Poll: In your opinion, was Paul McStay world class?

well that's that settled then!!

 

Remember being at Hampden the night he banged this world class goal in though .....50secs into video.

 

I love McStay he was a fantastic player but he was not world class.

Larsson was world class.

 

Whit a baw..

 

It wouldn’t.

 

Eboue Kouassi is better

 

No he wasn't, but I do believe he had the potential to be. Much as it pains me to say it he stagnated with us, I think that he would have strolled it in Spain or Italy, and the style over there would have suited him. It's the reason I actually think KT should move at some point, maybe when he is 26/27, rather than hitting a plateau here and not progressing further due to the lack of consistent quality opposition to test himself against.

 

There’s more than 10 World Class forwards in this WC alone.. Uruguay have two.. Brazil have three, Argentina have three just off the top of my head..

 

Do you get into the specifics of a position like top ten defensive mids, attacking mids, deep lying playmakers, wing back, full back etc etc?

 

Think some people have been swayed over the years by the huns in the Scottish media who have always tried to belittle McStay's incredible talent.

World Class is obviously a bullshit, meaningless term, but given that dozens of players who couldn't lace the maestro's boots have been confidently proclaimed World Class then I don't think its a stretch to place McStay up there.

Put it this way, if he was coming through at Celtic just now we'd be discussing how much we were going to get off Barca for him.

 

I think this is an example of the term 'world class' being bandied about too easily. It really comes down to how you define a player as being 'world class' I suppose.

Usually, aye. But I'd usually group wing backs and full backs together.

 

Aye its like the term legend it's subjective..

 

I know it's completely subjective, but I feel you cant put a number on it, it's not realistic. A cut off number (for example your top 10) doesn't work as different levels of players break through each year.

Hypothetically, you could see 10 bonafide, unarguable "World Class" players break through next season and reach their peak in 6-7 years time, then you would still have Mbappe, Sane, Jesus, Dembele, Ascensio kicking around at their peak. Doesn't make sense to then say X player is world class and Jesus isn't because X just nicks Jesus to 10th place.

As different groups and eras come through some will be better, some will be worse. 10 might be right (if you polled football fans) this year, might be way off in 5 years etc etc.

 

Totally understand what you're saying, it's more of a general guide than anything.

 

He was world class no doubt about it ,who was better in that position at that time period????

 

I do think he was world class; but having read the thread, I have to admit that he really was my boyhood hero. I loved Paul McStay long before I loved Celtic.

Lubo was so gifted that he definitely has to have been world class at some point in his career; but you could say the same in reverse about Virgil being world class at Liverpool now. I guess the question is whether they were world class with us at any time. By that token (post Lions) you'd surely have to accept McGrain, Larsson, Dalglish as definite and a few debatable ones like Lubo, Boruc and McStay.

Forster was arguably a better keeper over the period (I don't think so, but there's an argument there); however peak versus peak Boruc wins easily. As someone else said, around 2006 he was unbelievable.

As for McStay, if I put my bias to one side for a moment, perhaps we'll never know the answer, because his loyalty undoubtedly harmed his career. I sometimes think the young ones remember the early 90's only as a period of Rangers dominance with us a distant second. No, look at the league tables! We were in much bigger trouble than that. I tend to think if McStay had jumped ship instead of playing his prime years in some of the worst teams in our entire history, he could have really shown something. Someone already mentioned about Collins having a better career (which he unarguably did) and yet I remember McStay was the bigger natural talent.
But then those years would have been even bleaker for us. Given how close we came to doing what Rangers did, conceivably his loyalty could even have made the difference in our surviving long enough for McCann to step in. Just speculation, I know; but worth pondering.