The Mail Bag
Best and Worst
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As there has been little to talk about over the International break, I thought I would attempt a light-hearted look back through history. So, the rules are, one player who has been the best in a Blue shirt, and one who has been the worst. You must have seen them play LIVE, even if only once.
Here goes with mine: best, Kanchelskis. I was quite simply mesmerised by him. Worst, Espen Baardsen. He only played the one game, in a 4-3 defeat at Spurs, which was my first away game outside of Lancashire, and was absolutely and utterly terrible.
Stewart Littler, Posted 18/11/2009 at 00:35:06
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Given that it’d been 32 years coming, I sat in the Family Enclosure pretty much speechless for the match until Marcus put the winner past Mark Schwartzer; but I remember thinking that Tommy looked all class that day, Weir, Stubbs and Hibbert (keeping Dowling completely under control) looked solid at the back, and Marcus Bent worked his socks off chasing lost causes from the likes of Kilbane.
(2) I confess that I sat there thinking, as the fourth crashed in and the Chang kicked in, ’I’m nuts. What am I doing here? Why do I care about this place or this team? Why have I spent hundreds of pounds getting me and my family here?, (etc.)’
(3) We looked good in the first half, but went to sleep in the second. I know he’s got a lot of stick lately elsewhere on this site, but for your worst, I thought Jo was pretty ordinary on the day seeing him in the flesh (as it were) — weak, easily brushed off the ball, not much skill. It’ll probably get an adverse response, but on my assessment Jack Rodwell didn’t look much better that day.
The worst has got to be Claus Thompson who was a complete donkey.
Best Goalkeeper - big Nev by a country mile
Best Defender - Kevin Ratcliffe... though Richard Gough gave us a sublime end of career season in a poor team
Best Midfielder: Peter Reid - though, Sheedy comes close; some of the football we played when Sheedy had a spell in the middle of the park was breathtaking
Best Forward - Sharpy (Every striking partner he played with raved about him)
Best Manager - Howard K MK1
Worst Goalkeeper - Richard Wright
Worst Defender - Billy Wright (The Younger)
Worst Midfielder - Claus Thompson the phrase ’ truly shite’ does not do him justice
Worst Forward - Alan Biley, but he is up against stiff opposition
Worst Manager - That twat whose name I can’t remember who came from Norwich with a big reputation... Mike Walker
Worst Ref - Clattenburg
Worst pie at an away ground - a still frozen steak pie at Notts County which gave me the shits for three weeks
Best Goalkeeper - Has to be Neville Southhall. Hes even my daughters hero and she only saw him play on that celebrities v ex pros game a few years back!!
Best Defender - Ian Snodin when he played half a season as sweeper and got into the England squad before injury ruined his career.
Best Midfielder: Tricky Trevor Steven. Just Class
Best Forward - Big Bob. My 1st hero
Worst Goalkeeper - Richard Wright (nothing needs adding there!!)
Worst Defender - Alec Clelland (Were we THAT bad???)
Worst Midfielder - Paul Lodge (how bas was he????)
Worst Forward - Mick Ferguson (absolutely woeful!!)
And while we’re at it, how about a Best Unsung Heroes XI? Those players who may not have been the classiest but gave it their best shot. Paul Power, John Hurst, Alan Harper, Bobby Mimms having to step into Nev’s boots come to mind...
His winning goal against the shite in the FA Cup tie from an acute angle was one of the most euphoric moments of my life!
The worst player is more difficult as there has been so much crap in my lifetime. If sheer frustration (on my part) is any measure, Simon Davies would take some beating.
Best goalkeeper is obvious, Neville was the best in the world for me at the time. Best defender, for me it would have to be Brian Labone but Ratcliffe runs him a close second.
But a lot depends on who you did see and consequently how old you are! My dad’s favourite player was Dixie (for obvious reasons!) and his best defender was Tommy Jones. He also thought Bobby Collins was better than Alan Ball. Well...there ya go!
Unlikely Best: Andy Hinchcliffe: Was on one of those streaks of form where every deadball was delivered with perfection and his corners were unplayable.
Luckily his actual poor defending was eclipsed with much aplomb by...
Worst: Marc Hottiger: Standing right beside him in defence, Marc was very very very poor. I think he even scored in a goalmouth scramble, but was still crap on a stick with a funny haircut. International? Really?
Peter Reid I should add, I consider a very close second.
Both reminded me of sticks of rock with the word ’WIN’ going right the way through.
(nb: imo, we continue to miss a genuinely hard, bad-tempered, mouthy, narky little bastard in midfield)
Honourable mentions for Sharp, Sheedy, Southall.
Worst?
Simply too many to mention.
I cried when he left and I cried when he died!
Worst - Alan Biley - signed for his resmblance to Rod Stewart - absolute plantpot!
Best - Wayne Rooney.
Favourite - Anders Limpar. People always remember Kanchelskis’ left foot goal at Anfield in 95/6, but Limpar’s run through the midfield to set it up was brilliant. He always had his head up. Two other high profile examples would be the way he brought the ball out of defence in the 95 cup semi and final and created a goal on both occassions.
Best by definition was Neville Southall as he was the best in his position in the world, but for sheer edge-of-seat-expectation-every-time-he-gets-the-ball usally followed by jaw-dropping wonderment, then I’m afraid nobody comes close to Wayne Rooney for me. I’ll never forget the clear thought I had after seeing him score at Highbury - sitting down amidst the wild celebrations thinking "He’s Ours - I can’t believe he’s ours". Not for much longer he wasn’t :( (though I’ve still never seen him perform better than he did for us against Bolton at Goodison)
I’ve been pondering over my worst for a while but I’m going to plump for Nyarko with Claus Thomsen a very close second. Oh and Jo a very close third.
