The problem with numbers is that, as a means of conveyance, they can flatten facts.
Take, for example, Wayne Rooney’s 250 goals for Manchester United.
Perhaps because it’s been built up for so long, perhaps because Messrs Messi and Ronaldo seem to score that many per season these days, perhaps because it’s Wayne, the number and the scale of his achievement seems to have been diluted.
The whole point of football is to unite ball and net. Be it by wallop, caress, nut, bludgeon, stroke or waft, the aim of the game is to put the little white thing inside the big white thing.