"?Manchester United pair Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Eric Bailly were pictured in the first training session with their new team-mates on Wednesday following high profile summer arrivals from Borussia Dortmund and Villarreal respectively.
Perhaps even more interestingly, there was a hint in the images as to which squad numbers each player will be wearing during the course of the upcoming 2016/17 season.
Hey there, I'm now on Instagram? Enjoyed my first training sessions with the team @ManUtd ?https://t.co/IynoxkZTJ8 pic.twitter.com/M4EbcWltWE
This writer has already reasoned and speculated that Mkhitaryan will have 22 on his back for United, the number he wore during a very successful spell at Shakhtar Donetsk, and the Armenian did indeed have 22 on the front of his training kit.
The shirt was vacated by Nick Powell when he was released at the end of last season, while Wayne Rooney currently occupies the number 10 shirt that Mkhitaryan wore in Germany.
Squad numbers not final and will be subject to change until August, but this is how it stands at the moment. #MUFC pic.twitter.com/0QfkLIzR0R
United have been very clear to state that numbers worn by players now are not final and are subject to change. Indeed, Memphis Depay (9 to 7) and Bastian Schweinsteiger (23 to 31) both changed during pre-season last summer. But it's certainly a solid indicator for the time being.
United players once used to wear all kinds of random numbers at training but that has noticeably changed over the last few years. As such, the rest of the squad, including the likes of Michael Carrick, Luke Shaw, Ashley Young, Ander Herrera and others, all had their usual digits.
Bailly, who many believe will become Chris Smalling's regular central defensive partner, was wearing number 6 on his training gear. Nobody wore that last season, with Jonny Evans the last to have used it. Prior to that the number 6 was worn by Wes Brown for the best part of a decade.
Having been involved with Sweden at Euro 2016 and still on holiday, Zlatan Ibrahimovic is yet to begin pre-season. The veteran striker was strongly rumoured to be taking the number 8 shirt after some ambiguous lip-reading of a club video sent social media in meltdown.
A number of sources have since indicated that is unlikely, regardless of Juan Mata's future, with most still speculating that he could actually take number 9 if Anthony Martial really is to move to either 7, currently occupied by Memphis, or 11, currently occupied by Adnan Januzaj.
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