For Argentina v England at Wembley 1980 For Barcelona v Man Utd at Old Trafford 1984 For Tottenham v Inter Milan (Ardiles Testimonial) 1986 For Rest of the World v Football League at Wembley. 1987
If you have any Spurs mates, ask them who is the greatest player to wear a Tootenham shirt? Don't take Greaves, Hoddle or Kane as the answer. It's Maradona.
If you really want to wind them up, ask who was the second best. Answer : Liam Brady in Keith Burkinsaws Testimonial, Tottenham v England XI in 1984.
Glenn Hoddle - a game at White Hart Lane - Dad and I were guests of one of his contractors - I can’t remember who they were playing, but he just ran the show - pinging passes all over the pitch - class
Why England didn’t build a team around Hoddle I’ll never understand
He didn't track back or tackle. Bowyer would have him on the bench along with George Best, Stan Bowles & Derek Hales.
And that’s why you build a team around outstanding talent - I wasn’t born when we won the World Cup - but my understanding is that Nobby Stiles was given the job of winning the ball / nullifying the opposition, and then passing the ball to the ‘creative’ - Deschamps had that role for France - the ‘water carrier’ - if English football hadn’t had been so backward when Hoddle was in his prime, we would have done so much better in the 80’s - so what if he didn’t do the defensive stuff, he was world class - if he was born in Italy, Spain, France etc they would have put him centre stage, and let him do his magic
We instead had Bryan Robson, and not Glenn Hoddle.....
This is such a great question as it can be cut so many different ways.
In terms of individual performance, James Rodriguez was simply unplayable for Colombia against Uruguay in the 2014 World Cup, and scored one of the greatest goal I’ve seen in person. But I probably wouldn’t give him the honour as outside of that tournament he’s not a great.
In terms of a player who I saw do great things, in the same World Cup, I saw Messi twice, both times he was very quiet but both times came up with moments of greatness to win the game. Vs Bosnia, it was an awful match until he picked up the ball near half way, played a 1-2 with Higuain and curled in a beauty. Vs Switzerland, he did very little for 117 minutes, but then picked up the ball and bore down on goal in a way which was just frightening to see run towards you, skipped challenges, and you knew that it would be a goal in some way (he passed to Di Maria who curled a lovely shot in). I genuinely have never felt the same feeling of seeing greatness before or since, though i had a similar feeling when Henry played against us multiple times.
In terms of a one off performance, Berbatov in the relegation match vs Spurs was amazing, but probably due to us more than him! Or Scott Parker in that match vs Chelsea on Boxing Day was almost like a one man team in his importance to us (and didn’t they just know it?)
Or in terms of a great player I saw in person, I saw Rivaldo at the o2 in a 6 a side tournament, and have seen C Ronaldo a number of times. Great players, but terrible when i saw them...
Gianfranco Zola whenever he graced The Valley just clearly a class apart Peter Beardsley for Newcastle v Dons at shithouse park - geordies also had Ginola, Albert and were moving like a swiss watch Teddy Sheringham England v Holland Wembley Euro '96 - vision, movement and exquisite simplicity of his game - (up there with Charlton's Wembley '98 for best footballing experience of my life) Gazza had a similar 10 minutes v Scotland but Sheringham's was match long genius v the Dutch. Spotty Parker v Roy Keane at The Valley - spotty so totally shackled the grumpy old clogger that Fergie took him off and tossed away 2 points in the process - SP & RK went for a 50:50 and Spotty wacked him so hard, RK offered him his hand when they both struggled to their feet pretending neither was hurt - for RK to show any other player even moderate respect meant he knew he'd been bested First time we saw Wayne Rooney at The Valley, off the bench for Everton, a blizzard of energy and skill, no red shirt anywhere near him at any stage, he came within inches of repeating that thunderbolt goal he'd scored against Arsenal weeks earlier - absolutely terrifying - whatever happened to that lively scouse kid?
Remember seeing Peter Taylor for Spurs at the Den. He ran riot down the right wing and cut into the box time and time again. Waltzing passed player after player. Every time he passed for a Spurs forward from close to the six yard area. I swear he could have scored five if he had shot and beaten the keeper with half of them.
Another Peter also stands out. Peter Beardsley. The first few times I saw him live (Carlisle and Newcastle) he ran the show. No-one could get near him and he, too, created a ridiculous amount of chances.
Luca Modric was made a very memorable second-half appearance against us at White Hart Lane in the Cup. He changed the game, pulled the strings and you knew he would play at the top of the world game.
Saw Cruyff play for Ajax in the European Cup Final at Wembley - bit of a distant memory. Henry was the best player I've seen at the Valley- great movement and balance.
Against us against us then Henry, saw Ronaldinho Barc V Chelsea’s, bloke was a step above everyone on the pitch, for us Simonsen I know it wasn’t the top league or opposition but he was just so much better than anyone I had ever seen before.
Diallang Jaiyesimi - was amazing for Swindon this year!
But in 30 years of watching Charlton - Pierre van Hooijdonk was completely unplayable against us at the City Ground in the late 90s and scored the best hattrick I have seen.
Honourable mentions to Jonathan Woodgate, Robin van Persie, Steven Gerrard, David Ginola, Paulo Di Canio
Tony Adams was a quality defender. Alan Shearer once said he was the best he ever played against.
