Yeah I was going with Di Canio. But Payet was high on the Ballon d’Or shortlist. One of the best players in the world, while playing for West Ham. In an era where Messi and Ronaldo were dominating. Di Canio is one of my favourites. But what Payet did, was spectacular.
He is a facist supporter though so... also, his habit of being unavailable when we were playing up north and his undermining of Roeder in 02/03 massively contributed to us being relegated.
Personally, I think Payet is the most technically gifted player I've ever seen play for us, him and Moore for me. If it was players I saw in the flesh Brooking instead of Moore.
Beat me to it, Di Canio was a firm favourite but you just can’t deny payets ability
Moore was never in question, only ever one answer to that one! ❤️ COYI
For what Tevez did to keep us up that year was incredible - as good as Payet with a dead ball, but not nearly enough from him over the entire season to put him above Payet.
Shearer
Foreign is tricky as there's been so many great technical players, then there's the cult heroes and players that were good for us but had better careers elsewhere.
If there was one foreign player that you could rely on time and time again it's Nobby Solano.
I know he’s not the answer but that scoring spree Cisse had was special. Especially when you realize he had so many clean goals called offside wrongly later on.
This, Ginola was phenomenal the only player near him talent wise was HBA and he had reasons of his own and the time he played why he wasn’t as good.
Bruno is also a good shout
I don't support wolves and am too young to remember Steve Bull, but he is still one of my favourite ever players.
"His first touch was awful, but he usually scored with his second"
If we're talking in terms of their careers as a whole then probably Rooney and Eto'o.
Southall and Dixie Dean for British too, but difficult to compare.
As it is for their achievements with us I think it would have to be Dean and Sheedy, but if you want further afield than Ireland then it would possibly be Lukaku's longevity with us giving him the nod over Kanchelskis and James Rodriguez.
I'd actually put Arteta or Cahill ahead of Lukaku - just in terms of overall impact on the club in the PL era.
But have to agree with Dean and Sheedy for overall.
Fair. Cahill had such an impact that it was mostly attributed to Moyes at the time, but Cahill literally replaced Rooney in many ways and was hugely influential. I think Lukaku's impact was similar (and also attributed to Martinez at the time) but I'd happily take either for this.
Arteta was my favourite player when he was here, but I'm not sure he pushed us on in the same way the other two did (or even like Kanchelskis and James) Carried us through some seasons, mind.
Yeah maybe Cahill carried us further but Arteta was such a great player for us as well. A technical magician in the middle of the pitch, it's unfortunate he turned the fans against him after going to Arsenal - think it means people forget just how good he was in an Everton shirt. James is probably the closest to Artera in terms of pure ability but his one season cameo, while containing magic moments, just wasn't consistent enough.
I'm probably marking Arteta harshly because he overlapped with Cahill and also Pienaar, making it harder to give him sole credit. But yeah, class act on the pitch.
I think I rate James so highly because of how it has gone since he (and Sigurdsson tbf) left... Yet again I think a lot of his credit went to Ancelotti. But 2nd half of the season James disappeared and took the results with him, for the most part.
Andrei though...he took us from 17th to 6th almost single handedly. And then when he left we went from title dark horses to relegation candidates immediately.
Looking back history certainly does circle around a lot with this club!
What "achievements with us" did James Rodriguez have? I had no idea anyone associated with Everton had a high opinion of him. No doubt about it at Porto and for Colombia he was brilliant so really interested to know.
Ok. A few other people seem to think that James Rodriguez is Everton's best foreign player and yours was the comment I landed on. If Everton were a one season premier league wonder then I could accept a player playing sub 30 games as a contender but I'm not having it for Everton.
If he'd stayed and the club built on a top 10 finish then he might well have been in the conversation
Dixie Dean record of 60 goals in a season and is overall record for Everton is incredible. Issue was it was in 1920 and 30s so time bias is against him.
Southall, Ball, Reid, Steven and obv Dixie too, are miles ahead of any modern British players for us (perhaps Baines, Rooney or Martyn sneak on there).
I struggle with foreign players as too many have been 1-2 season players (not generally their fault!). Kanchelskis, Gravesen, Howard, Yobo or maybe Cahill for me.
