Rio's greatest ever homegrown 11

[loz]

Of all the players born in Britain or Ireland this is who Rio Ferdinand tink are the best 11

Full article here

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/7711662.stm

In fairness to him he does admit he only put himself in because he can! Other than that he is clearly an idiot. Right back was between Neville and Wes Brown!!

[sweet waffle]

Nice to see Stevie Gee didn't make the cut.

[Chippy]

we should have a go at this...here's a quick one (all time)

Banks

Mcgrain

Moore

Terry

Pearce

Best

Gascoine

Cooke

Finney

Osgood

Law

Strange mix but Cooke Best Gascoine and Finney would be scarey for defenders :P

Oh I made a mistake.....Rio didn't even enter my head :D

Edited November 7, 2008 by Chippy

[charierre]

Banks

Viv Anderson Hansen Moore Pierce

Johnstone Souness Gasgoigne Best

Dalglish Rush

[geezer]

Bonetti

Harris Terry Webb McCreadie

Cooke Hudson Hollins Tambling

Osggod Bentley

[loz]

I am going to base it purely on players from the early 80s till now as it wouldn't be right to pick players I haven't seen play other than on old videos.

Opting for an orthodox 4-4-2 to keep it simple.

Goalkeeper: Pat Jennings - for me Jennings is the best goalkeeper Britain has ever produced with Banks and Shilton the only other genuine contenders

Left Back: Stuart Pearce - OK not the most gifted full back you will ever see play but he more than made up for that - ultimately you want your defenders to have a 'none shall pass' attitude and Pearce had enough of that for five players!

Centre Half: Willie Miller - alongside Alex McLeish, Willie Miller formed what I consider to be the best centre half pairing in Britain that I have ever seen. Of the two I think Miller was better and I don't think McLeish is as good as Butcher which is why he is only on the bench..

Centre Half: Terry Butcher - Butcher was the centre half that I want Terry to get back to being! Led by example week in week out and never showed a sign of weakness.

Right Back: Danny McGrain - In McGrain Scotland produced something I am not convnived England have for 40 years - a great right back. McGrain was great despite being badly diabetic and despite suffering through some horrendous injuries.

Left Wing: Davie Cooper - Cooper was a magician with the football on his left peg. I would argue that his best position was actually in the centre as an attacking midfielder but this was in the day where if you have a left foot and could dribble then you were never going to be played anyway but on the let wing.

Central Midfield: Roy Keane - much as I am loathed to admit it! Keane, for me, drove Man Utd through season upon season of success and despite anything that can be said about his attitude and temperament there is no denying his ability.

Central Midfield: Paul Gascoigne - ignore everything else and just concentrate on football - he was stunning.

Right Wing: David Beckham - controversial choice I know but to be honest right wing was the hardest position to pick as I think it is an area Britain has produced very little real quality in over the years and I am one who thinks Bekham was a top drawer ootballer.

Centre Forward: Gary Lineker - one of the finest goal poachers there has ever been in the game

Centre Forward: Mark Hughes - probably the best all round striker I have ever seen play (well British at least)

Subs

Peter Shilton

Alex McLeish

Kenny Sansom

Ray Wilkins

Bryan Robson

Ian Rush

Kenny Dalglish

(with the bench I have tried to pick a proper spread of players)

So there you go - other than Wilkins (and he was with us a long long time ago) there is not a Chelsea player in it.

[Chippy]

Oi! Mark Hughes was a Chelsea player...can't even remember who else he played for...

I nearly had Keane in there and he would have been on my bench along with Lineker and Beckham,

I think Geezers team is undoubtably without any Bias the best so far though.

Edited November 7, 2008 by Chippy

[loz]

Oops - reason that happened was because I set the team out and originally I had Lineker and Rush up front and was about to post it when I realised I had forgotten about Sparky.

[moi]

P.S. Davie Cooper was also incredibly gorgeous!

Edited November 7, 2008 by moi

[Benji]

RIO is a W*nker enough said!

Edited November 8, 2008 by Benji

[Tim W]

Bonetti

McCreadie

Hinton

Droy

Locke

Nevin

Hudson

Lampard

Cooke

Osgood

Dixon

[BlueBeard]

Like Loz, I've stuck with only players that I've seen play live - and I've tried so hard to do this without my natural Chelsea & Rangers bias - I think I partially succeeded ;)

Playing an attacking 4-4-2 formation, as God intended football to be played: -

Pat Jennings - best keeper of my generation imo

Ron Harris - not many would get past Chopper in one piece, but he was also a very under-rated footballer

Terry Butcher - JT was cloned from this man

Bobby Moore - simply the best

Terry Cooper - best left-back I can remember seeing

Jimmy Johnstone - God it hurts me to put a Septic player in, but he was awesome

Jim Baxter - superb player, close call between him and Davie Cooper

Graeme Souness - got to have a hard man in midfield, nobody better than Souness

George Best - best player I've ever seen, a true legend

Peter Osgood - brilliant striker, had it all

Denis Law - I hated him, but he was a great player

subs (or Second XI)

Gordon Banks - best England keeper ever, but Peter Bonetti was very close and so unlucky to be around at the same time

Paul Reaney - very good right-back, one of the best

Tony Adams - another JT type player

Joey Jones - hard as nails, would be a Chelsea legend were he not tainted by scouseness

Eddie McCreadie - tough tackling, and excellent going forward

Willie Henderson - excellent winger

Billy Bremner - hated this bloke with a vengeance, but he could play

Davie Cooper - was privileged to be at the 'Davie Cooper Cup Final', albeit totally pissed - the man is an Ibrox legend

Charlie Cooke - so close to Georgie Best, but not quite there

Kerry Dixon - powerful skillful striker

Dave Speedie - can't have one without the other!

Edited November 8, 2008 by BlueBeard

[midlandblue]

any team would have to inlcude Dalglish.