprising numbers as an example.
There are some changes and some youngsters get a number this year, but I can’t spot anything outstanding in terms of giving a future game away.
1. Keiren Westwood
2. Liam Palmer
3. David Jones
4. Joost van Aken
5. Kieran Lee
6. Morgan Fox
8. Joey Pelupessy
9. Steven Fletcher
10. Barry Bannan
11. Sam Winnall
12. Jordan Thorniley
14. Gary Hooper
15. Tom Lees
17. Atdhe Nuhiu
18. Lucas Joao
19. Marco Matias
20. Adam Reach
21. George Boyd
22. Almen Abdi
23. Sam Hutchinson
24. Ashley Baker
25. Cameron Dawson
26. Connor O’Grady
28. Joe Wildsmith
29. Alex Hunt
31. Connor Kirby
35. Frederik Nielsen
36. Daniel Pudil
37. Fraser Preston
41. Jack Lee
42. Matt Penney
44. Jack Stobbs
45. Fernando Forestieri