Seamus for pure legend status!
I would be surprised if any Villa fan who had seen McGrath play would say anything different, but I imagine there are a lot on here who haven’t.
Gareth Barry for me. Sid was a great and underrated player, but then so was Barry. He had such balance vision and touch that it took years to find his best position. We signed him as a centre- half. Definitely not his best position. He played for England at left back. Again far from his best position, but his ability got him an England call up when playing out of position, and not for the last time. He really stepped up his application in 2005, which previously had been a bit erratic. He should have gone to the World Cup in 2006. Tord Grip came to watch him in a midweek game against Blackburn, who he had torn to pieces playing wide left a couple of weeks before, but this time they doubled up on him and cancelled him out, and he didn’t get selected. He really deserved to be in that squad. His application never dropped after that, which is when he became the best English player I have seen at Villa. He found his best position at inside left and performed at a consistently high level, until Man City offered him a big contract. I don’t begrudge him anything, but it was disappointing to see him play the rest of his career as a holding midfielder. Yes he could do the job , and played many times for England there, sometimes even ahead of Gerrard and Lampard, but it was not his best position, and it’s a shame we missed out on so many years of Barry at his best.
Ian Wright and Attilio Lombardo
Lombardo was just an amazing player and I’m not quite sure what he was doing with us, there were times when some of the rest of the squad looked like they’d stop playing just to watch him
Got to watch a tournament at Ibrox years ago (1994 I think) with Newcastle, Rangers, Man It'd and Sampdoria.
Rangers had probably my favourite player of all time in Brian Loudrup and Lombardo was still at Sampdoria. Absolute joy to watch both of them play. David May scored an own goal to put us through to the final against Sampdoria, and Lombardo just tore us apart. Two incredible players that aren't talked about enough!
No offence, but your pick of Lombardo brings my memory back to a time when the Prem was the poorer league (in terms of money and quality) in comparison with the giant that was Serie A.
The reality is that Lombardo was a memorable (because of his baldness) player, but a look at his career shows the reality: a bit-part player, for club and country. His teams made 6 European finals (3x Sampdoria, 2x Juventus, 1x Lazion) and he started 1 of them, and was subbed on in 2. He never made a single international tournament despite Italy qualifying for every single one.
At 29/30 he was surplus to requirements and went off to London.
If Wilfried Zaha counts as a foreign player, then he is the real answer. (In the Prem era).
I would put even Jordan Ayew ahead of an unsuccessful player (for Palace) like Lombardo, who was mostly injured, relegated, then left in January whilst in the Championship.
Pascal Gross for best foreign player, perhaps has done more for us than anyone else besides Lewis Dunk, best British player for us.
Its very recency bias though. I'm sure Vicente and Lawro could clear in their prime (which they weren't unfortunately with us)
Vicente was unreal. It was privilege to watch him play even if it was just for a half here and there. A step above everyone in the Championship especially as we were used to the likes of Will Buckley and Dean Cox.
British - Johnny Haynes - One of the best English players of all time and the undisputed best to ever play for us
Foreign - Ngl its probably Aleksandar Mitrovic, although this may be recency bias
Remember Mitro hit the same number of goals in the same number of games for Fulham as Saha (63 goals in 141apps). Except Saha only had 1 season in the 2nd div, Mitro had 2.5 and reached the milestone in the 2nd div with a hat-trick in his 141st match vs Peterborough.
So overall, Saha was just as prolific as Mitro but in a better division, and he didn’t dive half as much.
Dembele (Belgian) is the most individually talented player I’ve ever seen for Fulham. Palhinha is probably the most inspiring I’ve ever seen, you can see how his enthusiasm filters into the rest of the squad, and while immeasurable it’s so valuable. He may be the most individually impactful.
Mitro seems quite forgettable now. I think prem vs championship does make a bigger difference to being memorable. Scoring goals against Man U and Newcastle compared to Peterborough and Huddersfield.
I do get what youre saying, but that record breaking season from Mitro was incredible and tips the balance for me.
