Goalkeeper, goalie, keeper, shot stopper, number one, man between the sticks, custodian. All sorts of names that goalkeepers get called at different times and yet Rui Patricio has broken one of them quite severely.
Shirt numbers are a peculiar thing. Not actually something that really matters in the slightest and yet we occasionally get very passionate about, especially at this time of the year when the season starts.
There's certain 'rules' to picking a shirt number. Forwards should be anything from 7 through to 11 whilst defenders should pick the lower numbers and midfielders the middle numbers.
Traditionally of course goalkeepers take number one. That's why the chant is about 'England's number one' and the like. Sometimes that isn't possible, obviously teams have more than one keeper so not everyone can adorn the numero uno and occasionally there's other reasons.
Advert
Wolves former number one, in both senses, Carl Ikeme, has retired because of his battle with Leukemia and in a nice gesture the current players have decided to leave it alone.
That means new goalkeeper Rui Patricio, part of the incredible Portuguese revolution, has had to choose a different number and he's plumped for 11, that's eleven! Leave it for a winger lad.
The number one hasn't been officially retired but Ikeme will reportedly keep it until the end of his contract, which is a lovely little touch, so we can't criticise the newly promoted side for that.
Advert
Fellow goalkeepers Ruddy and Norris have also picked numbers ending in 1 with 21 and 31 chosen but 11?! That flies in the face of everything we believe about squad numbers.
It's almost as much of a disgrace as the time that William Gallas wore the number 10, quite frankly I'm still trying to recover from that.
Patricio moved from Sporting in the summer after the keeper had enough with life with the Portuguese club following the attack by some fans on forward Bas Dost at the club's training ground.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Football News, Premier League, Wolves
