Most Underrated Players Ever

Robbie Keane.

Always thought he was easily good enough to be playing for the sides challenging for titles in the big leagues.

 

Yea but most of them were signed by Hector Cuper I guess, the previous manager who had reached two CL finals in a row.

Joaquain as well actually. They had Albelda and Baraja sitting, so with Ayala and Canizares behind them, they were solid as *. But with Aimar pulling the strings and rapid wingers they were quality to watch.

I loved Valencia back then as they always seemed to give Barca and Real a proper game. And Aimar was cool as *.

 

@Dallas Cowbhoys Aye I've read that team were pretty special, one of the few to break the Barca Madrid monopoly on the title. Sounds like quite a line up though, when you have a player like Aimar you can really build around him and things will happen. Although the defence sounds pretty good as well.

Was Aimar what they call a regista? I think Riquelme was too, I could be totally mistaken though but the guy who pulls strings from midfield? Speciality position, very highly skilled with vision.

I can't believe they lost two CL finals, that is some blow for the fans. Please don't say it was fecking Madrid who beat them. So Benitez basically inherited that team and won La Liga with them? Incredible. He won the Europa with an inherited Chelsea team. They were terrible though and not in the same league as the Valencia team, just think he seems to be able to get results even if it's not his team.

It's tragic what's happening to Valencia right now, one of Europe's biggest clubs and they're imploding and there seems to be no cure for it.

On the other hand it's great to see what's happening at Sevilla. What a system they have in place. Doesn't matter if their best players leave or their manager they're still successful.

 

Wes Hoolahan

 

James Milner.

 

Pablo Aimar. Insane player for Valenca.

Cambiasso is a good one too I think, never really fully appreciated. Such an intelligent player.

 

Clarence Seedorf. Only got credits for his fantastic career later in his career. (Especially in the Netherlands.)

 

Just seen Aimar's been mentioned about 20 times already. Thought I was being clever mentioning him.



Anyways another few.

Mikel Arteta - excellent attacking midfielder for Everton and superb holder for Arsenal.
Tim Cahill - not the greatest technician but a fighter and a big game player.
Kaladze - very good central defender from Carlo's Milan side.
Van Bommel - absolutely unreal tactically and had a nasty streak to him which is sometimes needed.
Lucio - absolute complete centre-back at his peak, went under the radar before Mourinho got the best out of him at Inter.

 

I'm not saying that all the players are world class, very few players in every generation are world class, I'm saying the players aren't given the adequate plaudits for the level of play they performed at. Someone said Jermain Defoe earlier and I'd absolutely agree. I wouldn't call him world class but I've always seen him as a consistent striker bagging goals for every team he's played at, including the England national team. Alan Shearer gets his plaudits because of the sheer amount of goals he scored but seldom gets a mention when we start talking about the greatest strikers ever. Bergkamp will always be underrated for me because of the same reasons, he had skill no other player possessed, I think he gets underrated but that's not to say people don't rate him at all.

I live outside of Scotland mate, try mentioning Jinky outside of Scotland and you'll just be met by a series of "Who?" replies.

I think Carrick is vastly underrated and not just because Sir Alex referred to him as the most underrated & best English player in the game. I think filling in the boots of Paul Scholes is always going to be a tough job, and it was no less of a tough job for Carrick with the poor midfield United had for long periods after Sir Alex left.

 

Maicon

 

Quite ironic that the only player Man Utd have ever been able to replace Paul Scholes with was Paul Scholes himself when they brought him out of retirement for a short period.

 

@T.S. Eliot Ah right so you live outside the UK then that will make a difference. I think that must affect every nation. There will be outstanding South American players as well as Europeans who we've never heard of in the UK. Especially if they are historical figures as brilliant as Jinky, Gemmell or McGrory etc. I'd be surprised if there's more than a few non Celtic fans who are aware of McGrory in the UK. Jimmy Johnstone will be more famous amongst older people. Just like Jimmy Greaves. They won't be known much outside of the UK though. Real Madrid fans of a certain age will know who Jinky is.

How many of us know the Hungarian Golden Team? I only know Puskas. But that was a world class team.

Only the extremely gifted and successful are widely know throughout the world. Like Pele, Maradona, Ronaldo, Real Ronaldo, and Messi. Ronaldinho and most modern players who played for the very top clubs.

Larsson was definitely under rated. For two reasons, first the main chunk of his career was in Scotland which isn't regarded as a high level league and two there was not much TV interest so hardly anyone got to see him. But when he played in the Uefa Cup Final and the Champions League Final for Barca he will have become much better known and appreciated. But I doubt many people know of his true ability. Pundits and footballers mainly and fans of his clubs.