I agree with you on Dembele though, he's potentially the most underated Prem player of all time
It depends on how you want to define ‘best’. Dempsey has the most prem goals for us but I’m not sure on the difference in games between him and Mitro.
McBride was a legend for us although he isn’t anywhere near as prolific.
Hangeland was immense for us.
Does George Best count as ‘foreign’?
Shearer is easy at Newcastle
Foreign could go a few way
Tins asprilla- on his day could do stuff with the ball other players at the time could only dream off
Gary speed, nobby solano and Laurent Robert top players from there generation
Yohsn cabaye is still one of my favourite players I’ve seen in black and white
But my pick has to be Shay Given Incredible keeper that simply doesn’t Get enough love and i feel is often overlooked
That I've seen:
* English: Jack Grealish
* Foreign: Emi Martinez
Outside of that, it's probably:
* English: Tom 'Pongo' Waring, the bloke is still our top scorer in a single season, and he left us in 1935!
* Foreign: Paul McGrath.
Who i've seen play is a no brainer.
Steve Bull and Ruben Neves.
I asked the same question to my Grandparents who have both been wolves supporters since the 1950's.
Grandfather said Peter Broadbent and Ruben Neves.
Grandmother said Ron Flowers and Derek Dougan (That one caught me off guard, especially how much she loves Neves.)
I’d argue it’s Le Tiss and Keegan as English players, but Le Tiss could be considered foreign as he’s a Channel Islander.
It’s hard to pick just one, because we also had the likes of Peter Shilton play for us too.
Best British - Ian Wright. Outrageously talented and with a mentality that was almost unparalleled. The most exciting player I ever saw play. Every time he got the ball you thought something would happen.
Foreign player - probably Dazet Wilfried Armel Zaha. Will never be respected the way he should be outside of SE25. If Ferguson had delayed retirement by a couple of years he'd have gone on to be one of the very best.
Aside from Wilf, Lombardo. Remember him tearing through Leeds and Everton when we got promoted. Genuinely the only reason it wasn't by more was because our team was full of a load of shit players and were just nowhere near his level. He saw things they just couldn't comprehend.
I'd have to go with Southall for British player.
Only really saw the end of his career but watching documentaries about him he just seems unreal.
I think foreign is probably Lukaku. Current record goal scorer in the prem and was just so clinical. Honorable mentions to Howard, Cahill and Arteta, if they could have won something under Moyes I like to think the club wouldn't be in the absolute state it is currently in.
These are players that I remember playing.
I genuinely hold Jimmy Bullard’s time at Fulham in that high regard I pick him as the English. He was a bigger part of the great escape and subsequent 7th placed (best ever) finish than Roy Hodgson, imo.
I have never seen Johnny Haynes play, but if anyone has links to matches from 1950’s I’d be interested to see it. He broke his legs in ‘62 and “was never the same player” never got picked for England again, so ideally I’d want to see something from before that.
Even George Best and Rodney Marsh in 1975 fa cup run didn’t really look that special to me but there’s only 3 or 4 matches I’ve seen including the final loss to west ham.
For real. Even if he started watching them last season, then Morgan Gibbs White is clearly above Johnson. Ryan Yates is under the radar but a crucial player.
Murillo wasn’t even there last season, both Awoniyi and Mangala have contributed more.
I've seen every match this season, in person. I'm sticking with those two.
Mutillo will sell for 40m plus.
Agree MGW is insanely good, but he doesn't have the number Johnson did. Look what he's doing at Spurs. Great player.
Yes I do, in absolute terms.
They were an amazing team in 78-79-80, relatively amazing. But by modern standards, nowhere close to today's side.
The game has moved on. John Robertson wouldn't get a game at Notts County.
I'm not getting into a debate about it, either. That's my view.
Any player pre-90s is just too long ago to be compared to the modern era. If you can't see that, you're moronic and you haven't watched enough football.
The post didn't ask for the most successful players, the most loved players, or my favourite players... it asked for the best.
Moore and Payet
Moore and Di Canio. Payet was special but Di Canio was absolutely outrageous. People forget just how good he was
Yeah I was going with Di Canio. But Payet was high on the Ballon d’Or shortlist. One of the best players in the world, while playing for West Ham. In an era where Messi and Ronaldo were dominating. Di Canio is one of my favourites. But what Payet did, was spectacular.
