Things we don’t like about modern football #176 – players that wear the wrong shirt number.
Admittedly, it’s probably not quite as infuriating as seeing your team on the wrong end of a woeful penalty decision from an absolutely terrible referee, or having to watch Pepe roll about on the floor in supposed agony for a few seconds, but seeing a player with an incorrect shirt number still gets up the noses of many football fans the world over.
In years gone by, we’ve seen enough examples of this to fill up an entire XI. Zinedine Zidane wearing a number five at Real Madrid, Steve Sidwell wearing a nine shirt at Chelsea – that sort of thing.
Naively, we were honestly starting to think that the footballing world had been cleansed of wrong-numbered football players. But then Jonathan de Guzman came along…
The Dutchman, formerly of Swansea City, has sealed a loan move from Napoli to Chievo this week, where he was presented with the number one shirt. The problem is, Jonathan *isn’t a goalkeeper*, he’s a *midfielder*.
We are NOT ok with this… MIDFIELDER Jonathan de Guzman has been given the number 1 shirt at Chievo 🙈🙄 pic.twitter.com/2qkbx2MWDP
— The Offside Rule (@OffsideRulePod) September 2, 2016
Why, oh why would *anyone* think that this was an ok thing to do?
Midfielder Jonathan de Guzman to wear the No.1 at Chievo this season. [via @FabrizioRomano]. Nothing is sacred pic.twitter.com/n3GWBv0MPd
— James Horncastle (@JamesHorncastle) September 2, 2016
Needless to say, it hasn’t gone down well.
https://twitter.com/Senor_Ola/status/771705278907682820
you've actually just ruined my whole holiday
— Ollie 🇵🇸 (@OllieMUFCHall) September 2, 2016
https://twitter.com/ffsRooney/status/771704926389018624
And it wasn’t just the number that was a problem…
@squadnos That name printing is a scandal too
— Marc (@MarcJWallace) September 2, 2016
At this stage, we should point out that he’s not the first Dutch midfielder to wear a number more commonly associated with a team’s first choice goalkeeper. Edgar Davids did the same thing during his spell at Barnet a few years back.
We’re going for a lie down.
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