Come in Number 1
The 2006-07
squad numbers were provisionally announced today, no real surprises except the lack of a number 1 goalkeeper.
There will be no number 1 after Andersen (16), Myhre (36) and Randolph (33) all kept their jersey's from last season, with no one stepping into Dean Kiely's vacant shirt. What does this tell us about Dowie's goalkeeper preference? Is he keeping it under wraps for Swedish national keeper Andreas Isaksson, who Dowie is rumoured to have agreed a fee of
£1.2 million for? The Swede certainly has a good pedigree - Juventus, Rennes - so maybe Dowie wants to break up the uncertainty surrounding the first choice Addicks' keeper. If Isaksson did come in, I would expect Andersen to leave with Myhre staying as number 2 or 36.
A couple of season's ago I noted my displeasure that Kish had become our number 7, but to fair to the bloke, whenever he pulled on the red top, he did give it his best shot, even if he wasn't Robert Lee or Colin Powell, but as for Marcus Bent?
Here are the provisional squad numbers:2 Luke Young
3 Hermann Hreidarsson
4 Gonzalo Sorondo
6 Radostin Kishishev
7 Marcus Bent
8 Matt Holland
9 Jason Euell
10 Darren Bent
11 Darren Ambrose
12 Kevin Lisbie
14 Jerome Thomas
15 Talal El Karkouri
16 Stephan Andersen
17 Cory Gibbs
18 Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink
19 Dennis Rommedahl
20 Bryan Hughes
21 Simon Walton
24 Jonathan Fortune
26 Kelly Youga
27 Rob Elliot
28 Osei Sankofa
29 Lloyd Sam
30 Myles Weston
31 Alistair John
32 Michael Carvill
33 Darren Randolph
34 Jani Tanska
35 Nathan Ashton
36 Thomas Myhre
37 James Walker
39 Rurik Gislason