Greatest ever squad by number

[The Great Mass Debater 1,078]

I was thinking about the practice of retiring shirt numbers. I dont like it, but it had me wondering about the greatest names ever to grace each number, (something I had wondered previously with the 22 shirt), and this had me wondering about what our greatest ever squad would look like.

So since the inception of assigned squad numbers, and happy to allow for players from before this if they regularly wore a particular number, what would our all time squad look like?

Transfermarkt has a useful list which I will link here: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/norwich-city/rueckennummern/verein/1123

Who would get your nod for each number?

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39. Vadis Odija-Ofoe
40.  
41.  
42.  
43.  
44. Andrew Omobamidele
45.  
46. Jonathon Rowe

[The Great Mass Debater 1,078]

1. Tim Krul
2. Mark Bowen
3. Adam Drury
4. Ian Crook
5. Craig Fleming
6. Darren Huckerby
7. Ruel Fox
8. Craig Bellamy
9. Grant Holt
10. Jeremy Goss
11. David Phillips
12. Anthony Pilkington
13. Declan Rudd
14. Wes Hoolahan
15. Timm Klose
16. Chris Martin
17. Emi Buendia
18. Marco Stiepermann
19. Simon Lappin
20. Darren Eadie
21. Malky Mackay
22. Teemu Pukki
23. Martin Olsson
24. Jonny Howson
25. Onel Hernandez
26. Jamal Lewis
27. Alexander Tettey
28. James Maddison
29. Gary O'Neil
30. Sebastien Bassong
31. Grant Hanley
32. Jacob Murphy
33. Jens Berthel Askou
34. Josh Murphy
35. Ben Godfrey
36. Dean Ashton
37. Max Aarons
38. Conor McGrandles
39. Vadis Odija-Ofoe
40. Jonathan Tomkinson
41. Graham Dorrans
42. Liam Gibbs
43. Thomas Dickson-Peters
44. Andrew Omobamidele
45. Tony Springett
46. Jonathon Rowe

[BurwellCanary 215]

11 - Martin Peters for me

[GodlyOtsemobor 2,248]

44. Leroy Lita  (Omo hasn't played enough yet) 

[CUSDP 50]

I’ve often thought about what is our most “prestigious” shirt number. Newcastle have 9, Liverpool 9, united 7 etc. 

 

id say ours would be 1, I don’t think any other number has had so many great players wear it. From Keelan to Krul, via Watson Gunn green and ruddy. 
 

id retire the 4 shirt in homage to the greatest ever…Ian crook. 

[GodlyOtsemobor 2,248]

 

1. Michael Theoklitos
2. Keith Briggs
3. James Husband 
4. Mathew Gill 
5. Rob Edwards 
6. Dejan stefanovic
7. Jason Jarrett
8. Peter Thorne 
9. Dean Marney 
10. David Bentley 
11. Raymond De Waard 
12. Jos Hooiveld
13. Scott Howie 
14. Alex Notman 
15. Jean-yves De Blasiis
16. Mark Fotheringham
17. Alan Gow 
18. David Mooney
19. Kevin Lisbie
20. Tony Andreu 
21. Andy Roberts
22. Adrian Leijer 
23. Che Wilson 
24. Ibrahim Amadou 
25. Rossi Jarvis 
26. Pape Seydou Diop
27. Cody McDonald 
28. Paul Crighton 
29. Carl Cort 
30. Owain Tudor-Jones 
31. Andrew Cave-Brown
32. Louis Thompson 
33. Carl Robinson 
34. Steve Arnold 
35. Sam Vokes 
36. Bally Smart 
37. Patrick Bexfield
38. Conor McGrandles  
39. Vadis odjidja-ofoe
40. Alfie Payne 
41. Jordan Thomas 
42.  Lee Camp
43. Glen Middleton 

[Worthy Nigelton 1,037]

3 hours ago, The Great Mass Debater said:

