Raconteur

The quality of goalkeepers now is $hit compared to years back, esp English keepers (we used to produce some of the best but sadly not anymore).

 

What about Marco Amelia? Rogerio Ceni? Julio Cesar of Inter has been outstanding, Gregory Coupet (who someone also mentioned)? Alot of People on here seem only watch to the EPL or go for the usual well known keepers in the world ,like Victor Valdes? The above mentioned keepers are far better. He's a good shot stopper but poor at most of other things (even Barca fans say this)

 

 

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)

Mate if you ask an Everton fan, or read any of their message boards a lot of them aren't too taken with Cahill.  He does get goals from midfield, but we might as well pack up if we don't strive to get players who are of Champions League standard.  I think Mikel Arteta is a CL standard player but if we ever wanted him we'd be well back in the queue, and besides he's never said he's unhappy there.  You're mentioning Chaill as an Australian there mate.

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!

DAWSON  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

 

I can name five better toon defenders from the last five years than Dawson.  Fuckin Dawson  he plays for Tottenham full stop - King does but he'll move on soon.

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

I am a fan of Moyes.

 

I think his transfer record is slightly better than simply hit and miss.

 

Pretty sure I miss some others I would say Moyes has exercised due cautions in his transfer activities. I think he is currently "on form" with Lescott, Johnson, Fernandes, Howard.

 

Yobo (3.5m), Neville (3.5m), Lescott (5m), Valente (1.5m), Arteta(2m), Cahill(1.5m), Johnson (8.6m), Carsley (2m), Kilbane (1m)

Pistone (3m), Kroldrup (5m), Wright (3m), Van Der Meyde (2m), Beattie (6m), Davies (3.5m)

 

He has also done a lot for your academy. Jeffers, Rooney, Anibeche, Vaughan.

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

Given

Solano, Taylor, Gooch, Duff

Milner, Parker, Emre, N'Zogbia

Owen, Martins

 

Harper, Bramble, Bramble, Dyer, Duff

 

 

Sorry

 

Given

Solano, Taylor, Gooch, Duff

Milner, Parker, Emre, N'Zogbia

Owen, Martins

 

Harper, Bramble, Butt, Dyer, Duff

 

Of all the players you could have cloned, why Duff?

 

I'm a huge Sheringham fan but at this point I'd never sign him unless I were a Championship side.  I think Gera is a really underrated player, and one we could very realistically get.

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 

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

 

 

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

Your joking right, ashley cole is best left back in league.  and dont know any better on world stage.. oo because he is english he can't possibly be right.  give over

 

and saying Given in world 11 is fair enough WHY shouldn't he be, seriously because don't play for Man Utd??

I saw someone put van der Sar in world 11, when he was at Fulham how many would have put him in there?

 

It's all about who they play for rather than ability.  i think Given could be best keeper in world, buffon meh, cech all about the defense in front if him.. any one else??  someone going to say Valdes??

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...

This is the tactics Inter playing this season, and it works for them quite well.

I put these 3 midfielders in because they can both defend and attack well, and with Rooney in a free role, they can dominate the midfield against every team in the world.

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... 

                              Given

 

G. Neville     Terry    Materazzi      A. Cole

 

 

 

           Gerrard     Vieira     Scholes

 

 

 

                           Rooney

 

 

                 Klose              Henry

 

 

 

 

Subs:

 

Buffon

Zambrotta

R. Ferdinand

Gattuso

Lampard

C. Ronaldo

Drogba

 

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...

How did Dyer do?

Sorry if posted, can't be arsed to look through the thread...

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...

going slightly over the top dont you think....the highest level of indiscipline and disrespect would be going on a drink and drugs bender,killing  the managers mother whist having ecstacy fuelled sex then returning to her funeral to tell everyone she went happy then wanking on her grave...that is the highest level if indiscipline. and disrespect.

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!)

 

Hah? Rooney being ordinary this season !!? What's the shame of not outshining Paul Scholes - currently the very best quarter back and attacking midfielder rolled into 1 in premiership (also alledgely favoured by Henry and Fabregas as player of the year), and Nemanja Vidic - who has been absolutely colossal for Manchester United?

 

If anything, Ronaldinho has been pretty low key this season, even annoying his own fans. Rumour also has that Barcelona is not going to renew his contract.

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

I've have to say Lads, I can't believe he's genuinely injured.

 

He's another Marcelinho this fucker. His bottles gone, he's fell out with Roeder and he's angling for a move. Thats my opinion.

 

Between him and Babayaro they've had enough injuries to sponsor their own medical wing at the bastard General.

 

Bollocks in my opinion.

 

The quicker he fucks off, the better - EVEN if he's not replaced. I'd rather have his wages in the coffers.

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...

Their FA can, anyway. Saying Martins should leave NUFC asap after like three games.

But yeah, I agree with your post.

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?

I'm sure those banging on about his right to play will be the first to moan about it if he gets injured and misses a few games because of it.

 

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?)

ICNewcastle is the online version of the Evening Chronicle, Journal, Sunday Sun etc (the local papers). Oliver writes for the Cghronicle, Farrington writes in the Sunday Sun in the written press. All articles posted in the papers are normally put on the online version on icnewcastle.com.

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...