The next Newcastle number 9?
Posted on June 21st, 2011 | 35 Comments |
The Newcastle United number 9 shirt is of course sacred. Leaving it unfilled for a while – after Obafemi Martins moved to Wolfsburg – was a deliberate ploy by former manager Chris Hughton who said:
“It’s something I’ve done deliberately. We have a lot of strikers here and I’m quite sure that every single one of them would have wanted to wear the No 9 shirt. As soon as I came to this club I knew what it meant and it’s both my decision and a combination of a few things.
“It can be a heavy number to carry, a burden, and wearing it is an achievement which I want somebody to grow into. I want somebody to earn the right to be Newcastle’s No 9. I don’t want to suggest that the strikers here aren’t worthy of it because each of them has a real strong value.
“I don’t anticipate years going by without one, but I know what the number nine is and I don’t want it to be an issue. The only issue I want is the normal stuff of the team performing well or not performing well, winning games or not winning games, and that’s very much team based.“
Andy Carroll got the shirt for the 2010/2011 season but then – either by choice or by force depending on which version of the story you favour – he helicoptered off to sign for Liverpool. Nile Ranger was once touted as a future number 9 but his chances seemed to disappear in a gun-toting, late-arriving, non-scoring flash and rumours suggest he is now transfer-listed.
Presumably Best, Lovenkrands and Shola are deemed unworthy and likewise for Demba Ba who was handed the number 19 on his arrival at the club.
Billy Cairns was the first person to wear our number 9 shirt after shirt numbers were formally adopted in 1939, although the ‘position’ was of course occupied by others before that. Perhaps most famously was Hughie Gallacher who played for us between 1925 and 1930. By a bizarre coincidence Hughie Gallacher was the first player to wear the number 9 against us whilst playing for Gateshead in a Jubilee Fund match.
From 1943–1957 the famous shirt was occupied by a certain John Edward Thompson ‘Jackie’ Milburn and then Milburn’s strike partner, Len White, had a good run with the shirt after Milburn left.
Fast-forwarding to an era I actually remember, Malcolm ‘Supermac’ MacDonald occupied the number 9 shirt in the early-mid 70’s, followed by the likes of Micky Burns, Peter Withe, Imre Varadi, Mirandinha, Micky Quinn and others to take us up to the Premier League era when the shirt was handed to Andy Cole, Les Ferdinand and then Alan Shearer.
There’s quite a tradition of great goal scorers to be followed there and the shirt is once again vacant.
So who is worthy of it? (and then get realistic!)
Go on Hugh…
…step up to the plate!
You know you want the No 9 shirt !