Aston Villa confirm Marcus Rashford shirt number

Marcus Rashford will finish the season wearing Aston Villa's number nine shirt recently vacated by Jhon Duran following completion of his loan from Manchester United.

Rashford has spoken of his desire to "play football" after falling horribly out of favour with Ruben Amorim at Old Trafford, having failed to impress the United head coach in training.

The 27-year-old, who has also revealed Villa's ambition to have been a motivating factor in the move, represents a calculated gamble for Unai Emerys side.

On his day, Rashford is a top Premier League calibre forward, but he hasn't performed consistently for 18 months and Villa are liable for 75% of his wages. He and they will be hoping a fresh start, even if only the next few months is mapped, will help the player return to his past form.

Rashford has never previously worn the number nine in singularity at senior level. He had 39 on his back when he made a sudden breakthrough with Manchester United in 2016, trading down to 19 a few months later in his first full season as a first-team player.

Rashford then took over the club's number 10 shirt from Zlatan Ibrahimovic in 2018 and had occupied it ever since. His shirt numbers with England over the years have tended to be 10 or 11, or higher substitute numbers deeper into the squad.

History of Aston Villa's No.9 shirt (post-1993)

Since fixed squad numbers became a permanent fixture in English football from 1993 onwards, Villa's number nine shirt has had a mixed history to say the least.

Jhon Duran looked set for a starring role with it on his back, but had the shirt only a few months before Villa cashed in on the Colombian talent by selling him to Al Nassr.

The less said about expensive flops Scott Hogan, Wesley and Danny Ings the better. Nicklas Helenius didn't cost a lot but managed only three Premier League appearances, while Marlon Harewood scored five Premier League goals and Scott Sinclair arrived in a paricuarly bad era.

Towards the better end of the spectrum, Darren Bent had a decent record until tearing an ankle ligament in 2012. Savo Milosevic was considered a flop at the time, but averaged one goal every three Premier League appearances, not bad at all by the standard of some successors. Juan Pablo Angel remains the Premier League's top scoring Colombian by some distance, although it should be pointed out that most of his tally came wearing eight and 18, not nine.

The bar for Villa number nines in the last 30 years remains Dion Dublin. He didn't initially wear nine and his goal record never quite recovered from a neck injury in 1999, but he finished with 57 to his name for Villa across all competitions by the time of his 2004 departure, aged 35.

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