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Should Aston Villa retire the number 19 shirt as a tribute to Stan?


The_Rev

Should Aston Villa retire the number 19 jersey?  

135 members have voted

  1. 1. In the wake of Stiliyan Petrov's retirement should Aston Villa retire the squad number 19?

    • No
    • Yes
    • Unsure, but we shouldn't have a #19 next season.


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I've never been a fan of the concept of retiring shirt numbers, mostly it seems misguided (like the talk of retiring the #7 shirt at Manchester United when George Best died despite the fact that he wore #11 for the vast majority of his career there) but I think that perhaps when a player dies in service like Marc Vivien Foe at Manchester City or has something as tragic as what happened to Stan then there might be a case for it.   Thoughts?

 

 

**edit**

 

After doing a bit of research on the similar situation which happened at Bolton with Fabrice Muamba last year it seems they haven't officially retired the number 6 shirt.  

 

They don't have a number 6 in the squad at the moment, but somebody might get that number again one day.  It's a little bit different I guess because players have been wearing the #6 shirt at Bolton for as long as football shirts have had numbers on the back of them whereas the the #19 has almost become synonymous with Stan because of the 19th minute tributes to him and the much shorter history of the number 19 shirt.  I'm still not sure myself.

Edited by The_Rev
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No. Decent bloke, decent player. The 19th minutes will live long in my memory, as will the number of times fellow supporters were giving him stick when he was playing for us.

Playingwise he was always one who divided opinion.

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If his number was 1-11 I'd be saying no, but as it's 19, and with the 19th minute applause becoming a part of the club recently, I think it would be a nice gesture.

I don't get this. Are you saying the number matters more than the significance?

Anyway I say no 19 next year, but I wouldn't retire it,

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No. I can see why its done in US sports where thay have 0 - 99 numbers and a player can become synonymous with one number but for fottball its beyond retarded. The examples you listed show how stupid it is to be honest and West Ham retiring the number six for Booby Moore is moronic and shows how small time they are.

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If his number was 1-11 I'd be saying no, but as it's 19, and with the 19th minute applause becoming a part of the club recently, I think it would be a nice gesture.

I don't get this. Are you saying the number matters more than the significance?

Anyway I say no 19 next year, but I wouldn't retire it,

 

 

 

In a way it does.  Some numbers (typically 1-11) have been worn by lots of great players since shirt numbers were introduced in 1928.   Other numbers have less of a history because squad numbers are a more recent phenomenon.   

 

Since the introduction of squad numbers, the Aston Villa number 19 shirt has been issued to:

 

No player (2 seasons) 

Stefan Beinlich (1 season)

Graham Fenton (1 season)

Gareth Farrelly (2 seasons)

David Hughes (1 season) 

Richard Walker (1 season)

Bosko Balaban (2 seasons)

Liam Ridgewell (3 seasons)

Stan Petrov (6 seasons)

 

 

You could make a strong argument that Stan has made the number 19 shirt his own. The 19th minute tributes only add weight to that. 

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He's still alive and I sincerely hope his health improves and he recovers from this horrible illness.

 

I don't think you can retire numbers on that basis. Reading the dignity and humility of the statement I doubt he would want it retired!

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