Colin Powell, Mark Kinsella, Scott Parker, Radostin Kishishev. Influential number sevens who have intrigued, engaged and in some cases enraged the crowd at The Valley. And now, with Andy Reid taking over the coveted number, we have another talented, entertaining, skillful midfielder able to manipulate games in the attacking third.
I first saw Reid play live for Nottingham Forest at MK Dons. Prior to the match I asked Alan Curbishley whether he was there to check up on the Irish play-maker. Curbs told me he was only there to watch a good game of football. So clearly I was right; after all no-one would choose Milton Keynes in the search for a "good game of football".
Charlton missed out then and Reid was snapped up by the Tottenham Hotspur in the January window in 2005. But Reid ditched the Spuds a year and a half later when Charlton offered £3m for him.
Andy Reid was given the captain's arm-band for the opening League game of the 2007-2008 season.
Factoid: Andy Reid's weight gives rise to a lot of inaccurate comment by fans. So, to clarify, his Body Mass Index, based on the figures given on the Charlton website (80kg and 1.75m) is 26.122448, placing him in the overweight category. This should put an end to all that "big-boned" nonsense.