There has been many superb partnerships in football over the years - great strike partnerships (or even threesomes), great centre half pairings or two central midfielders that complement each other perfectly.

In relatively recent history you could easily nominate Chelsea ones with Nevin / Dixon / Speedie being a possibility, JT / Gallas another and in midfield Lampard and Makalele or Wise and Di Matteo.

However it is always easy to pick our own lads so here I am interested in non Chelsea ones - be they domestic or international , based in the UK or based elsewhere. When I say non Chelsea I mean you can't nominate partnerships that existed at Chelsea, no problem nominating Chelsea players from times at other clubs (as I have done)

I am going to name mine and for each three categories I am going to name on that was UK based and one that was based abroad (also I am going to restrict it to players I have actually seen play either live or on TV)

UK Centre Half

Alex McCleish and Willie Miller (Aberdeen & Scotland)

Non UK Centre Half

Franco Baresi and Alessandro Costacurta (Milan and Italy) - made even better by the fact they had Paolo Maldini at left back as well

UK Central Midfield

Bryan Robson and Ray Wilkins (England)

Non UK Central Midfield

Makelele and Zidane (Real Madrid and France)

UK Strikers

Lineker and Beardsley (England)

Non UK Strikers

Ravanelli, Vialli and Del Pierro

UK Central Defence: Hansen and Lawrenson

Strike partners: Rush and Dalglish

Both top quality from an era when Liverpool were a quality side. For younger readers, this was about a quarter of a century ago.

I actually nearly went for Rush and Dalglish or Rush and Hughes for Wales.

Hansen and Lawrenson is a fine shout however I would put Miller and McLeish ahead of them with the only real argument I can offer being that their partnership was so good it was the reason Hansen got so few caps for Scotland.

UK Strikers

McCoist and Hateley (Rangers)

UK Midfield

Durrant and Russell (Rangers)

UK Midfield (2)

Bremner and Giles (L**ds) - pains me to admit it!

UK Centre-Half

Adams and Bould (Arsenal)

Yorke and Cole? As much as I hate to admit it..

UK Strikers (1)

Ron Davies and Mick Channon (Southampton)

UK Strikers (2)

Denis Law and Colin Stein (Scotland)

UK Strikers (3)

Ron Davies and Wyn Davies (Wales)

UK Strikers (4)

Malcolm MacDonald and Bryan 'Pop' Robson (Newcastle)

UK Strikers (5)

Kevin Hector and John O'Hare (Derby)

UK Centre-Half

John Sitton and Micky Nutton

Morcombe and Wise (BBC and ITV)

Not too sure how long MacDonald & Robson played together for Newcastle for, but after thinking about it I don't think it was long, so I'll adjust that one and add a few more: -

UK Strikers

Bryan 'Pop' Robson and Wyn Davies (Newcastle)

Malcolm MacDonald and John Tudor (Newcastle)

John Richards and Alan Sunderland/Kenny Hibbert (Wolves)

Ray Kennedy and Charlie George/John Radford (Arse)

Jeff Astle and Tony Brown/Colin Suggett (WBA)

UK Midfield

Davie Smith and Alex MacDonald (Rangers)

Alan Ball and Howard Kendall (Everton)

Alan Durban and Willie Carlin (Derby)

Terry Venables and Gerry Francis (QPR)

UK Defence

Roy McFarland and Colin Todd (Derby)

Brian Clough and Peter Taylor ...forest

keegan and Toshak ......Liverpool

whymark and mariner ...Ipswich

Gilzean and Greaves/Chivers...spurs

Jones and Clarke..... Leeds

keegan and Toshak ......Liverpool

Talking of 'Big guy + llttle guy' strike partnerships....

Flanagan + Hales (Charlton)

Withe and Woodcock (Forest)

Withe and Shaw (Villa)

Ferguson and Wallace (Cov)

Smith and Wright (Arse)

Latchford and Francis (Birmingham)

(But obviously not in the same league as our own Dixon and Speedie or Flo and Zola. Maybe some were better than Furlong and Stein, I suppose) )

And big guy + big guy - Sutton + Shearer (Blackburn)

Ones that havent been mentioned

Central midfield (hate to say it awswell) pettit and viera

Strikers Sheringham and shearer for england.

Abroad bebeto and rommario for brazil

partneship that promised everything but never really lived up to expectation

Pappan and van basten

rommario and Stoichkov

Non-Chelsea? :D

there go my hopes of raving about Hasselbaink and Gudjohnsen...

Sutton and Shearer for Blackburn

Andy Gray and Graeme Sharp (Everton when they won two titles in the 80s)

Another couple "this pains me to say" ones from recent times:

Bergkamp-Wright and Bergkamp-Henry for the Arse.

Keane-Scholes for Manure

In fact it is probably going to be a long time before their entire midifield four of that generation Giggs-Keane-Scholes-Beckham is going to be bettered.

Edited October 14, 200817 yr by TomP

I know they were both dirty y*ds but;

Hoddle and Waddle - Diamond Lights was one of the best songs of all time!!!

For England...... Peters and Lee

welcome home was a classic.