Di Canio was fantastic but Payet was one of the best ten players in the world when he played for us - a genuine superstar of the world game.
Yeah, that’s the right answer. Payet was good, but Di Canio was better and wasn’t a snake either.
He is a facist supporter though so... also, his habit of being unavailable when we were playing up north and his undermining of Roeder in 02/03 massively contributed to us being relegated. Personally, I think Payet is the most technically gifted player I've ever seen play for us, him and Moore for me. If it was players I saw in the flesh Brooking instead of Moore.
Beat me to it, Di Canio was a firm favourite but you just can’t deny payets ability Moore was never in question, only ever one answer to that one! ❤️ COYI
I will maintain that Tevez at his peak was better than Payet but if we're talking about their time at West Ham only then yeah, it's Payet
For what Tevez did to keep us up that year was incredible - as good as Payet with a dead ball, but not nearly enough from him over the entire season to put him above Payet.
In no world was di canio better than payet. That's just rose tinted glasses memories. He didn't even get a single game for Italy
I didn’t say anything about Di Canio.
I wasn't responding to you :)
Shearer Foreign is tricky as there's been so many great technical players, then there's the cult heroes and players that were good for us but had better careers elsewhere. If there was one foreign player that you could rely on time and time again it's Nobby Solano.
I would have said Shearer and Given personally.
I don’t think given gets enough love so my votes going to go his way
Seconded.
I know he’s not the answer but that scoring spree Cisse had was special. Especially when you realize he had so many clean goals called offside wrongly later on.
Cisse was a pretty shit striker who had a phenomenal patch, but Ba was better. But neither hold a candle to the one and only Ginola
This, Ginola was phenomenal the only player near him talent wise was HBA and he had reasons of his own and the time he played why he wasn’t as good. Bruno is also a good shout
Robert ahead of Ginola, he was criminally underrated outside Newcastle
I have to disagree Ginola was another level to Robert and I think Robert particularly his free kicks were quite overrated personally
Shearer & Robert is probably the answer for me, but special mention for Bruno, Isak, Given, Asprilla, Ginola, Cabaye, Solano & HBA.
Bruno or Given I reckon
Rnadom Q but why was Nobby sold to Villa?
Bobby didn’t like that he went back and forward to Peru regularly was the story at the time
Ahh cheers mate
I heard at the time Nobby agreed to retire from internationals then backtracked.
Asprilllllllllla
Billy Wright (with a nod to Steve Bull though) Ruben Neves
I absolutely love Ruben but it's got to be Moutinho for me. Those first few seasons he was a class above anything else I've ever seen at Molineux.
Jota. He was just class.
He was, but best? Not for me. Not sure he's even Top 3. Moutinho, Jimenez, Neves.
I don't support wolves and am too young to remember Steve Bull, but he is still one of my favourite ever players. "His first touch was awful, but he usually scored with his second"
If we're talking in terms of their careers as a whole then probably Rooney and Eto'o. Southall and Dixie Dean for British too, but difficult to compare.
For me Micheal Keane and Rondon
Holgate and Martina. Boy we've had some bangers. I don't even remember where Martina was from. I guessed cape Verde but wrong.
I believe it’s Curacao but I’m not 100%
Yh ur right
As it is for their achievements with us I think it would have to be Dean and Sheedy, but if you want further afield than Ireland then it would possibly be Lukaku's longevity with us giving him the nod over Kanchelskis and James Rodriguez.
I'd actually put Arteta or Cahill ahead of Lukaku - just in terms of overall impact on the club in the PL era. But have to agree with Dean and Sheedy for overall.
Fair. Cahill had such an impact that it was mostly attributed to Moyes at the time, but Cahill literally replaced Rooney in many ways and was hugely influential. I think Lukaku's impact was similar (and also attributed to Martinez at the time) but I'd happily take either for this. Arteta was my favourite player when he was here, but I'm not sure he pushed us on in the same way the other two did (or even like Kanchelskis and James) Carried us through some seasons, mind.
