Twelve banished players valued at £183.6m have completely lost their shirt this summer, including Sterling
Chelsea star Raheem Sterling is not the only Premier League player who has notably been demoted or even entirely stripped of their shirt number this season.
Gavin Kilkenny (demoted from Bourneouth’s No. 26 AND No. 28)
A veteran of 25 appearances for the Cherries, loans throughout the Football League in three successive seasons have seen Kilkenny’s Premier League stock diminish to the extent that he has quite carelessly lost not one, not five but two squad numbers this summer.
After lending Enes Unal the 26 for the second half of 2024/25, he kindly let the striker have it for good when that move was made permanent. Kilkenny took on the 28 instead, as still stated by both the Premier League and official Bournemouth website – which is fine but fellow new signing Julian Araujo wore that number against Nottingham Forest so there might be some awkward conversations on the horizon.
Mahmoud Dahoud (demoted from Brighton’s No. 8)
There can be no particular surprise on the part of Dahoud that Brighton have taken away the 8 shift, considering his 14 appearances for the club last season slowly descended into the embarrassment of that straight red card against Sheffield United and half-time substitution against Burnley on his return in December – his last Premier League match.
Roberto De Zerbi pushed for the signing and soon realised his mistake but not even a change of manager has offered Dahoud the hope of a fresh start. Brighton’s ambitious summer recruitment provided plenty of options to take such a prominent number and new winger Brajan Gruda was only too happy to oblige; Dahoud has been demoted all the way to No. 35.
Raheem Sterling (stripped of Chelsea’s No. 7)
For seven seasons, Sterling wore the No. 7 with distinction for Manchester City. That was not possible upon his switch to Chelsea because of the selfishness of N’Golo Kante but once the midfielder left for Saudi Arabia, the shirt was bestowed upon the first signing of the Todd Boehly era.
For one campaign, Sterling wore the No. 7 with ignominy for Chelsea. Then they signed Pedro Neto and fobbed him off; it really was a catastrophic transfer.
Trevoh Chalobah (stripped of Chelsea’s No. 14)
Chelsea’s £25m valuation of Chalobah is drastically at odds with their treatment of an academy graduate who should ordinarily be attracting interest from the mid-table and perhaps even upper echelons. A centre-half with Premier League and European experience at elite level has had his worth systematically dismantled by the very same club who might be left racking their incredibly clever brains when no-one indulges them and hands over some more delicious pure profit.
Chalobah has had his rights as a first-team player revoked and his squad number removed entirely, given to new old signing Joao Felix, for the apparent crime of being in the Chelsea system from the age of eight and thus not previously having been signed by these sagacious owners.
Armando Broja (stripped of Chelsea’s No. 19)
Neto has taken the shirt number off more Chelsea teammates than he has made Chelsea appearances. He has only grabbed the No. 7 off Sterling’s back after making his debut for the Blues against Manchester City while wearing what was previously Broja’s No. 19.
Broja remains a Chelsea employee for the time being, presumably counting down the hours until his loan move to Ipswich with a £30m obligation is ratified.
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Sam Johnstone (demoted from Crystal Palace’s No. 1)
‘New day new number’ was the message from Johnstone on Instagram, his frustration hardly masked by the inclusion of four laughing emojis alongside said fresh digit: the illustrious No. 32, last worn by Levi Lumeka in 2017/18.
The writing, to be fair, was on the wall when Dean Henderson started the last 10 Premier League games of 2023/24. Johnstone quite justifiably wishes to leave for more playing opportunities, and Palace themselves want £10m for their troubles.
Carlos Vinicius (stripped of Fulham’s No. 30)
Imagine losing the No.30 shirt and not even being given anything to replace it. Ryan Sessegnon is the captain now.
Christian Walton (demoted from Ipswich’s No. 1)
While he fared admirably against Liverpool, Christian Walton can be under no impression that he is Ipswich’s starting keeper when the playing field is level. He featured for a solitary minute of their Championship promotion campaign as back-up to Vaclav Hladky and was only selected on the opening day due to an injury to Aro Muric, the new No. 1 in at least two senses.
Freddie Ladapo (stripped of Ipswich’s No. 9)
It seems equally unlikely that Ladapo expected to see too much of Ipswich’s Premier League season up close. Even a place in the matchday squad might be beyond a 31-year-old striker who spent the second half of last campaign scoring one goal in 14 games for League One side Charlton.
His No. 9 remains theoretically up for grabs, surely destined for Broja until Neto mugs him off again when Chelsea find another loophole in the Premier League handbook which allows all losses to be written off if you sell someone to Ipswich.
Paul Onuachu (demoted from Southampton’s No. 12)
Onuachu was remarkable fun the last time Southampton graced the Premier League, filling the Guido Carrillo role of tall striker signed for an eye-watering fee in a panicky January before going on to do the sum total of nothing. Saints spent £18m on the Genk centre-forward, who failed to score in his 411 minutes.
A productive season in Turkey – the best place for an expensive and floppy Premier League striker to rediscover their scoring touch – meant Onuachu was in the perfect form to relinquish his No. 12 shirt to £3m centre-half Ronnie Edwards, taking the No. 32 on the half-chance he ever graces a Carabao bench.
Maxwel Cornet (demoted from West Ham’s No. 17)
It is not a drastic crash from No. 17 to No. 22 but in the case of Cornet it absolutely represents a further fall down the pecking order. West Ham paid £17.5m to sign a forward who has since started nine games for them in two years, initially giving him the No. 14, so his descent has actually been from an even greater height.
Cornet did not make the opening bench for the Aston Villa defeat. Nor, actually, did his No. 17 usurper, Luis Guilherme. But the prospects of the latter are undeniably stronger under Julen Lopetegui.
Fabio Silva (stripped of Wolves’ No. 9)
In the pantheon of disastrous club-record transfers, only a precious few could possibly rival the £36.5m capture of Fabio Silva by Wolves in September 2020. Then 18, the forward’s senior career comprised of 21 games – of which only five were starts – three goals and two assists when Nuno Espirito Santo’s side signed him to a five-year contract they are rifling through for clauses to terminate 12 months early.
Wolves might have taken that return. The Portuguese has scored more goals for Anderlecht and Rangers as part of three loan spells designed to drum up enough vague interest to find a buyer. No such thing has materialised and so there Silva remains, on the Molineux books but no longer their official No. 9, replaced by another loanee (for now) in Jorgen Strand Larsen.
Wolves, as it happens, no longer work with Jorge Mendes quite so closely.
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