Where is it? Over the years the Number 9 shirt has been blessed by some of the best players to ever don the black and white stripes, from Willie Thompson to Alan Shearer, why is the position vacant?I’ve always thought that the number 9 shirt for Newcastle was “something special”, it reminds me of good days in my era with the likes of Sir Lez, Shearer, Andy Cole being in his peak, even Mick Quinn eating food from the crowd and to the likes of Waddler, Mirandinha, Varadi and the less memorable Goddard, nevertheless, names that always stick out in my mind, well Goddard maybe not, as I wrote this I had to be reminded of him.

Go back in time though and look at the names associated with the Number 9, Milburn and Macdonald possibly the most famed, but Davies and White, all famous and quite rightly remembered,

Present day and we really are scraping the barrel, I’m sorry but the vacant number 9 is quite rightly, vacant.

Nobody in the squad merits the privilege of wearing the shirt, and one can only assume, the players we have actually feel the same way, I mean can you compare any current striker to Shearer? Not a chance, you can hardly pit them up against Waddle or Mirandinha - when you think about it, it makes you quite sad.

The 2000’s or the noughties have been memorable but mostly for the wrong reasons, there were decent times in the early part but relegation will always overshadow an era, and we start a new decade with a squad that works hard without any greats.

It is about the goals in the number 9 shirt, thats for sure, but we need someone who is worthy, someone we can look up too and say, soomeone worthy of the number 9.

As I see it, the days of the famous number 9 are gone, at least for Newcastle United, so RIP and thanks for the memory!

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