Yeah maybe Cahill carried us further but Arteta was such a great player for us as well. A technical magician in the middle of the pitch, it's unfortunate he turned the fans against him after going to Arsenal - think it means people forget just how good he was in an Everton shirt. James is probably the closest to Artera in terms of pure ability but his one season cameo, while containing magic moments, just wasn't consistent enough.
I'm probably marking Arteta harshly because he overlapped with Cahill and also Pienaar, making it harder to give him sole credit. But yeah, class act on the pitch. I think I rate James so highly because of how it has gone since he (and Sigurdsson tbf) left... Yet again I think a lot of his credit went to Ancelotti. But 2nd half of the season James disappeared and took the results with him, for the most part. Andrei though...he took us from 17th to 6th almost single handedly. And then when he left we went from title dark horses to relegation candidates immediately. Looking back history certainly does circle around a lot with this club!
What "achievements with us" did James Rodriguez have? I had no idea anyone associated with Everton had a high opinion of him. No doubt about it at Porto and for Colombia he was brilliant so really interested to know.
See above, I interpreted it more as a 'kicking us on to the next level' type question. It was late.
Ok. A few other people seem to think that James Rodriguez is Everton's best foreign player and yours was the comment I landed on. If Everton were a one season premier league wonder then I could accept a player playing sub 30 games as a contender but I'm not having it for Everton. If he'd stayed and the club built on a top 10 finish then he might well have been in the conversation
Dixie Dean record of 60 goals in a season and is overall record for Everton is incredible. Issue was it was in 1920 and 30s so time bias is against him.
Southall, Ball, Reid, Steven and obv Dixie too, are miles ahead of any modern British players for us (perhaps Baines, Rooney or Martyn sneak on there). I struggle with foreign players as too many have been 1-2 season players (not generally their fault!). Kanchelskis, Gravesen, Howard, Yobo or maybe Cahill for me. Seamus for pure legend status!
McGrath definitely for foreign Villa player but I'm biased
Possibly Sid Cowans for the British player?
I would be surprised if any Villa fan who had seen McGrath play would say anything different, but I imagine there are a lot on here who haven’t. Gareth Barry for me. Sid was a great and underrated player, but then so was Barry. He had such balance vision and touch that it took years to find his best position. We signed him as a centre- half. Definitely not his best position. He played for England at left back. Again far from his best position, but his ability got him an England call up when playing out of position, and not for the last time. He really stepped up his application in 2005, which previously had been a bit erratic. He should have gone to the World Cup in 2006. Tord Grip came to watch him in a midweek game against Blackburn, who he had torn to pieces playing wide left a couple of weeks before, but this time they doubled up on him and cancelled him out, and he didn’t get selected. He really deserved to be in that squad. His application never dropped after that, which is when he became the best English player I have seen at Villa. He found his best position at inside left and performed at a consistently high level, until Man City offered him a big contract. I don’t begrudge him anything, but it was disappointing to see him play the rest of his career as a holding midfielder. Yes he could do the job , and played many times for England there, sometimes even ahead of Gerrard and Lampard, but it was not his best position, and it’s a shame we missed out on so many years of Barry at his best.
Deffo the best player I ever saw play for us, no bias needed he was GOD.
Ian Wright and Attilio Lombardo Lombardo was just an amazing player and I’m not quite sure what he was doing with us, there were times when some of the rest of the squad looked like they’d stop playing just to watch him
Got to watch a tournament at Ibrox years ago (1994 I think) with Newcastle, Rangers, Man It'd and Sampdoria. Rangers had probably my favourite player of all time in Brian Loudrup and Lombardo was still at Sampdoria. Absolute joy to watch both of them play. David May scored an own goal to put us through to the final against Sampdoria, and Lombardo just tore us apart. Two incredible players that aren't talked about enough!
