Yorkie in the top 10
My Top 5
Henry
Klinsmann
Giggs
Zola
Hyypia
no Cantona in the top 5, even though he was voted overseas player of the decade?
Cantona was never that great to me. He was definitely better than his peers at a time when English football realized they were technically behind the curve compared to its European counterparts. But since then ther have been better players. He also benefitted from the unbelievable ManU hype /marketing machine of the 90s that made ManU the richest most famous club in the world even when htey couldn't win crap. Cantona had timing on his side...he played football like a continental European and had better technical ability than most of his counterparts at the time..so he is remembered in this iconic way..but since then, better, but less celebrated players have invaded the Premiership. The Premiership is miles tougher now than it was in Cantona's day......
Hyppia has to go down as one of the greatest defenders in the Premiership..all time. The man is pure class week in week out for ages now. When people talk best footballers they always duck the defenders..so I gave one vote to a position I knew would have gotten overlooked. I can think of dozens of top class foreign players in the Premiership and not really be able to separate them...to be honest my top 5 done chaneg 100 times as I read every body else answers But Hyppia is definitely a class act.
How could I leave out MAKALELE
If you going to go with the argument that Cantona was only good b/c the people in his era weren't as good as now, then you could apply that to pretty much every footballing great. I mean, All joke aside, you feel men like Beckenbaur and Cryuff would get the time today that they they had back in the day to make plays? If you really want to talk about the history of the league (div 1), then George Best win hands down. But if he show up today at 20 and try them beats he will get kick down. lighter ball or not...
I hate Manchester Utd. but I love Cantona. The man was head and shoulders above the rest. In fact, the drop kick he buss in the stands alone should guarantee his spot at the top of the list.
What about Andy Cole?