Week 2: Who was/is better? Les Ferdinand or Andy Cole

[Guest Howaythetoon]

impossible to compare as they were totally different types of player.  Andy Cole was terrific with Beardsley buzzing around him and Shearer and Les were a great partnership during which time Shearer produced his best football for the club

 

For me Shearer's best football for us come under Sir Bobby alongside Bellamy, a partnership that ranks a distant second to Cole and Beardsley as partnerships go. Shearer and Sir Les worked in that they both scored goals but it wasn't a dovetail kind of partnership. They proved that two top players, in form, playing in a good side, will always perform individually and that's what they did. Same with Cole/Cantona/Sheringham at Man Utd, it was only when Yorke joined them did we start seeing a true partnership in he and Cole.

 

It is very rare in football, however, to have two strikers or forwards, who compliment each other so well. We've had two great partnerships in Cole and Beardsley and Shearer and Bellamy.

 

I do wonder what kind of partnership Shearer and Tomasson would have been and although at one point Shearer and Duncan Ferguson looked an immense prospect up front, I don't think it would have been that way on a consistent basis long-term had the Scot ever stayed fit.

 

We struck lucky with Bellamy regarding Shearer of course but you could see in our attempts to sign Jeffers what Bobby was looking to do up top. I said above its rare to have two strikers or forwards who compliment one another so well, but it's even rarer to have a manager who can spot and then make work such things. KK did it with Cole and Beardsley and to an extent Sir Les and Shearer, and Bobby with Shearer and Bellamy.

 

Hughton did well to get something tangible from Carroll and Nolan too.

 

Back to Sir Les, looking back I reckon KK saw him as a stop-gap before Shearer and that he was always a short-term solution as a player, if not his exact position or role which KK was veering towards even when Cole was banging them in for us as we wee constantly being linked with more rounded forwards, Boksic for example and of course Weah.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

RE RVP vs Suarez...

 

RVP is obviously a top tier player, but over the last 2 seasons or so he has been overrated massively all based on two admittedly stellar seasons. The way many go on you'd think he was up there as one of the top 5 players in the world or something. He is a level below Suarez. If I could liken RVP to anyone it would be someone like Higuain in terms of standing/level. He pretty much won the title for Man Utd with his goals and performances which I think kind of falsifies his standing/level. In reality he is no better than Rooney. World-class on his day and one of the better players, but not one of thee best players which Suarez certainly is, in my humble anyway!