Can I start a new thread in this and pick our best and worst games. My best is beating Man Utd 1 nil in 2005, the atmosphere that night was awesome, my worst is probably the 4 nil hammering at home to Bolton the following season.
As for bellends, Rodney Belfitt, the creature from the depths of Suffolk who came here in place of David Johnson who went the other way.
Another staggeringly inept bit of business from the club which had just sold Bally.
The worst:, too many to list, but most hated has to be Barmby.
Worst - Glen Keeley (all 23 minutes of him).
A Dobson crackerjack at Anfield in a 0-3 loss was the best goal I ever saw after Sharpy’s, also at Anfield. Didn’t get to see Dixie play except scoring the goal at Wembley on an old BBC archive but had the pleasure of being presented a medal by him. Rooney is clearly the best of the homegrown players in recent years.
Reidy derserves a mention as EJ says as he was the heartbeat of the 80’s team and a true hard bastard.
My dad would say the Golden Vision.
Worst: Can’t believe no-one has mentioned Glen Keely; what a twat Rush made him look in 1 half, nightmare.
Rooney best player, I couldn't believe the performance he put in against Bolton, and even more unbelievable that he didn't score. You don't see him run at teams anymore like he did for us. Perhaps it might have something to do with him having good players to pass to at Utd.
Worst player... hmm the player I have slagged off the most is probably Osman but I wouldn't say he was the worst. Jo or Simon Davis probably.
Worst, easy one that dopey blonde bastard Iam Wilson... fucking hated him, that lazy, useless cun... nearly!
One good thing about getting old is having good memories. Luckily for me, in football at least, I forget the bad ones!
Worse by a country mile Ian Wilson.
Tony stole my thunder but I’ll fill in the missing T from Cun
What I can do is list my favourite eleven, which is, Gordon West [60s]; Alex Parker [60s], Jock Lindsay [50s], Jimmy Gabriel [60s], Brian Labone [50s/60s], Peter Farrell [40s/50s], Trevor Steven [80s], Wally Fielding [40s/50s], Alex Young [60s], Peter Beardsley [90s], Tommy Ring [60s].
I have had to leave out some exceptional players the likes of Ball, Kendall, Harvey, Vernon, Southall, Morrissey,and Latchford. The list is endless so I may as well stop now. As I say these are my favourites, [not necessarily the best in their respective positions], it would be interesting to see what others make of it.
To be truthful, the list of my least favourite players is also quite lengthy and includes, Lawson, Barrett, Nulty, Belfitt, Spencer, and Johnston, I think I should call a halt now.
Sigh. Different world.
Not mentioned yet but Mickael Madar, I remember us battling for our lives against Coventry I think, when every point mattered and he just kept giving the ball away, what's the saying? — "His 2nd touch was always a tackle". I saw him shortly after at Gullivers World in Warrington and my lad said "Doesn’t he play for Everton? Can I ask him for his autograph?"... I said "NO!"
The worst is more difficult as you tend to remember highlights rather than low lights. I may be doing him a diservice, but I don’t remember Bernie Wright being up to much. I’m sure I must have seen worse, but I’ve forgotten.
Bearing in mind a few years ago the Echo had a monster poll and came up with the top 100 ever, you might quibble with the positions of ’A over ’B’ but the actual 100 more or less stand unchallenged.
The sad thing for me is, out of ALL the players from say the last 80yrs we have so many tossers.
UNSUNG HEROES: Tommy Jackson, who played about 20 games in 69-70 filling in for one or the other of the 3 Amigo’s, so much so we didn’t seem to miss a beat, not bad for 15K even in those days.
HONOURABLE MENTION: Sandy Brown, In a week or two it will be the 40th Aniv. of his classic Goal. His basic honesty and sense of fair play indirectly ( coupled with piss poor refereeing, and Revie’s ’professionalism’ aka downright dirty spoiling tactics ) lead to the infamous Leeds players leaving the pitch game. The Leeds FB, not Cooper, the other one ( Reaney, Bell or Storrie?? ) was kicking lumps off him, and you can only take so much, especially in the nasty sneaky way it was dealt out and chinned him, fair enough too, cue mayhem.
His amazing balance, agility and ball skills combined to produce a kind of magical aura is unmatched in todays premier league.
Come on down the Golden Vision.
I seem to remember bad forwards more than other positions, Maybe sheer lack of skill shows more. I’d like to nominate someone I don’t think anyone’s mentioned - Mickey Walsh. We signed him on the back of a wonder goal on Match of the Day. PLayed 21 times in 1978-9 and scored once. Shocking player, though I have to admit Bernie Wright or Brett Angel might edge it.
Worst : Glen Keeley, Shandy + Lucas Neil - dont think they won a game between them
I was in a pub in the middle of nowhere in Birmingham with a load of old villa and brummie fans after the league cup semi years ago and we did this poll with them. They all said, dewy eyed and in reverent whispers, that categorically, the best player they ever saw was Duncan Edwards. Does that count?
Even if you genuinely don’t like him, don’t forget he hadn’t played any club football for many months when he signed so isn’t match fit.
To answer the original post (which is very difficult by the way):
Best — Neville Southall and outfield Mikel Arteta; runners-up Graeme Sharp, Peter Reid, Big Dunc,
Worst - Brett Angell; runners-up: Alex Nyarko, Claus Thomsen, Richard Wright, Tony Thomas.
There are too many bad players to name, I’ll probably have to go for Gareth Farrelly, as he managed to keep his place in the team for an extended run, although Richard Wright definitely deserves a mention.
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1 Posted 18/11/2009 at 08:03:29
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