If you think it about it properly, retiring a shirt number is a pretty big deal and not the sort of decision football clubs should take lightly.

After all, what they are saying is that no player will ever turn out for their club wearing number “X” again; which is rather emphatic if you consider there are only 99 reasonably sensible numbers available.

You could, I suppose, always bring the number out of retirement, like an elderly boxer looking for a final payday. But that would be rather disrespectful to the person in whose honour you retired it in the first place.

So, yes, it’s a grand gesture and, in some cases, a very apt one – but not something to be done for laughs and giggles. Which is why, back in 2020, I found it hysterically funny when Birmingham retired their number 22 shirt in honour of Jude Bellingham.

I mean, what the heck? The kid was only 17, and few outside the city had even heard of him. Yes, he had secured a move to Borussia Dortmund despite his tender years, but it’s not as if had done very much to make history at St Andrew’s.

I don’t think future potential is good enough reason to kill off a shirt

Normally when a number is retired it is because the player who wore it did so for years and achieved something special with the club. Both West Ham United and AC Milan retired their number 6 shirts in honour of Bobby Moore and Franco Baresi respectively; Ajax retired the number 14 shirt to pay tribute to Johan Cruyff, while Napoli retired the number 10 shirt in honour of some chap called Diego.

All of those players did things for their clubs that are unlikely to ever be surmounted or even matched. Proper legends all of them.

Bellingham, on the other hand, was just 17 years old, had only played 44 games for the club, and scored just four goals. Yet Birmingham decided that was that for their number 22.

At the time I thought it was ludicrous. And, in many ways, I still think it was a bit of overkill given Bellingham’s biggest contribution to the club at that point was the millions they were getting for letting him leave.

But looking at Bellingham now and the way he is performing, maybe Birmingham had a point. Because, frankly speaking, he could well be on the way to becoming the best player on the planet. His hugely successful spell at Dortmund earned him a move to Real Madrid last summer, and that is where many people, myself included, thought he would need time to acclimatise.

There is an argument to suggest Real is the biggest club in the world, and the pressure and intense scrutiny players face when playing for the Spanish giants can break some players. It’s a club that has been known to chew up and spit out talented youngsters.

Bellingham, however, has taken it all in his long, swerving stride, not just surviving the move but thriving. The midfielder has scored 11 goals in his first 12 league matches, and three goals in his three Champions League games so far, putting in ‘man of the match’ performances on numerous occasions.

And he is nowhere near his peak yet.

Any English club that was tempted to sign him in the summer but were put off by the €100 million-plus transfer fee must be kicking themselves every single morning for not taking the gamble. I won’t mention the club I am thinking of specifically, but their name does include the words “pool” and “liver”.

Ultimately, I still think Birmingham were a bit overzealous and premature in confining the number 22 to history. I don’t think future potential is really a good enough reason to kill off a shirt.

But I tell you what – I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Real, one day in the future, contemplate putting their own number 5 out to pasture...

 

Harry bounces back

Turnaround of the season award has to go to Harry Maguire.

A month ago, Maguire was player non grata at Manchester United. It felt like he would only get a proper game for the club if the all the other central defenders were simultaneously abducted by aliens.

But injuries and circumstance have combined to give the England international a run of games on the left side of the central defensive partnership and he has responded with three quality displays, a couple of ‘man-of-the-match’ performances and a winning goal in the Champions League.

Manager Erik ten Hag says Maguire is now “playing like we want him to” and has become “very proactive” in his recent run of games.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t see this coming. I thought Maguire had made a huge mistake not leaving United in the summer and that he would flop his way through the season making occasional substitute appearances while watching his career and chances of playing at Euro 24 go down the pan.

However, he stayed, knuckled down and refused to take the easy option. And it has paid off far quicker than even he could have hoped.

Will it last? I’m not so sure. I suspect ten Hag may well drop him again when his first-choice defenders are available, just to show everyone who’s in charge.

But for time being Maguire has done everything he can to prove the doubters wrong and seize his chance to play some football. And for that, he deserves a lot of credit.

 

Bad week for the Toffees

It’s been a pretty grim week for Everton.

First Bill Kenwright, the club’s long-serving chairperson, passed away at the age of 78. Although he was a controversial figure in his last few years when things were not going well on the pitch, I don’t think even the most bitter Everton fan would dream of suggesting he didn’t passionately love the club.

Then to compound the club’s misery it was announced they could be facing a 12-point deduction for financial irregularities. That would, almost certainly, consign the club to relegation.

Twelve points may not sound like much, but it would leave them on minus five if it were imposed right now. Yes, they could claw those back given the season is still relatively young, but the damage a point deduction like that would do to player moral is almost incalculable.

All in all, not a great week to be an Everton supporter.

 

E-mail: James.calvert@timesofmalta.com

Twitter: @Maltablade