English Sportsmen Like Flintoff Do Not Want To Rule The World

This is not about good or even best just greatness and it is my list so is eclectic. To save the judgemental reading here is the preview: Peter Schmeichel: Steve Bruce: Eric Cantona: Alan Shearer: Thierry Henry: Frank Lampard: Gary Neville: Steven Gerrard: Roy Keane: David Beckham: only Shearer never played for the 4 top teams of the era. Torres and Ronaldo could force out Beckham if they can play well for 4 and 3 more years respectively - I insisted on 5 peak years or in Neville's case a measure of character and longevity.

All great teams need a great custodian. The 90s Man United they did have Top Cat Peter Schmeichel. The Dane had a weakness at free kicks for me but I really have no other complaints. Never has a keeper stood so big and made the goal look so small. He made saves as well as being strong technically. Only Freidel is close over the piece for me.

In front of The Great Dane was Steve Bruce and whilst I am tugged by the Adams case the fact is that Bruce was always up for a game and Adams was not. Bruce scored big goals as well as being a centre half in an era where there was less cover in front - seriously slurp the Roy Keane rep' but how many times did midfield runners break on United in games? Bruce and the Dane's finest hour was the game Newcastle dominated and lost 1-0 and the title was won. He and Adams were bizarrely excluded from England for Des Walker, and worse, who single handedly prevented England going to the 1994 World Cup - although not a defender the bath invader Carlton Palmer got 18 under Taylor. Seriously Bruce got no caps! Pallister got one at right back never mind the dreck Mark Wright, Terry Butcher, Paul Parker (in a back 3), Des Walker and Dave Watson (the other one who got 12 caps not the titan who was forgotten despite being arguably England's best player in the early 80s and won 65 caps). The best argument against Bruce for me is he only played for United till 1996 but that St James' game set the marker for the following years.

Which brings us to Eric Cantona who scored in that Newcastle game. Probably not a great footballer taken overall and his early retirement and frequent bans almost put him in the wasted talent basket. However he was an inspiration to a generation of United kids and was great by any measure of column inches, headlines and still appearing in adverts in a foreign country.... Not forgetting putting a kick and several blows on a member of the crowd at Selhurst Park.

As much as I'd rather roast my own chestnuts rather than pick him I have to pick Alan Shearer. Goal machine and even when he lost his pace and mobility still conned his way to goals. How else do Blackburn win a title? How else did otherwise ordinary players like Sutton look so good?

I'd never play 442 but if you forced me to over the last 18 years only Henry could prevent me having to list Shearer. Of course with Henry I'd play a 4231 and he could play the 1 or as at Barcelona the wide out. 45 combined Goals and Assists one year and the press bleated the one dimensional van Nistelrooij should have been player of the year! Yeah.

Next the most complete technical player England and many other countries have ever produced Frank Lampard. Some don't get it but for a 7 year run of playing huge numbers of minutes, making lots of tackles, assists, goals, dummy runs, runs that clowns did not pick, big goals, small goals, shock preventers in cups etc etc Maybe one of the best English players ever. Some still do not get it, tough. I think what summed him up when England got at the time a big penalty against Croatia the player the fans would most have booed and never forgiven took it - the stakes are never too high for the great ones. The kind of player England is accused of not producing and certainly not appreciating.

Next up is someone who despite winning the thick end of a hundred caps and having more medals than the Ghurka heroes that Gordon Brown personally thought were not good enough to live in this country - unlike Thaksin, Abramovich, Rwandan colonels, Madonna ex-KGB spooks and other dreck who he let willingly. Yep The Neviller as one website named him. Gary Neville would be called the Emotional Leader by fatuous ESPN types and if you said it to his face he'd call you a tosser. Neville is one of the few who will speak up and makes no bones. He is one of the few to genuinely acknowledge he hates a rival club and even a whole city - not to mention run 60 yards on his own to show the badge to them in maybe the iconic moment of a premier league game not involving Eric Cantona. He transcends all the 4 evolutions of Manchester United from the team of Cantona, through Keane's team to the van Nistelrooij (yes the spelling is correct) years and thence to Ronaldo. Probably the most intelligent interjector into a game from right back and as good a player at his best as he could be given his physical limits.

Neville's hatred of the scouse brings me nicely onto Steven Gerrard. Gerrard might not have made this list last year as his Premiership record was patchy. However the last 2 years he has been immense. Were I given the first choice to pick a team to play for my life with guarantees they would show their best game it would be between Gerrard and The Drog with preference just for Stevie. I am pretty sure while the other picked Messi I would get the other with my 2nd pick anyway. I dislike his underdog mentality and the fact he plays best when not fancied being my main knocks on him aside from inconsistency. However no one can just physically dominate a game like he has at times. Even great individuals can be shackled, OK Maradona but hey every rule has an exception, but not someone who is so physically powerful and mobile.

Holding midfield the choice is really between Roy Keane and his old mate Vieira. For me Vieira was the better player but Keane is the greater and longer lived personality. Again it's a forced selection but one can have no credibility without at least one of the United 90s midfield which whilst shown up in Europe was Premiership kryptonite to other teams.

The last pick will change I suspect if Ronaldo manages 3 seasons between his 06/07 and 07/08 but far better than his 08/09 to date. However if I have to have a wide player and someone who until he was 25 threatened to be far more it has to be David Beckham. His career has had a late renaissance but he could have done so much more in the late 20s. It seemed between the 2 Greek games in 2002 World Cup qualifying he went from from a quality player who seemed to be developing the ability to come inside to dominate a game to one who would run extremely hard but had less quality. Then he neglected his once endless stamina and became a bag carrier for Zidane.

The hard thing is the players left out like David Seamen, John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Jamie Carragher, Ricardo Carvalho, Hyypia, Gary Pallister, Ruud van Nistelrooij, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Mark Hughes, Patrick Vieira, Michael Essien, Bergkamp, Pires, David Platt, Drogba, Tony Adams, Lee Dixon, Nigel Winterburn, Brad Freidel, Keown and Bould...

Some that were easier to leave out like Mickey Owen, Wayne Rooney, Gianfranco Zola, Hassalbaink, Sol, Ince, Overmars and Les Ferdinand.