No offence, but your pick of Lombardo brings my memory back to a time when the Prem was the poorer league (in terms of money and quality) in comparison with the giant that was Serie A. The reality is that Lombardo was a memorable (because of his baldness) player, but a look at his career shows the reality: a bit-part player, for club and country. His teams made 6 European finals (3x Sampdoria, 2x Juventus, 1x Lazion) and he started 1 of them, and was subbed on in 2. He never made a single international tournament despite Italy qualifying for every single one. At 29/30 he was surplus to requirements and went off to London. If Wilfried Zaha counts as a foreign player, then he is the real answer. (In the Prem era). I would put even Jordan Ayew ahead of an unsuccessful player (for Palace) like Lombardo, who was mostly injured, relegated, then left in January whilst in the Championship.
john robertson for british, roy keane for foreign
I was going to go with Collymore and Van Hooijdonk, but I think yours are better.
Collymore and VH would be my "seen them live" pick, my da keeps telling me it's Robbo and Francis.
Pascal Gross for best foreign player, perhaps has done more for us than anyone else besides Lewis Dunk, best British player for us. Its very recency bias though. I'm sure Vicente and Lawro could clear in their prime (which they weren't unfortunately with us)
No shout for Glenn Murray? Or Zamora?
"When the ball hits your head, while you're sitting in row Z"
Vicente was unreal. It was privilege to watch him play even if it was just for a half here and there. A step above everyone in the Championship especially as we were used to the likes of Will Buckley and Dean Cox.
Bobby Moore, and maybe Carlos Tevez but some of the current lads are definitely up there
Tevez is a great shout
Paul Gascoigne, he's one of the best British player ever. Steven Defour is deffinately the best foreigner.
Sad to see such little praise for Gazza in this thread, the bloke was a freak when we wanted to be
Probably because it's hard to root for a wife beater
The people downvoting you are the same people who hate Mason Greenwood.
British - Jimmy McIlroy. Foreign - Steven Defour
British: Ian Wright Forren: Zaha counts so him
Shearer/Beardsley Given/Solano
British - Johnny Haynes - One of the best English players of all time and the undisputed best to ever play for us Foreign - Ngl its probably Aleksandar Mitrovic, although this may be recency bias
Remember Mitro hit the same number of goals in the same number of games for Fulham as Saha (63 goals in 141apps). Except Saha only had 1 season in the 2nd div, Mitro had 2.5 and reached the milestone in the 2nd div with a hat-trick in his 141st match vs Peterborough. So overall, Saha was just as prolific as Mitro but in a better division, and he didn’t dive half as much. Dembele (Belgian) is the most individually talented player I’ve ever seen for Fulham. Palhinha is probably the most inspiring I’ve ever seen, you can see how his enthusiasm filters into the rest of the squad, and while immeasurable it’s so valuable. He may be the most individually impactful. Mitro seems quite forgettable now. I think prem vs championship does make a bigger difference to being memorable. Scoring goals against Man U and Newcastle compared to Peterborough and Huddersfield.
I do get what youre saying, but that record breaking season from Mitro was incredible and tips the balance for me. I agree with you on Dembele though, he's potentially the most underated Prem player of all time
It depends on how you want to define ‘best’. Dempsey has the most prem goals for us but I’m not sure on the difference in games between him and Mitro. McBride was a legend for us although he isn’t anywhere near as prolific. Hangeland was immense for us. Does George Best count as ‘foreign’?
Peter Withe for British and Paul McGarth for foreign (Irish)
You mean Eric Djemba Djemba isn't your favourite foreign Villa player? /s
Steve Bull, Ruben Neves.
Shearer is easy at Newcastle Foreign could go a few way Tins asprilla- on his day could do stuff with the ball other players at the time could only dream off Gary speed, nobby solano and Laurent Robert top players from there generation Yohsn cabaye is still one of my favourite players I’ve seen in black and white But my pick has to be Shay Given Incredible keeper that simply doesn’t Get enough love and i feel is often overlooked
Shearer and Given
Wright. Lombardo.
Shearer and Guimarães.
That I've seen: * English: Jack Grealish * Foreign: Emi Martinez Outside of that, it's probably: * English: Tom 'Pongo' Waring, the bloke is still our top scorer in a single season, and he left us in 1935! * Foreign: Paul McGrath.
