I know from below that most people are against the idea of KP and TH having their shirts retired. Personally I would like to see KP's shirt retired, but definatley not TH's.
IMO KP was one of the finest players to not only play for the Steelers, but to also to play in British. He came here and spent 5 magic years here (1 more than TH) and then he ended his career here.
TH was a fine player in his own right, but shirt retirement? No thankyou. He spent 4 years here then wandered off back to Scotland not on the greatest of terms. When he returned it was never a case of a Steelers legend returning.
Ronnie Wood, Tim Cranston, Ken Priestlay and Tony Hand? I know which one looks out of place.
P.S Any chance of getting Tommy Plommer over for the game as well?
Ken Priestlay's career is still ongoing, why do you think he's going to be here on Jan 21?
Some Storm fans had a similar discussion on the ITS forum about retiring Mike Morin's #15, he played five out of Storm's six years in existence, and even then the view of many was that he deserved to be honoured in some way, but not by retiring his number, not for just five years.
It's not about the skill level of the player (if it were, we could retire #9 for Kevin Miehm), it's about loyalty and committment to a particular club - Randall Weber deserved it, Paul Adey should be retired (by the Panthers, not by us). Love him to bits as we do, Rick Brebant probably should not. (Maybe IHUK could do a Gretzky and retire his number throughout the league?)
This move smacks of a publicity stunt, and as much as the club needs to bring in money, cheapening a time-honoured tradition like this is not the way.
After reading all the moaning and groaning from fans about the retirement of shirts, I think I have to give my opinions on this.
1 - Personnaly, Im looking forward to seeing the ceremony, as I have never seen such a ceremony.
2 - It might look like a publicity stunt, but name all the parties who get the publicity, the club involved yeah but who else. Taken me ages to think about this one, but possibbly............ THE PLAYER.
At the end of the day Sheffield are doing it all. Let the players have there night of honour, and have some fun.
Chris, Maybe my friend you could do with stop moaning like a granny and smile about life. Just think, you could be a panther fan. :D