1. Tim Krul
2. Mark Bowen
3. Adam Drury
4. Ian Crook
5. Craig Fleming
6. Darren Huckerby
7. Ruel Fox
8. Craig Bellamy
9. Grant Holt
10. Jeremy Goss
11. David Phillips
12. Anthony Pilkington
13. Declan Rudd
14. Wes Hoolahan
15. Timm Klose
16. Chris Martin
17. Emi Buendia
18. Marco Stiepermann
19. Simon Lappin
20. Darren Eadie
21. Malky Mackay
22. Teemu Pukki
23. Martin Olsson
24. Jonny Howson
25. Onel Hernandez
26. Jamal Lewis
27. Alexander Tettey
28. James Maddison
29. Gary O'Neil
30. Sebastien Bassong
31. Grant Hanley
32. Jacob Murphy
33. Jens Berthel Askou
34. Josh Murphy
35. Ben Godfrey
36. Dean Ashton
37. Max Aarons
38. Conor McGrandles
39. Vadis Odija-Ofoe
40. Jonathan Tomkinson
41. Graham Dorrans
42. Liam Gibbs
43. Thomas Dickson-Peters
44. Andrew Omobamidele
45. Tony Springett
46. Jonathon Rowe

Decent list with the exception of Craig Fleming. We must have had a better centre half no.5 than that? Newsome, Polston maybe?

[Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man 3,777]

55 minutes ago, GodlyOtsemobor said:

6. Dejan Stefanovic

27. Cody McDonald

42. Lee Camp

Bit harsh on these guys to be put in the hall of shame, to be fair to them.

[canarydan23 4,060]

1 hour ago, Worthy Nigelton said:

Decent list with the exception of Craig Fleming. We must have had a better centre half no.5 than that? Newsome, Polston maybe?

Player of the Season in our 03/04 Division One title winning season.

I don't think anyone would suggest Newsome over him. Polston maybe, but Fleming would be my number 5 too.

[Indy_Bones 441]

1. B. Gunn
2. Culverhouse
3. Bowen
4. Bruce
5. Fleming
6. Hucks
7. Eadie
8. Fashanu
9. Sutton
10. R. Fox
11. Goss
12. Deehan
13. Green
14. Wessi
15. Klose
16. C. Martin
17. Buendia
18. McVeigh
19. Kenton
20. Francis
21. O'Neill
22. Pukki
23. Maddison
24. Howson
25. Pinto
26. Lewis
27. Tettey
28. A. Gunn
29. RVW
30. Bassong
31. Hanley
32. Evans
33. McGovern
34. Gibson
35. Godfrey
36. Cantwell
37. Aarons
38. Oxborough
39. VOO
40. Tomkinson
41. Dorrans
42. Gibbs
43. Famewo
44. Omo
45. Springett
46. Rowe
50. Barden
56. J. Martin

[GodlyOtsemobor 2,248]

48 minutes ago, Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man said:

Bit harsh on these guys to be put in the hall of shame, to be fair to them.

I wouldn't have Cody or  Camp usually but there wasn't much else in terms of choice for their numbers and with stefanovic it was a close call with David Nielsen for me (but his loan spell was alright so) 

 

Plus I based it off players I've seen, (only started going in 98 as a kid, so couldn't say if there's any worse) 

Edited June 18, 2022 by GodlyOtsemobor

[Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man 3,777]

16 minutes ago, GodlyOtsemobor said:

I wouldn't have Cody or  Camp usually but there wasn't much else in terms of choice for their numbers and with stefanovic it was a close call with David Nielsen for me (but his loan spell was alright so) 

 

Plus I based it off players I've seen, (only started going in 98 as a kid, so couldn't say if there's any worse) 

Fair point, I didn't really look at the other options.

[mannings bandy legs 385]

3 hours ago, GodlyOtsemobor said:

 

1. Michael Theoklitos
2. Keith Briggs
3. James Husband 
4. Mathew Gill 
5. Rob Edwards 
6. Dejan stefanovic
7. Jason Jarrett
8. Peter Thorne 
9. Dean Marney 
10. David Bentley 
11. Raymond De Waard 
12. Jos Hooiveld
13. Scott Howie 
14. Alex Notman 
15. Jean-yves De Blasiis
16. Mark Fotheringham
17. Alan Gow 
18. David Mooney
19. Kevin Lisbie
20. Tony Andreu 
21. Andy Roberts
22. Adrian Leijer 
23. Che Wilson 
24. Ibrahim Amadou 
25. Rossi Jarvis 
26. Pape Seydou Diop
27. Cody McDonald 
28. Paul Crighton 
29. Carl Cort 
30. Owain Tudor-Jones 
31. Andrew Cave-Brown
32. Louis Thompson 
33. Carl Robinson 
34. Steve Arnold 
35. Sam Vokes 
36. Bally Smart 
37. Patrick Bexfield
38. Conor McGrandles  
39. Vadis odjidja-ofoe
40. Alfie Payne 
41. Jordan Thomas 
42.  Lee Camp
43. Glen Middleton 

Jim Blair tops all of them. One for the oldies amongst us!👍🙈

[Midlands Yellow 3,936]

Number 7 has had some fine players wearing it. 

