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TOP 10 BRITISH FOOTBALLERS OF ALL TIME


Walter Bishop

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Optimus Prime

Jimmy Johnstone would walk into the top 5 British footballers any day of the week, never mind the top 10. A serious omission from some lists

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Hearts Heritage

Jimmy Johnstone would walk into the top 5 British footballers any day of the week, never mind the top 10. A serious omission from some lists

Whilst JJ was a great mercurial talent and deserves a mention would you place him in before say the following and I'll keep it to post war players

 

Kenny D

Kevin Keegan

Bobby Charlton

John Charles

Dave MacKay

bobby Moore

Gordon Banks

Pat Jennings

Gordon Smith

Jimmy Greaves

 

??

 

That's just 10 I thought of between the Town Hall and the Ship Inn.

 

Junky could be wonderful but He could also be woeful for both Celtic and Scotland.

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Optimus Prime

Whilst JJ was a great mercurial talent and deserves a mention would you place him in before say the following and I'll keep it to post war players

 

Kenny D

Kevin Keegan

Bobby Charlton

John Charles

Dave MacKay

bobby Moore

Gordon Banks

Pat Jennings

Gordon Smith

Jimmy Greaves

 

??

 

That's just 10 I thought of between the Town Hall and the Ship Inn.

 

Junky could be wonderful but He could also be woeful for both Celtic and Scotland.

 

Gordon Smith? Please tell me thats a wind up.

 

I think Jinky would stroll into that company.

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Hearts Heritage

Gordon Smith? Please tell me thats a wind up.

 

I think Jinky would stroll into that company.

You are thinking of the wrong One. Hibs greatest ever and their record scorer. Only player to win league titles with 3 different clubs scorer of a hat trick on debut vs HMFC as a 17 year old.

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Optimus Prime

You are thinking of the wrong One. Hibs greatest ever and their record scorer. Only player to win league titles with 3 different clubs scorer of a hat trick on debut vs HMFC as a 17 year old.

 

Jimmy Johnstone was on a different level to him.

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That's just 10 I thought of between the Town Hall and the Ship Inn.

 

Are you from Musselburgh?

 

One thing I've noticed on this thread, there appears to be a distict lack of full backs on the list. In fact, with the exception of Moore, Edwards and Banks there are hardly any defensive players named. This is the problem with listing the "top ten" best players is that people will naturally be swayed by their opinions on types of players, clubs/nationalities, ages etc.

 

Teams can have as many Johstones, Bests, Matthews, Barnes etc. as you like. If you can't defend or you don't have a good goalie you won't win anything. I think a harder challenge is to name a Greatest XV, rather than a Top 10. No team can have 7 strikers, Jimmy Calderwood proved that!

 

My greatest team of British players would be;

 

G.Banks

 

G.Neville B.Moore A.Hansen A.Ball

 

B.Charlton B.Robson P.Gascoigne

 

K.Dalglish D.Law G.Best

 

Subs. P.Shilton, T.Butcher, E.Hughes, D.MacKay, J.Barnes, J.Johnstone, K.Keegan

 

I've not seen enough of the likes of Edwards, Charles, Smith, Battles etc. for them to merit a place. I've gone for players I've seen or seen plenty footage of. Really struggled for a right back mind!

 

Quick question for people, would you have many Republic of Irish players in a top 10 or a greatest team? I would have to include Roy Keane in mine.

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The reason I say that players would not make the grade now is that the modern athlete is

 

FAR fitter

FAR stronger

FAR more skillful

FAR more tactically aware

 

They can read the game better too.

 

The game is a different game now. It?s much faster and far more physically demanding.

 

Players used to have a can of beer and a fag at half times back in the olden days.

 

The players back then were outstanding for their time but they simply wouldn?t belong in todays? game.

 

Technology is far advanced, more emphasis on strategy etc. People are just in better shape.

 

I take running a mile for example:

 

Roger Banister ran the mile in 4 minutes. That is just remarkable. When I?m on the treadmill I look at my speeds and distance and I?m double that (although I?m going for a long run and he sprinted)

 

But today we have shaved 17 seconds of that record and people run the mile in under 4 minutes frequently.

 

Would Roger Bannister get in a top 10 runners of today?

 

This kind of total pish tends to get spouted on a repeated basis by people who know nothing at all about football. Do you think that the Celtic team of today are "FAR more skillful" than the Celtic team of the late 60s and early 70s? Or that the Scotland team of today is "FAR more skillful" than that of the 70s or 80s?

 

Leaving aside the fact that the players of previous years if playing today would have the all the benefits that make today's players better athletes please take this example: Pele could run the 100m in less than 11 seconds. How many players in Scotland or even the UK could do that now 40+ years later? And how many of them would have the skill, strength, footballing intelligence and all round ability of Pele? No-one playing football in the world at the moment comes even close.

 

And yes, Roger Bannister would be in the top 10 mile or 1500m runners of today, because he would have the benefit of better facilities, better diet, better medical knowledge, better sports science, better doctors, better coaches, better equipment, better surgeons, in fact better everything compared to when he was running at his peak.

 

As to the original question, any such list should really only contain players who fall within living memory and should be called exactly that (Greatest 10 British players in living memory), and any list without George Best at the top holds no value, as Best is far and away the greatest British player in living memory.

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