Inspired by a thread on the German boards listing the greatest players in the history of the Bundesliga, I thought it would be good to come up with an equivalent list for the football league. This list will include the top players in each position since the foundation of the football league in 1888 as selected by myself. The ranking is based on performances in English domestic performances, so the League, the FA Cup and the League Cup. Performances in Europe, international football and other leagues has not been counted. The criteria has been sustained excellence in the league so players with one incredible season are unlikely to rank as highly as those who were excellent for a number of years. Basically this is just a bit of fun and I've tried to include players across all eras. I'm not pretending it is in any way definitive, but its there for some debate and hopefully a few people (including myself) can learn a bit more about some forgotten greats. Also I wanted to thank Tom Clare, Dark Savante and lanman who all gave me a hand in coming up with some of the lists.
Goalkeepers 30- George Farm 13/7/1924 Scotland 10 caps Clubs: Hibernian, Blackpool, Queen of the South 29- Edwin van der Sar 29/10/1970 Holland 121 caps Clubs: Ajax, Juventus, Fulham, Manchester United 28- Bruce Grobbelaar 6/10/1957 Zimbabwe ? caps Clubs: Vancouver Whitecaps, Crewe, Liverpool, Stoke, Southampton, Plymouth, Oxford, Sheffield Wednesday, Oldham, Bury, Lincoln
27- Nigel Martyn 11/8/1966 England 23 caps Clubs: Bristol Rovers, Crystal Palace, Leeds, Everton 26- Gordon West 24/4/1943 England 3 caps Clubs: Blackpool, Everton, Tranmere 25- Joe Corrigan 18/11/1948 England 9 caps Clubs: Manchester City, Brighton, Norwich, Stoke, Seattle Sounders
24- Tim Williamson 6/6/1884 England 7 caps Clubs: Middlesbrough 23- Jimmy Lawrence 16/2/1885 Scotland 1 cap Clubs: Hibernian, Newcastle 22- Gil Merrick 26/1/1922 England 23 caps Clubs: Birmingham
21- Harry Hibbs 27/5/1906 England 25 caps Clubs: Birmingham 20- Petr Cech 20/5/1982 Czech Republic ? caps Clubs: Blsany, Sparta Prague, Rennes, Chelsea 19- Colin McDonald 15/10/1930 England 8 caps Clubs: Burnley
18- Ted Sagar 7/2/1910 England 4 caps Clubs: Everton 17- Elisha Scott 24/8/1894 Ireland 31 caps Clubs: Linfield, Liverpool, Belfast Celtic
16- Jack Kelsey 19/11/1929 Wales 41 caps Clubs: Arsenal 15- Bill Brown 8/10/1931 Scotland 28 caps Clubs: Dundee, Tottenham Hotspur, Northampton Town, Toronto Falcons
14- Ron Springett 22/7/1935 England 33 caps Clubs: QPR, Sheffield Wednesday 13- Ted Ditchburn 24/10/1921 England 6 caps Clubs: Tottenham Hotspur
12- Bert Williams 31/1/1920 England 24 caps Clubs: Walsall, Wolves 11- Harry Gregg 25/10/1932 Northern Ireland 25 caps Clubs: Coleraine, Doncaster, Manchester United, Stoke
10- David Seaman 19/9/1963 England 75 caps Clubs: Peterborough, Birmingham, QPR, Arsenal, Manchester City 9- Sam Hardy 26/8/1883 England 21 caps Clubs: Chesterfield, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest
8- Ray Clemence 5/8/1948 England 61 caps Clubs: Scunthorpe, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur 7- Frank Swift 26/12/1913 England 19 caps Clubs: Manchester City
6- Bert Trautmann 22/10/1923 Germany 0 caps Clubs: Manchester City 5- Peter Schmeichel 18/11/1963 Denmark 129 caps/1 goal Clubs: Hvidovre, Brondby, Manchester United, Sporting Lisbon, Aston Villa, Manchester City
4- Gordon Banks 30/12/1937 England 73 caps/0 goals Clubs: Chesterfield, Leicester, Stoke 3- Neville Southall 16/9/1958 Wales 92 caps Clubs: Bury, Everton, Port Vale, Southend, Stoke, Torquay, Bradford
2- Pat Jennings 12/6/1945 N Ireland 119 caps Clubs: Watford, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal 1-Peter Shilton 18/9/1949 England 125 caps Clubs: Leicester, Stoke, Nottingham Forest, Derby, Plymouth, Bolton, Leyton Orient
Feel free to criticise, suggest alternatives and players that should have been ommitted. The next position to be featured will be right backs.
Great list, can't see anyone who you've left out. My own personal bias thinks that Given has been better than Cech but I'm sure I won't be the first in this thread to allow club loyalty cloud my judgement. Can't wait for the rest of the positions, arguements a plenty. Maybe a disscusion thread is in order?
I'm not sold on Cech being in such a list - he's only just played 100 league games for Chelsea. Difficult to argue with much else, although Grobbelaar should be higher and Trautmann lower in my book and I would have Southall ahead of Jennings.
I think Peter Schmeichel should be slightly higher, and Ray Clemence too. As much as I admire Neville Southall, there is no way he was as good as Clemence or Schmeichel. It's all about opinions though, and apart from a few minor criticisms (i.e. I don't really think football came into its own until after WW2, so some of those goalkeepers from the 19th century don't belong there IMO), you've done a great job compiling this. My top 5 would be: 1) Gordon Banks 2) Peter Shilton 3) Ray Clemence 4) Peter Schmeichel 5) Pat Jennings
I guess it's the question of brief brilliance versus longevity. Cech has undoubtedly been the best keeper in the Premiership in his brief time here, if I was to do this again in 5 years time then I would imagine he would be considerably higher up. I was considering making it a top 40 to include some other players like Given. Just a point on the Trautmann picture for anyone that didn't know, it is from the 1956 FA Cup final in which he broke his neck yet still managed to play the full game.
Looks like you got 'em all in there. The order debate is negligible. Looking forward to the other positions.
Now look at that top 5. Schmeichel, Banks, Southall, Jennings, Shilton. What a gallery. I am particularly pleased to see my All-Time Draft goalkeeper Peter Shilton at number one!
Goalkeeper is a particularly "stacked" position in English football. I'm not sure how many other positions have quite so many real greats to choose from.
I wonder if some keepers are considered great even though it's their back four that deserve the credit. I think you can have a good keeper with an amazing back four to protect him (Cech) and a great keeper with an absolute shit back four that screws him over everytime (Given).