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The best player you ever saw play

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  • George Best in his heyday is the finest player I've seen live, although I did watch Pele training with Brazil at Troon Juniors ground as they prepared for the 66 world cup.

  • @Vital Troon Juniors? Were you a boyhood Killie fan?

  • @our_frank My dad was football mad so he used to take me to Ayr United one week and Killie the next when Ayr were away.

    Makes me a very rare supporter of both clubs!

  • Two more from me as players I am proud to have watched live and thoroughly enjoyed their talents

    Carlos Valderama
    Paulo Di Canio

    Both players were as interested to watch off the ball as they were on it.

  • @Vital said:
    @our_frank My dad was football mad so he used to take me to Ayr United one week and Killie the next when Ayr were away.

    Makes me a very rare supporter of both clubs!

    I saw the Wanderers at Somerset Park, what a great ground and fine coastal resort Ayr is.

  • Having been to Somerset Park I can also confirm it's a fantastic ground!

  • edited November 2020

    @ChasHarp

    Yes, it's a classic (unspoiled) old ground.

  • Excluding games against Wycombe (Souness, Gerrard) I’d have to go for George Armstrong (Arsenal) and Frans Thijssen and Arnold Mühren (Ipswich).

  • Who is the greatest player "on the world stage" to have played for Wycombe..? Ray Wilkins?

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  • On a slight tangent, who is the player you never realised was as good as they were until you saw them live?

    Teddy Sheringham for me. He read the game so well and was always exactly where he should have been. You could watch him thinking a few moves ahead like a chess grandmaster. Not always picked up on TV which obviously follows the ball

  • Most chess players think a few moves ahead - even people like me ranked 2900 or so in the country.

  • Interesting, @bookertease - when @Malone threw the 'played against Wycombe' thing out there, my thoughts also landed on Souness and Gerrard (along with around half of the Chelsea team from that League Cup year)

  • @eric_plant said:
    On a slight tangent, who is the player you never realised was as good as they were until you saw them live?

    Peter Beardsley. Incredible footballing brain and utterly tireless on the two occasions I saw him in real life.

  • @WildWestFC said:
    Who is the greatest player "on the world stage" to have played for Wycombe..? Ray Wilkins?

    I’d argue for Cyril Regis. 1) he actually played for us (not sure that Wilkins performance in that 1 game where he strolled around a bit counted as ‘playing’) and 2) he was hugely influential and inspirational.

    (As an aside, we had Regis AND Garner playing for us at the same time. We have been spoilt over the years...)

  • @WildWestFC said:
    Who is the greatest player "on the world stage" to have played for Wycombe..? Ray Wilkins?

    Give it a few years and we'll be able to say it was Eze

  • @DJWYC14 said:
    Having been to Somerset Park I can also confirm it's a fantastic ground!

    Somerset Park and couple in Wee Windaes is as good as it gets.

  • Eusebio - I was at Goodison in 1966 when Portugal went 3 down to North Korea. 4 goals from Eusebio turned that round. His overall effort made it almost a one man team. I also saw Pele at GP but he was hacked by Hungary etc and limped away . A great disappointment for an 18 year old who had been so looking forward to seeing him play.

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  • Henry, Bergkamp, Messi, Ronaldo, Zola,

  • Martin Bullock (Blackpool version)

  • @bicester_blue said:
    Mainly based on a trip to Germany for Euro 88, I think I can put out the following team that I've seen in the flesh

    GK - Dino Zoff

    RB - Claudio Gentile
    CB - Franco Baresi
    CB - Ronald Koeman
    LB - Paolo Maldini

    Mid - Frank Riijkard
    Mid - Ruud Gullit
    Mid - Michel Platini

    For - Maradona
    For - Marco van Basten
    For - Zbiegnew Boniek

    NBTWAG. I thought we’d established that 4-3-3 doesn’t work anymore

  • @Rasputin said:

    NBTWAG...

    Someone's going to have to remind me.

  • edited November 2020

    @HCblue said:

    @Rasputin said:

    NBTWAG...

    Someone's going to have to remind me.

    Not by the wrinkles (on my) aging gooch

  • Thank you very much.

  • Sorry - just kidding!
    No idea what this one is :)

  • No better than what we've already got. A Sanchezism.

  • Best, Charlton and Law...October 1972, Man United v Tottenham at Old Trafford. Spurs won 4-1 and Martin Peters scored all four goals...Bobby Charlton scored for United...I was 10, what a game.

    We were visiting relatives in Manchester and in those days you just turned up and paid on the gate so my Dad took us along.

  • @eric_plant said:
    On a slight tangent, who is the player you never realised was as good as they were until you saw them live?

    Teddy Sheringham for me. He read the game so well and was always exactly where he should have been. You could watch him thinking a few moves ahead like a chess grandmaster. Not always picked up on TV which obviously follows the ball

    I saw Sheringham in the FA Cup third place play-off friendly in 2001 though Ledley King was another player who was imperious that day in terms of positioning and mopping everything up in front of the back four.
    Zola in the friendly against Chelsea the following season was on another planet compared anyone else on the pitch, nevermind the run of the Division 2 mill at the time.
    Honourable mentions for Neil Lennon and Henrik Larsson in the Celtic friendly as well.

  • I've seen Leo Messi, George Best and Steven Gerrard

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