English Premiership's Greatest

**lofty9** · 04/05/2006, 3:21 PM

http://www.premiershipsgreatest.com/

On this site they are voting for the best foreign english premiership player. After a lot of e-mails from my work colleagues they have now included Irish as foreign. Therefore lads and lassies get voting as the keanos and shay have been lagging behind. PS Paul Mc Grath was the greatest ever!!

**Risteard** · 05/05/2006, 12:28 AM

Robbie - 5th
Shay - 20th
Roy - 24th
No Black Pearl in sight.

Sounds a bit upside down to me.

**PaulB** · 05/05/2006, 7:26 AM

what a load of cak, youri djorkaeff number 8, jurgen klinnsmann number 1?

Keane, Henry and Vieira in that order

**NeilMcD** · 05/05/2006, 9:25 AM

Denis Irwin should be there somewhere too.

**Roo69** · 05/05/2006, 10:06 AM

Schmeichael should be mwell higher than 21 ! best keeper ever to play in england, and how is Drogba ahead of Makelele, Stam, Di Matteo and Vialli ?

**Roadend** · 05/05/2006, 10:55 AM

Originally Posted by Roo69

Schmeichael should be mwell higher than 21 ! best keeper ever to play in england, and how is Drogba ahead of Makelele, Stam, Di Matteo and Vialli ?

Need you ask, you can only imagine what type of people make up the majority of voters for these things. Its similar to when the likes of Robbie Williams even makes it in to the top 100 of anything associated with music. Same eejits voting for all these things.

**joeSoap** · 05/05/2006, 11:23 AM

This is a whole load of 'tree huggin hippycrap' to quote the legendary Eric Cartman.

Cantona is easily the greatest foreign player that has made an impact upon the premiership, followed by Roy Keane, Gianfranco Zola and Thierry Henry in my opinion.

Robbie Keane at number 7...you're havin' a laugh......

**beautifulrock** · 05/05/2006, 9:37 PM

Zola, keane, bergkamp, cantona

**gustavo** · 05/05/2006, 11:45 PM

Thierry Henry for me.

**sligoman** · 05/05/2006, 11:55 PM

Roy Keane, without a doubt!

**Roo69** · 08/05/2006, 8:16 AM

The best for me would be Peter Schmeichael, worth 25/30 points a season to United in his prime

**FarBeag** · 08/05/2006, 11:25 AM

Lucas Radebe. at number 1.

**jebus** · 08/05/2006, 1:37 PM

If you're talking the greatest foreign players to ever grace the Premiership then it has to be these five,

#1. Thierry Henry
#2. Dennis Bergkamp
#3. Peter Schmeichal
#4. Gianfranco Zola
#5. Jurgen Klinsmann

If you're talking about the biggest impact a foreign player has had to their team then I'd go with this,

#1. Dennis Bergkamp
#2. Eric Cantona
#3. Peter Schmeichal
#4. Thierry Henry
#5. Ruud Gullitt (no joke!)

Bergkamp just shades it ahead of Cantona for me for two reasons. When Cantona joined United I think they were already well on their way to becoming 'The Team of the Mediocre 90s', in short there has always been a whiff of the Lennox Lewis about United's 90s dominance. Not to mention I would credit Roy Keane with having a greater impact than Cantona at United. In contrast to Cantona Arsenal under Bruce Rioch were very much a mid table team, or a Uefa Cup contender in modern terms, and I credit his arrival, couple with that of Arsene Wenger with turning the tide for Arsenal.

Schmeichal and Henry's contributions for their respective clubs speak for themselves, and I'm putting Henry below Schmeichal for the much of the same reason I'm putting Cantona below Bergkamp, I think Arsenal were a very good team without Henry when he joined (although obviously they'd be dead in the water without him these days) so that takes away slightly from the impact he had at the club.

Gullitt then, before the hate posts start arriving at my door, gave Chelsea an air of respectability at the time he signed I feel. I still remember wondering what in the hell he was playing at signing for that mid-table to relegation team, and his name alone helped attract Vialli, Di Matteo, LeBoeuf and ultimately the Zola, Gudjohnson, Abramovich and Mourinho.

I'm not counting Irish players for the simple fact that when it comes to football in England, and when they talk about British players, I'm happy to accept their excuse that they are talking about the British Isles, and not just Gret Britain. I've never had a conversation with a Premiership fan that has counted Irish players amongst 'foreign players' playing in England.

**OwlsFan** · 11/05/2006, 12:31 PM

Hey Jebus, as a fellow Owl (or Owl fella might be better for me), how could you forget Paulo Di Canio? Great player when he wasn't pushing refs around the place.

**Billy Lord** · 11/05/2006, 3:12 PM

FAO jebus: the British Isles is a geographical term, while the British are the people of Britain, ie: a recognised nationality. I don't know about anyone else here, but I've an Irish rather than a British passport. Ergo: players with Irish passports are foreigners in the Premiership. It's a different country!

**lofty9** · 11/05/2006, 3:32 PM

Originally Posted by jebus

I'm not counting Irish players for the simple fact that when it comes to football in England, and when they talk about British players, I'm happy to accept their excuse that they are talking about the British Isles, and not just Gret Britain. I've never had a conversation with a Premiership fan that has counted Irish players amongst 'foreign players' playing in England.

Uefa have counted Irish players as foreign in the past in relation to English football teams, i.e European Cup teams in the 90's were restricted to a maximum of 3? foreigners. This had an effect on Man Utd, when they couldn't play Keane and Irwin as they were foreign.

As for foreign players, Rolland Nillson of Sheff Weds was another who stood out whenever I seen him play.

**LeixlipRed** · 12/05/2006, 5:35 PM

Mark Viduka ahead of Roy Keane??

A fat lazy good for nothing pile of crap versus one of the most dedicated brilliant players ever to grace the premiership. and how can players who've only played 2 or 3 seasons be in there?? drogba, cech, alonso, yakubu have hardly started their premiership careers nd none of em deserve to be even nominated. good to see poyet, solano and friedel in there. quality players that never get recognition. Hold on, just seen ronaldo at number 9?? oh my god, thats only slightly less worse than Patrick Bergers inclusion!! Ah i give up, what rubish