In no particular order, Eadie, Fox, Barham, Gordon, Neighbour and saving the best for the last, Ben Marshall. 
 

 

[paddycanary 538]

3 hours ago, GodlyOtsemobor said:

I wouldn't have Cody or  Camp usually but there wasn't much else in terms of choice for their numbers and with stefanovic it was a close call with David Nielsen for me (but his loan spell was alright so) 

 

Plus I based it off players I've seen, (only started going in 98 as a kid, so couldn't say if there's any worse) 

I like the way Conor McGrandles made both lists! 👍

[Yobocop 1,095]

Jean-Yves de-Blasiis was massively under rated 

[Worthy Nigelton 1,037]

12 hours ago, canarydan23 said:

Player of the Season in our 03/04 Division One title winning season.

I don't think anyone would suggest Newsome over him. Polston maybe, but Fleming would be my number 5 too.

I just remember 95% of his time here him being a very average centre half in a midtable Division One team that leaked a few goals. Newsome wasn't here long but was absolutely excellent in the short time he was.

[canarydan23 4,060]

38 minutes ago, Worthy Nigelton said:

I just remember 95% of his time here him being a very average centre half in a midtable Division One team that leaked a few goals. Newsome wasn't here long but was absolutely excellent in the short time he was.

So the playoff final season, the title-winning season and the Premier League campaign were just 5% of his Norwich career?! Fleming was between good and excellent for us for 10 years. Definitely the right pick for number 5.

[GodlyOtsemobor 2,248]

1 hour ago, canarydan23 said:

So the playoff final season, the title-winning season and the Premier League campaign were just 5% of his Norwich career?! Fleming was between good and excellent for us for 10 years. Definitely the right pick for number 5.

We've also struggled to replace the Fleming/Mackay partnership ever since in my opinion.

[The Great Mass Debater 1,078]

2 hours ago, Worthy Nigelton said:

I just remember 95% of his time here him being a very average centre half in a midtable Division One team that leaked a few goals. Newsome wasn't here long but was absolutely excellent in the short time he was.

I've never been a massve fan of Fleming but of the names I thought there were very few I could justify over him. I was originally going to put Bassong at 5, as I genuinely feel he is the best player to have worn that shirt. But it was either Bassong 5 and Carlton Morris 30 or Fleming 5 and Bassong 30 and I thought that was the better combo

[TheBaldOne66 681]

18 hours ago, GodlyOtsemobor said:

I wouldn't have Cody or  Camp usually but there wasn't much else in terms of choice for their numbers and with stefanovic it was a close call with David Nielsen for me (but his loan spell was alright so) 

 

Plus I based it off players I've seen, (only started going in 98 as a kid, so couldn't say if there's any worse) 

Where’s Sibierski? 🙈 

[GodlyOtsemobor 2,248]

34 minutes ago, TheBaldOne66 said:

Where’s Sibierski? 🙈 

Again so many choices and just thought Marney has to be the one to get in 🤣

[Worthy Nigelton 1,037]

6 hours ago, canarydan23 said:

So the playoff final season, the title-winning season and the Premier League campaign were just 5% of his Norwich career?! Fleming was between good and excellent for us for 10 years. Definitely the right pick for number 5.

The title winning season was the 5%. Undoubtedly had a good back five that year and he was part of that.

PL campaign we conceded loads from memory and play off I cant remember it being built on a great defence. Maybe I'm remembering it wrong but I thought he was very average much of the time.

[canarydan23 4,060]

1 minute ago, Worthy Nigelton said:

The title winning season was the 5%. Undoubtedly had a good back five that year and he was part of that.

PL campaign we conceded loads from memory and play off I cant remember it being built on a great defence. Maybe I'm remembering it wrong but I thought he was very average much of the time.

You're remembering it wrong.

[The Great Mass Debater 1,078]

1 hour ago, canarydan23 said:

You're remembering it wrong.

We decided Malky wouldnt cut it in the Prem (along with Iwan) and ditched them both. Fleming wasnt a Premier League standard defender but was considered good enough. The problem was his partner. We signed the Doc, but as we couldnt score turned to him as a striker and ended up playing 5'8" Simon Charlton at centre-back alongside Fleming. 

