Shirt numbers, Internet grumblers and a bunch of big-money crying babies

There are stories of when players used to play with blood literally oozing down their noses. The football field was a battle field. Nothing like what is seen these days. Not even close if the stories of things unseen are to be believed. Faith, right?

Things are different now, obviously. There is Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and a whole lot of an internet sensation called social media. Don’t get it wrong, for coverage of the game, social media has sparked significant improvement.

However if inside gossips are to be believed, some players with nice hairstyles like Marouane Chamakh and Paul Pogba spend more time looking for the style to rock for the next matchday than the time they actually do train for the football game. So you see? Things have changed.

If age is just a number, why can’t football shirt numbers be, well just numbers?

The latest of the shirt number episode comes all the way from Manchester, a certain Old Trafford where Jose Mourinho is the boss.

Now in case you don’t know this, Manchester United is a football club playing in the English Premier League. They have a new manager who is a former manager of another English Premier League club Chelsea FC in the name of Jose Mourinho.

Jose Mourinho after his appointment wants to reshuffle his squad ahead of the new football season. So he looked around and found a Sweden international who brands himself as ‘god’. His name is Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Now Ibrahimovic’s ego is so big that he typically gets what he wants.

And he did get what he wants upon arrival at Manchester United. First, an extra time off on him reporting for pre-season training and second, at the expense of a young Manchester United player called Anthony Martial.