Raconteur

That's exactly why I'm not doing a world top 5 (well, I do watch more than the EPL but not enough to have solid opinions) - but I will do one for the Premier League (same as duwy's, just different order) 1. Cech 2. Van Der Saar 3. Friedel 4, Given 5. Jaaskelainen Always been a big Friedel fan - and I'm not the only one: ''Brad Friedel must have changed in a telephone box. I wouldn't be surprised if when he takes his shirt off there's a blue jersey with an 'S' underneath.'' (G. Strachan)

You could be right about my innate bias towards Australians, and I have to admit I don't watch many Everton games, but those that I have seen the Toffees have four players worthy of the name, and he's one of them (Johnson, Arteta and Yobo being the others - though I've heard Neville is doing well) And further to my Aussie bias, there's only three I feel are worthy of the Toon shirt, and again he's one of them (Bresciano and Viduka being the other two) Doesn't matter - we're not getting any of them anyway!

Hopefully he'll do a Campbell, join a real club for free and piss the Spuds right off!

Out of those I'd have Neville, Johnson and Arteta as nothing more than squad players and that's really it, if we wanted to show any genuine ambition to get in the CL. If you wouldn't have Cahill for 1.5m then questions must be raised... I reckon he'd without doubt be first choice ahead of Parker, Butt, Emre, Dyer et al

There's some speculation he is coming to the Australian A-League - be interesting to see if he can do any better than the similarly ancient Romario... In the preliminary final this weekend two of the best players on the park were Carl Veart (36 - remember him from Palace days?) and Vaughan Coveny (36) so Teddy might still be able to do a job...

The best part is that Neill has a release clause in his contract if they go down - one can only assume that all their other winter signings do too... Yossi is a good bet - unheralded but quality (and fits in with our penchant for signing midfielders ) Cue Curbishley's new summer book "How to spend 20 years building a reputation then lose it in a few months"

If you like a more South American flavour, I can recommend: "Futebol: The Brazilian Way Of Life" by Alex Bellos - I'm almost finished and it is absolutely magnificent! "Soccer in Sun and Shadow" by Eduardo Galeano - another excellent, very passionate read. Very moving, sometimes its goosebumps, sometimes you can feel exhiliration surge through you!

I remember a time when Roeder was seen and not heard - now he's a media whore to rival... hell, has he surpassed all rivals?!? EDIT: Clearly I forgot Wenger

Far from what I said, assuming your talking to me. Just saying that based on a few games at the top level Grosso's now a world beater. (which he is in a way seeing as his team won the thing). I doubt you or any of us has seen as much of Grosso as needed to make such a judgement on him. To be in the worlds best XI, IMO you've got to have done more than had an excellent world cup. To be honest, I was responding to both yourself and Nate - and yes I was flippant and dismissive but have you considered that to even make the starting team of the Italian national team, the benchmark for defensive football, is an achievement in itself superior to anything Cole might have done? And that's even if you haven't watched Grosso play for Palermo - an extremely unfashionable club who nevertheless managed to qualify for Europe? Mega-rich Inter could have bought just about any left back in the world - they went for Grosso who, as you say, was one of the out-and-out stars of the World Cup... The same thing applies to Phillip Lahm - this young star booted one of the greatest left backs of the last decade in Bixente Lizarazu (behind Maldini and who else?) out of the Bayern Munich team. The only reason Ashley Cole isn't the most over-rated player in England is because the likes of Lampard and Terry are ridiculously over-hyped too... (and Gerrard and Rooney to a lesser extent in that they have talent which almost matches their hype)

Gee, you're right - the only football in the world is played in England and the World Cup was the first time anyone had heard of any player outside the British Isles

Lahm, Grosso, Zambrotta - all better than Cashley Cole, no question... When van der Saar was at Juventus, possibly one of the top three clubs in the world, would anyone have questioned him being in a World XI? VDS absolutely played a crucial role in establishing Fulham as a Premiership side, and discerning punters might very well have picked him in a World XI when at Craven Cottage And as for Given, we're all NUFC fans here, but his commanding of the box and distribution are two good reasons why he's not the best in the world. His shot-stopping is fantastic, world class perhaps, but when you're looking for the absolute best of the best then you need more of a package... Buffon = "meh"?!? And with all the money in the world Chelsea chose Cech, but he's not that good? Okay...

I was actually responding to kingdawson - there's no arguing with someone who puts Given and Ashley Cole in a WORLD XI, which is why I chose not to respond to your post...

You seriously think Given is the best goalkeeper in the world? Anyway my team would be: Buffon G.Neville Puyol Cannavaro Zambrotta C.Ronaldo Gerrard Essien Ronaldinho Eto Henry Kudos for not putting any Spuds players in, and it must have hurt to list Henry In fact, apart from the two centre midfielders (two of Xavi/Pirlo and Kaka/Deco for mine) that's one of the best line-ups listed thus far...

Hehe, it might be worth a look through the thread as it seems to be unanimous that he was either England's best player, or second best behind Ferdinand in an otherwise tepid display...

Be interesting if Emre uses this precedent as his next defence after the failure of the "I didn't do it" and "Everybody does it where I come from" routines...

That's a lot of indiscipline and disrespect! mackems.gif

I haven't seen the Toon play live, but for me the most beautiful thing about the beautiful game is that almost orgasmic, explosive rush of tens of thousands of fans screaming when your team scores. Was at the MCG in 2001 when 95,000 people exploded with joy when Kevin Muscat scored a pen to put us 1-0 up in theWorld Cup qualifier... Similarly, dancing in the streets of Melbourne with some 15,000 people who watched the penalty shootout to put us through to the 2006 World Cup. In fact, I'm so jealous of the Europeans on this board, with real football crowds, where that sort of feeling can be experienced weekly (or at least more regularly than every four years!)

I don't believe that for a second! As if the (probably) biggest club on the planet will allow the second-most marketable player on the planet allow to leave on a free transfer, still on the sunny side of 30! Mind-boggling!

My pet hate is the footballing anecdotes that become part of popular mythology and widely accepted despite having little to no basis in reality... For instance "Alan Shearer didn't make it at NUFC as a youngster because he was in goals for the trials" etc

Seems unlikely - if Carr and Roeder had genuinely fallen out then would the donkey have played after coming back from injury? Roeder could always have pulled his line about not rushing players back and kept him out another few weeks if that was the case... Agree with the rest of your sentiments though...

That comment was very inappropriate, true, but (from memory) was made by one media-whore ex NFA official. Could someone more anal than me confirm that?

Some might, not all. If he was out for the rest of the season because of an injury picked up in a friendly the majority would be pissed off. I'd be pissed off, I'm sure we all would, I still wouldn't complain because I knew he would play internationals before he came. I didn't complain when Nobby kept going to play for Peru for the same reason, he's got every right to go and should for as long as he wants to play for his country. It just seems that players can play for the home countries but not any others, it's double standards. This Maybe not just the home countries though - just the bigger nations that can't be bullied. For instance we might put pressure on Nobby not to play for Peru, but imagine if Arsenal tried to stop Gilberto playing for Brazil... Ironically it is the smaller nations that need every player available, but hey, it's only Nigeria so they can fuck off eh?

It's a curious list - and I have little to add to the debate except this: If Xabi Alonso was rated as highly as he should be then there would be no debate about Gerrard and his "favoured position". There's a very good reason Rafa doesn't play him in centre midfield - there are two players there who are much better than him! (In addendum maybe Sissoko would have been a more worthy addition to the "unsung" list?)

Cheers for that So that particular piece appeared in print as well as electronically? I only ask because I feel to have an impact a story needs to be printed on paper...