crackerjack

Well-known member
List time

The Guardian's policy of ignoring the Football League while forever going on about European top divisions generally drives me up the wall. But that network of national specialists has its uses and I found this interesting, despite being pretty ignorant of football outside England/Champs League or internationals.

Surprised to see Rooney down at 31, but on reflection it may be fair (even if putting him below someone like Ribery or Ramos seems harsh) and I guess it shows being diabolically shit in consecutive international tournaments does count for something.
 

hucks

Your Message Here
List time

The Guardian's policy of ignoring the Football League while forever going on about European top divisions generally drives me up the wall. But that network of national specialists has its uses and I found this interesting, despite being pretty ignorant of football outside England/Champs League or internationals.

Surprised to see Rooney down at 31, but on reflection it may be fair (even if putting him below someone like Ribery or Ramos seems harsh) and I guess it shows being diabolically shit in consecutive international tournaments does count for something.

Rooney's a funny one, cos it's hard to assess him without considering what everyone thought he was going to be in 2004. He never became that but he's still very good. Probably as good as, say, Benzema. But he was as good as Ronaldo in 2004 and now he's nowhere near that level.

Number 85's a left-field choice, I'll give you that. I like the look of Stephan El-Shaawaray, an Italian Egyptian striker at Milan, nicknamed "The Pharaoh". Natch.
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
Rooney's a funny one, cos it's hard to assess him without considering what everyone thought he was going to be in 2004. He never became that but he's still very good. Probably as good as, say, Benzema. But he was as good as Ronaldo in 2004 and now he's nowhere near that level.

Number 85's a left-field choice, I'll give you that. I like the look of Stephan El-Shaawaray, an Italian Egyptian striker at Milan, nicknamed "The Pharaoh". Natch.

Also like 26, who I'm sure I once saw singing with the Stylistics.
 

Ransbeeck

Well-known member
List time

The Guardian's policy of ignoring the Football League while forever going on about European top divisions generally drives me up the wall. But that network of national specialists has its uses and I found this interesting, despite being pretty ignorant of football outside England/Champs League or internationals.

Surprised to see Rooney down at 31, but on reflection it may be fair (even if putting him below someone like Ribery or Ramos seems harsh) and I guess it shows being diabolically shit in consecutive international tournaments does count for something.

The list is okay, but a bit inconsistent. They started out ranking by current ability, but halfway down the list they throw in some legendary players and some talents.

With the state of modern football, the list should be made up out of players from about 6 teams anyway. It's understandable that they want to include some players from the Eredivisie, Ligue 1, etc. But realistically speaking, if a Ligue 1 team had a player who is better than the Chelsea player in his position, Chelsea would just buy him.

Also, why is Mario Gomez on that list? The man has his use for Bayern, but he's not a great football player :D
 

e/y

Well-known member
But realistically speaking, if a Ligue 1 team had a player who is better than the Chelsea player in his position, Chelsea would just buy him.

Pretty sure a certain Parisian side have quite a few players who are better than Chelsea's.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
"I guess it shows being diabolically shit in consecutive international tournaments does count for something."
Van Persie was pretty bad in the last one. Which I think worked quite well for United when they wanted to sign him, I can't imagine that there was a lot of international interest. He's still in the Guardian's top ten though isn't he?
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
Van Persie was pretty bad in the last one. Which I think worked quite well for United when they wanted to sign him, I can't imagine that there was a lot of international interest. He's still in the Guardian's top ten though isn't he?

He was mostly shit, even if he did do this. But RVP doesn't make a habit of it, unlike Rooney, who hasn't had a decent tournament since 2004. You could largely put the first one down to injury, but in the last 2 he's gone in rated as England's best player and come out having played the worst (Ashley Young 2012 excepted).
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
That victory could only have been sweeter is John Terry had been playing. I feel sorry for Ivanovic, who's a decent player, but boy was it funny.

And Michu must be one of the deals of the decade. Hopefully Swansea will be able to hang on to him, unlike Newcastle with Ba (who looked very dangerous when he came on - Torres' days are surely numbered now)
 
Last edited:

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Was Pep Guardiola close to becoming the next manager of this club? No. He did not want to kill Steve Bould.


Wengerknowsbest on form.

As is the real Mr W:

"Cavani is a player that I like. Will he cost a lot of money? That's for sure. Nobody would deny that. [But] our banker lives just next to me at the moment and he is ready if we find the right player."
 
Last edited:

paolo

Mechanical phantoms
Just look at the little twat

ay_102139954.jpg
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
I'm fucked off at the little shit for taking the attention away from a wonderful performance over two legs by Swansea. Talk about ruining one of the best moments in the club's history. Should be publicly flogged. Possibly. I think most people would've done what Hazard did, given that he made a previous effort to grab the ball; not like he went in with boots first. Of course he's gonna get sent off though.
 
Last edited:

paolo

Mechanical phantoms
I think that Chelsea players should kidnap him, hang him from a crossbar at Cobham and use him for target practice, as a warning
 
Top