Yes Malky would have found the pace of the Premier League tough going, but he would have been better than that state of affairs Im sure.

Not giving him or Iwan a crack go down as equally big mistakes in my opinion as not signing Ashton in the summer rather than January.

It shows you just how feeble our finances were that we were playing a left back we got on a free at CB, couldnt afford to sign Ashton for £3m in the summer, and had to get a loan to afford to sign Hucks on a permanent for all of £750,000, with a loacl businessman paying his wages. In the world's most elite league. So glad things have changed!

[Worthy Nigelton 1,037]

19 hours ago, canarydan23 said:

You're remembering it wrong.

We conceded over 50 goals every season he was here except the title winning one. We also conceded 77 in the PL which was more than Farke's 19/20 PL season conceded.

League finishes of 15th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 6th, 8th, 1st, 19th (PL), 9th, 16th in his 10 seasons. So two out of 10 were good seasons.

I'm remembering it correctly.

[canarydan23 4,060]

25 minutes ago, Worthy Nigelton said:

We conceded over 50 goals every season he was here except the title winning one. We also conceded 77 in the PL which was more than Farke's 19/20 PL season conceded.

League finishes of 15th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 6th, 8th, 1st, 19th (PL), 9th, 16th in his 10 seasons. So two out of 10 were good seasons.

I'm remembering it correctly.

That's not really remembering though is it, that's contemporaneously looking at league finishes. And it seems like you're saying everyone who played between 1997 and 2000 was bang average? Or was Fleming dragging them all down and then got lucky when he was voted POTS in what was our best defensive season for god knows how many years by that point (in fact, it was a best defensive season for the next 17 years that followed too)?

And if you dig into the stats, you'll see that once Fleming got his feet under the table, our defence improved markedly. After a poor first season (though he didn't become a regular until midway through) we conceded 69 goals. We then reduced that to 61, then 58 (we've been promoted whilst conceding this many goals, btw), then 51, then 49, then 39.

So yes, we may have two out of ten good seasons (although given our recent attempts at staying up in the EPL, I'd probably have to revise the 04/05 season to being a good one in that we actually gave it a stab and nearly succeeded) but players can have good individual seasons whilst their team struggled, and Fleming had several.

I don't think I'll ever be surprised at the debates you can get dragged into on here, but having to argue that Craig Fleming was more than "very average much of the time" for us came close to surprising me, I'll give you that.

[ged in the onion bag 854]

Now Grant Holt was fantastic, but surely there can't be a debate that Sutton has been our best No. 9.    

[Worthy Nigelton 1,037]

20 minutes ago, canarydan23 said:

That's not really remembering though is it, that's contemporaneously looking at league finishes. And it seems like you're saying everyone who played between 1997 and 2000 was bang average? Or was Fleming dragging them all down and then got lucky when he was voted POTS in what was our best defensive season for god knows how many years by that point (in fact, it was a best defensive season for the next 17 years that followed too)?

And if you dig into the stats, you'll see that once Fleming got his feet under the table, our defence improved markedly. After a poor first season (though he didn't become a regular until midway through) we conceded 69 goals. We then reduced that to 61, then 58 (we've been promoted whilst conceding this many goals, btw), then 51, then 49, then 39.

So yes, we may have two out of ten good seasons (although given our recent attempts at staying up in the EPL, I'd probably have to revise the 04/05 season to being a good one in that we actually gave it a stab and nearly succeeded) but players can have good individual seasons whilst their team struggled, and Fleming had several.

I don't think I'll ever be surprised at the debates you can get dragged into on here, but having to argue that Craig Fleming was more than "very average much of the time" for us came close to surprising me, I'll give you that.

Sorry but I disagree, obviously I looked through the stats as I genuinely wondered if I was wrong. Of course not every player in those teams between 97 and 00 were bad as some went on to better clubs than us, Bellamy, Eadie, Lee Marshall, Mackay arguably, Kenton, Keith O'Neill. Fleming wasn't one of them and tellingly never linked with a move either (again from memory).

Fleming wasn't a bad player but he certainly wasn't someone I'd be putting up there as our best number 5 by a long stretch. He was okay, at a time when the club was okay, which was the case for 70/80% of the time he played here. This is a case of rose tinted glasses imo. 

[unique 434]

Any list that fails to start with:-

1. Kevin Keelan

….is invalid.