Modern day players in England are generally recognised throughout the world. You could be right about Defoe, he's always seemed to produce the goods yet never played for a very top club as far as I'm aware.

But like Bergkamp Shearer will have been seen on TVs throughout the world as EPL was broadcast to billions of people. I would say Shearer is one of the greatest strikers the UK has produced. I wouldn't say he was as good as CR7 or Messi. But that's open to argument because he was obviously world class.

I would be shocked if people who lived at the same time as Bergkamp throughout the world aren't aware of his abilities. EPL TV broadcasts to more people than any other football league. But also his displays for Holland would have been noticed. I can remember a classic moment that was a long ball from about 50 yards away which he controlled in the box, and in the next move turned the defender then hit the top corner. All in one beautiful movement. That kind of stuff makes an impression on people.

But for the same reason Carrick will be known because Man Utd games are shown more than most and people will have seen him play. He's good and I think you're right he is a bit under rated because his passing ability is exceptional but he's not someone special like Scholes you'd expect people to express excitement at when you mention his name unlike the previous players mentioned.

There are many reason why people won't be appreciated but I think mainly it's simply due to exposure and preconceived ideas. That is why we sell Southampton £30m players for £10m because we don't get offers from any one else but they do.

However there will be people who are under rated because their footballing ability is maybe of a high mindedness that isn't obvious to the average football fan like myself who needs to see acts of brilliance. The players with vision who make creative passes can often be overlooked because what they're doing isn't so noticeable. It's a thing all great artists have, they make things look simple. Xavi could come under this spectrum. I know he's widely recognised as one of the greatest midfielders ever but it's not immediately obvious why to the casual observer. Some people understand the game more readily than others.

The same could be said about defenders whose skill is all about positioning and blocking off threats before they materialise which forwards notice and then avoid but we might not see so easily. Busquets is a player it took me ages to appreciate. I didn't realise he was controlling the space around him which such ease and foresight that everything looked effortless.

Redondo and Kanu I don't know about. I know the names but would have no idea how gifted they were. I probably should too because I'm sure they're fairly modern players.

I went on a bit of a tangent there, I hope I didn't completely miss the point.

 

I've seen this banded about. There are some switches I'd make but all in all I think it's a pretty good ranking system. About the changes I'd make... Shearer over Jinky and Larsson? * insult. I think Ibrahimovic being omitted completely is a bit strange. As far as English players go I'd expect to see Ashley Cole and John Terry in there. Liam Brady should be on there. Crespo, Inzaghi, Riquelme are three other players that should be on there. Deco is overrated for me, though that may be because I think he's a * because of how he played for Porto. No Lahm either, strange when you think about some of the names on there.

When I said players like Kanu and Carrick are underrated though it by no means suggests that I think they should be on this list. I just they're quite simply underrated.

All in all though, if we were to take that picture as conclusive, 4 Celtic players in the top ~140 greatest ever players isn't bad at all.

 

@T.S. Eliot Nice list But straight away I'm not having Larsson and Brian Laudrup in the same tier. I've had that argument with huns too many times. I respect Laudrup but he wasn't as good as Henrik. Jimmy Johnstone on the same list? Jesus wept. Both those players should be promoted along with Denis Law. Is that John Charles there too? He's much better than that.

See there is no way Giggs was better than Jinky. Folk can argue about the other players but it's just not happening between them.

I see Redondo is in the Demi * tier along with the master Kenny Dalglish. I'd say he belongs there but Jinky was better than Kenny. There are some folk who argue that point but I wasn't around to compare the two of them but some folk swear Dalglish was the best. I personally don't believe it even though I love the guy, Jinky had an individual skill for dribbling which was very rare. There are probably quite a few Celtic players better than Kenny. McGrory for one. The Duke from the late 1890s. Bobby Murdoch is regarded as maybe the finest ever Celt by some.

The only player I don't recognise in the * tier is Meazza. I would put Jinky in the * tier. Tommy Gemmell in the tier below that with Kenny. Larsson of course goes in the Ghod tier without question.

Can't argue with the GOAT tier, although the Russian keeper Yashin should probably be in that.

I tell you who should be on the list, Lubo Moravcik and that's without any bias at all. He was a supremely gifted player, arriving here when he was 32 I think? In his prime he would have been one of the best.

I agree with you regarding Lahm and Riquelme especially. Not 100% with Terry and Cole although I do appreciate they were very good players. Probably bottom tier at least.

What is bugging me and I hope it isn't so obvious I get a riddy, is you said 4 Celtic players and I've only counted 3 so far, Jinky, Dalglish and Larsson. Who am I missing. Don't say Roy Keane!