Personally, I wouldn’t have him on a list of best centre backs I have seen play - I would rate Mark Wright, Gary Pallister and Alan Hansen as much better than Adams
Tony Adams was a quality defender. Alan Shearer once said he was the best he ever played against.
a lot of ex Arsenal and England players have him as the first name on the team sheet when naming the best they played with.
funny how some just cant convert that into management
But then how many of the WC66 squad made it as managers?
Adams was obviously a fine defender and leader, but was he better (just sticking to English players of the PL era) than the likes of Terry and Ferdinand?
Tony Adams was a quality defender. Alan Shearer once said he was the best he ever played against.
Personally, I wouldn’t have him on a list of best centre backs I have seen play - I would rate Mark Wright, Gary Pallister and Alan Hansen as much better than Adams
I thought Mark Wright was very good when he played for Derby against us.
Comments
For Argentina v England at Wembley 1980
For Barcelona v Man Utd at Old Trafford 1984
For Tottenham v Inter Milan (Ardiles Testimonial) 1986
For Rest of the World v Football League at Wembley. 1987
If you have any Spurs mates, ask them who is the greatest player to wear a Tootenham shirt? Don't take Greaves, Hoddle or Kane as the answer. It's Maradona.
If you really want to wind them up, ask who was the second best. Answer : Liam Brady in Keith Burkinsaws Testimonial, Tottenham v England XI in 1984.
We instead had Bryan Robson, and not Glenn Hoddle.....
In terms of individual performance, James Rodriguez was simply unplayable for Colombia against Uruguay in the 2014 World Cup, and scored one of the greatest goal I’ve seen in person. But I probably wouldn’t give him the honour as outside of that tournament he’s not a great.
In terms of a player who I saw do great things, in the same World Cup, I saw Messi twice, both times he was very quiet but both times came up with moments of greatness to win the game. Vs Bosnia, it was an awful match until he picked up the ball near half way, played a 1-2 with Higuain and curled in a beauty. Vs Switzerland, he did very little for 117 minutes, but then picked up the ball and bore down on goal in a way which was just frightening to see run towards you, skipped challenges, and you knew that it would be a goal in some way (he passed to Di Maria who curled a lovely shot in). I genuinely have never felt the same feeling of seeing greatness before or since, though i had a similar feeling when Henry played against us multiple times.
In terms of a one off performance, Berbatov in the relegation match vs Spurs was amazing, but probably due to us more than him! Or Scott Parker in that match vs Chelsea on Boxing Day was almost like a one man team in his importance to us (and didn’t they just know it?)
Or in terms of a great player I saw in person, I saw Rivaldo at the o2 in a 6 a side tournament, and have seen C Ronaldo a number of times. Great players, but terrible when i saw them...
To many great players.
I saw England play a rest of the world 11 at Wembley in the early 60's.
Lev Yashin the Russian goalkeeper was outstanding.
Jim Baxter was imperious in midfield.
Bobby Moore & Bobby Charlton in the 66 world cup games.
I had tickets to the semi final.
Gazza at the valley. Ronaldo
Patrick Viera. Paolo Di Canio.
Wish I'd seen George Best live.
We played spurs at selhurst late 80’s and Gazza was absolutely incredible, ran the show
For some reason I always remember Villa beating us 2-0 at Selhurst and they had a really quick winger who was unplayable Tony Daley ?
Weird things you remember
Peter Beardsley for Newcastle v Dons at shithouse park - geordies also had Ginola, Albert and were moving like a swiss watch
Teddy Sheringham England v Holland Wembley Euro '96 - vision, movement and exquisite simplicity of his game - (up there with Charlton's Wembley '98 for best footballing experience of my life)
Gazza had a similar 10 minutes v Scotland but Sheringham's was match long genius v the Dutch.
Spotty Parker v Roy Keane at The Valley - spotty so totally shackled the grumpy old clogger that Fergie took him off and tossed away 2 points in the process - SP & RK went for a 50:50 and Spotty wacked him so hard, RK offered him his hand when they both struggled to their feet pretending neither was hurt - for RK to show any other player even moderate respect meant he knew he'd been bested
First time we saw Wayne Rooney at The Valley, off the bench for Everton, a blizzard of energy and skill, no red shirt anywhere near him at any stage, he came within inches of repeating that thunderbolt goal he'd scored against Arsenal weeks earlier - absolutely terrifying - whatever happened to that lively scouse kid?
Against Charlton, Henry I think for consistency but plenty of options:
- Modric for Spurs in the FA Cup
I’m sure there are many more.
Tony Adams
Ryan Giggs
Alan Simonsen
But in 30 years of watching Charlton - Pierre van Hooijdonk was completely unplayable against us at the City Ground in the late 90s and scored the best hattrick I have seen.
Honourable mentions to Jonathan Woodgate, Robin van Persie, Steven Gerrard, David Ginola, Paulo Di Canio
Tony Adams was a quality defender. Alan Shearer once said he was the best he ever played against.
funny how some just cant convert that into management
Or does the term "footballer" only refer to skillfull players?
Adams was obviously a fine defender and leader, but was he better (just sticking to English players of the PL era) than the likes of Terry and Ferdinand?