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If it's only players you've seen live then for me I guess it's;

 

Given

Trippier, Coloccini, Woodgate, Bernard

Ben Arfa, Tiote, Cabaye, Robert

Shearer, Ba

 

Thank God I managed to persuade my dad to take me to one match back in 2003 that made this squad a whole lot stronger than it otherwise would've been.

 

Feels like a stretch adding Trippier in right now but if one match in 2003 counts, so does one match in 2022. Bruno in for Tiote once I see that beautiful man in the flesh.

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19 hours ago, bigfella said:

 

I'd be wrong then. Massively overrated on here. Limited to tackling and passing five yards sideways or back. Not fit to lace Tony Green, Paul Gascoigne, Peter Beardsley or Gary Speed's boots  Everyone of them could do what Batty could do, but all four offered much more going forward.

 

:bob:

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21 hours ago, bigfella said:

 

I'd be wrong then. Massively overrated on here. Limited to tackling and passing five yards sideways or back. Not fit to lace Tony Green, Paul Gascoigne, Peter Beardsley or Gary Speed's boots  Everyone of them could do what Batty could do, but all four offered much more going forward.

spot on.

You can't win the league with two different clubs, finish runner up three times, play in the champions league for three different clubs, command big transfers every move and always trading up, play in world cups and euro's, only play for top clubs of the day, always be a first choice and be probably our best performer in the best team I ever seen us have, if your estimation of Batty is accurate, though everyones entitled not to like someone.

 

He wasn't as good as those going forward, was a lot closer to Speed than Speed was to the others, but none of them were as good as him defensively and I've not seen anybody better at winning all kinds of balls back.

 

 His pass into Beardsley for the winner against QPR is perfect. He clips that in or rolls it in, the space gets closed down by the time Beardsley gets it. Not sure anybody else fires it in like that.

 

 

Edited by Wolfcastle

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11 minutes ago, LV said:

I was also a bit underwhelmed by Batty at the time. I didn’t think he was great for us. 
 

 

Broadly agree. He was effective and did what he was brought in to do and did it pretty well, no axe to grind. 

 

But if we're talking about the best players we've ever seen in the shirt then he's not even in the conversation given the players he's up against imo. Best CMs you've ever seen in a Newcastle shirt? Batty? Nah, not for me. 

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2 minutes ago, midds said:

Broadly agree. He was effective and did what he was brought in to do and did it pretty well, no axe to grind. 

 

But if we're talking about the best players we've ever seen in the shirt then he's not even in the conversation given the players he's up against imo. Best CMs you've ever seen in a Newcastle shirt? Batty? Nah, not for me. 

 

That's my point exactly.

I'd put Rob Lee ahead of him as a central midfielder and both David Ginola and Terry Hibbitt in as wide midfielders.

So no place for Batty, sorry.

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1 hour ago, Whitley mag said:

Should have stuck with Clarky in that role in hindsight.

I'll accept that in itself is a debate, though not which was the better player. Their respective careers are incomparable.

Though having said that any match write ups I've seen at the time fit my own view that he was generally our best player at the time.

The gap was 3points after his debut too. Some people tend to think thats when the rot started.

 

 

Edited by Wolfcastle

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From memory, Batty was in the running for the vote for ‘player of the season’ in 95/96 in The Mag.  Can’t remember if he won or was just top three - but considering he was only bought in March … the idea that Batty somehow changed the play style is puzzling.  He was the best player in a B&W strip on his debut vs Man Utd at home, and was that in most of the remaining games. 

 

Batty was a superb defensive midfielder.  He only started going backwards (literally) towards the end of his time here - though he was excellent at Leeds again afterwards.  Comfortably the best defensive midfielder the club has had in my lifetime, and a marked improvement on Clarky in the centre.  

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Batty finished in the PFA team of the year with us in 1997… after we finished 13th! He was genuinely awesome and obviously highly respected by his peers too. We’ve only ever had him, Given and Coloccini in that team whilst with us. 

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Guest reefatoon

Batty was a top class player. I didn’t see anything to contradict that. 
 

This is what I love about football, people all go and see the exact same thing, yet have such differing opinions on what they actually see.

 

Just this week alone I have seen people downplaying both Shearer and Batty. I find that crackers [emoji38]

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Guest HTT II

Batty was great for us, we were winning during a game which I can’t remember who against and at half-time KK bollocked him and said if I wanted a defender in midfield I’d play Peacock there or something, I bought you to create and score and pass and Batty said he never felt so good as a footballer after that. 

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On 04/05/2022 at 08:42, Optimistic Nut said:


I’ve text my dad asking for the same. His first game was Stan Anderson’s debut sometime early 60s but knowing him it’ll be:

 

Green

Green

Green

Green

Green

Green

Green

Green

Green

Green

Green

 


Given

 

Craig

Clark

Moncur

Woodgate

S.Anderson

Green

Solano

Ginola

Shearer

Ferdinand

 

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For me, the thing with Batty was the reality against the expectation. I thought he was just a generic hard tackling midfielder. I was blown away with how brilliant he was. I never realised what he did on the pitch. Rob Lee will always be my favourite midfielder but Batty was outstanding too.

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Just now, wormy said:

Really strange to think Lascelles took it on straight from Colo. The two eras feel like a lifetime apart already. 

 

Just shows how long Lascelles and Shelvey have been here. 

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2 minutes ago, OCK said:

 

Just shows how long Lascelles and Shelvey have been here. 

 

Yup. Just scrolled back through that tweet and realised Lascelles would be tied for longest serving captain ever if he managed to hold on to it for another two years.

 

EDIT: And I'd have put money on that outcome were it not for the takeover. 

 

 

Edited by wormy

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He's still only 28. Fella has had a few bad games in the grand scheme of things, given the amount of managers he's been through. Signing him and Darlow almost looks like great business in hindsight, considering they've been here 8 years. I think we're arseholes as fans. [emoji38]

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