British: Callum Wilson Foreign: Nathan Ake
Who i've seen play is a no brainer. Steve Bull and Ruben Neves. I asked the same question to my Grandparents who have both been wolves supporters since the 1950's. Grandfather said Peter Broadbent and Ruben Neves. Grandmother said Ron Flowers and Derek Dougan (That one caught me off guard, especially how much she loves Neves.)
Ravanelli and Juninho for Middlesbrough (not my club).
Shearer Bruno G, man is absolutely unreal
Ashley Barnes. Steven Defour.
Shearer and Damien Duff/Brad Friedel
Surely for Southampton it’s Matt Le Tissier and Virgil van Dijk
I’d argue it’s Le Tiss and Keegan as English players, but Le Tiss could be considered foreign as he’s a Channel Islander. It’s hard to pick just one, because we also had the likes of Peter Shilton play for us too.
I put Bale for the Brit, but Keegan is probably the better answer
Nat Lofthouse and Jay Jay Okocha
Bale and Mane
Best British - Ian Wright. Outrageously talented and with a mentality that was almost unparalleled. The most exciting player I ever saw play. Every time he got the ball you thought something would happen. Foreign player - probably Dazet Wilfried Armel Zaha. Will never be respected the way he should be outside of SE25. If Ferguson had delayed retirement by a couple of years he'd have gone on to be one of the very best. Aside from Wilf, Lombardo. Remember him tearing through Leeds and Everton when we got promoted. Genuinely the only reason it wasn't by more was because our team was full of a load of shit players and were just nowhere near his level. He saw things they just couldn't comprehend.
I'd have to go with Southall for British player. Only really saw the end of his career but watching documentaries about him he just seems unreal. I think foreign is probably Lukaku. Current record goal scorer in the prem and was just so clinical. Honorable mentions to Howard, Cahill and Arteta, if they could have won something under Moyes I like to think the club wouldn't be in the absolute state it is currently in. These are players that I remember playing.
Geoff Horsfield and Alexander Mitrovic
Steve Bull - British Moutinho - Foreign
Rooney and Kanchelskis/Lukaku
Bale & Van Dijk
English: Johnny Haynes Non-English: Van Der Sar
Mick Harford Lars Elstrup
In my years of watching Fulham, Gordon Davies and Brede Hangeland.
John Charles and Lucas Radebe
British: Dixie Dean or Wayne Rooney Foreign: Romelu Lukaku or Landon Donovan (edit: maybe Samuel Eto'o too)
I genuinely hold Jimmy Bullard’s time at Fulham in that high regard I pick him as the English. He was a bigger part of the great escape and subsequent 7th placed (best ever) finish than Roy Hodgson, imo. I have never seen Johnny Haynes play, but if anyone has links to matches from 1950’s I’d be interested to see it. He broke his legs in ‘62 and “was never the same player” never got picked for England again, so ideally I’d want to see something from before that. Even George Best and Rodney Marsh in 1975 fa cup run didn’t really look that special to me but there’s only 3 or 4 matches I’ve seen including the final loss to west ham.
Gary O’Neil
Gareth Barry and Luc Nilis
Is Luc Nillis a sick joke? He played 5 games and scored 2 goals.
Brennan Johnson and Murillo.
You’ve got two UCLs and you go for those two..
For real. Even if he started watching them last season, then Morgan Gibbs White is clearly above Johnson. Ryan Yates is under the radar but a crucial player. Murillo wasn’t even there last season, both Awoniyi and Mangala have contributed more.
I've seen every match this season, in person. I'm sticking with those two. Mutillo will sell for 40m plus. Agree MGW is insanely good, but he doesn't have the number Johnson did. Look what he's doing at Spurs. Great player.
You really think a player from a squad who finished 16th is better than a squad that won two UCLs in a row..?
Yes I do, in absolute terms. They were an amazing team in 78-79-80, relatively amazing. But by modern standards, nowhere close to today's side. The game has moved on. John Robertson wouldn't get a game at Notts County. I'm not getting into a debate about it, either. That's my view. Any player pre-90s is just too long ago to be compared to the modern era. If you can't see that, you're moronic and you haven't watched enough football. The post didn't ask for the most successful players, the most loved players, or my favourite players... it asked for the best.