I would have a separate tier for Messi though, I think he's above everyone.

 

It may be cheating, but I did include Roy Keane. He'll never be remembered as a Celtic player, not even by Celtic fans, but 10 apps is enough to at least be included. @Swervedancer

Obviously there is a load of Celtic players who I think should be included in that list, all the names you listed and more, I just tried to remain the least bit neutral with my opinion. It'd be harder to choose players that I'd leave out of that list from the Lisbon Lions team than include.

Aye, don't get me wrong, Terry and Cole are no better than 'very good' tier, but I do think they are very good players in all honesty. There's not many left backs that I'd put in front of Cole, for instance.

Living outside of Scotland, I can't say I've had many (thinking about it, I don't think I've ever had any) discussions with a Rangers fan. Larsson vs Laudrup just hasn't occurred in my life. In all honesty, I forgot he was a Rangers player before you brought him up. I was extremely young when he was in a Rangers shirt, him and all the other players he played alongside don't bear any relevance in my mind at all. Still, and I like to think this is without any bias, Larsson was leagues ahead of him. If I was trying to be honest and neutral, I'd like to think both Larsson and Johnstone be move into the 'great' tiers. But then I think about how we would rank players like Viera, Davids and Rooney if they had spent their best parts of their career in a Celtic shirt. In all honesty to have a truly neutral view of that list you'd have to be an avid football fan but a fan of no team, whilst at the same time having no affiliation to any particular nation or style of football. It's incredibly hard to judge. Shearer over Larsson to me just seems ridiculous regardless, though.

 

@T.S. Eliot Definitely have no problem knowing Larsson is a better player than Rooney and I've known his career since he burst onto the scene at Everton as a 16 year old scoring from 30 yards. And excellent footballer but one capable of changing the course of a Champions League Final, no danger.

Dunno about Roy Keane though, was hardly his best days

I agree about the Lions, they performed one of the greatest ever displays of football a European Cup has ever seen. Billy McNeill should be there for being one of the world's greatest ever captains.

Jimmy Quinn could probably be there too. One of our original greats. Gallagher and Tully. I'd just fill it with mostly Celtic players, some exceptional Scotland internationals and Messi at the top

English football used to be full of Scotlands best players in the 70s onwards. Nottingham Forest had a very important Scottish player when they won the European Cup. Liverpool three. Leeds had a couple.
Denis Law went to Italy and played for both Manchester clubs. While a Utd player he actually scored a goal that relegated City I think, a back heel too Law is the only Scottish player to have won the Balon d'Or. That's why he should be higher up that list. Paul Lambert won the Champions League with Dortmund. He should be on the list for being so brilliant he stood out in the modern era so much that a German team bought him. This was when great Scottish players were no longer produced. But Celtic will always produce great players now and again.

Paul McStay and Tommy Burns. Danny McGrain was probably a better left back than Ashley Cole.

Charlie Nicholas for some glamour. Won't be long before KT is in the GOAT. Broony a demi *.

Oh yeah Liam Brady you mentioned, Ireland's greatest or is that Roy Keane? Brady was class I'm sure. Robbie Keane. Packy Bonner. Willie Maley. Lenny!

Unless you consider George Best as Irish. Well he grew up there. Ray Houghton scored Ireland's most famous ever goal though and he was from Glasgow.

Viera and Davids definitely deserve to be on the list. I'd love Davids to have played here.

Actually the list is pretty accurate enough. But it would be good to see one with just mainly Celtic players. I'm sure there are 140 in our history that wouldn't look out of place. Gil Scott Heron's old boy played for us didn't he. Wonder how many countries we've represented. I think I'll wait for the DVD

CR7 will be raging he's not in the GOAT tier but the Real Ronaldo is

 

Both are, in the same category as Larsson and Johnstone. It's why I probed the question as to how we would rate them if they had spent their best years at Celtic just as they did. Obviously I'd like to think as Johnstone and Larsson as higher in that last but are they really out of company when they're ranked among the likes of them two? It really is hard to say. Still can't accept Shearer over Larsson, though.

 

@T.S. Eliot Ah right sorry I understand. It's impossible for me to be impartial. I definitely know a couple of things. Jinky was a better player than Henrik and he would be in a tier all to himself.

I agree with you regards Shearer who I rate as world class but I don't see him as intelligent a footballer as Larsson. I would rank him a tier below. Viera and Davids were very special players, I would quite happily see them in the same class as Larsson. I know for sure it would have been nice to have their prime years at Celtic. We would have been close to a Champions League team then. Although others may disagree.

 

Always thought it was strange a bigger club didn't go in for him with his record.