Your best team of local players

No1newts

No1newts

No1newts

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Was having this chat with a friend and thought some on here might enjoy it.

You have to make the best starting 11 for your club ever with players who are either a) born locally b) not local, but spent at least three quarters of their career with your club.

Give some reasons and why they are there too.

Newcastle;

GK - Jimmy Lawrence - Scot but spent almost his whole career at Newcastle with appearance record. 3 league titles and a FA Cup.
RB - Bobby Cowell - almost 300 games for the club, 3 FA cup wins.
LB - Frank Clark - great LB, over 400 game for the club before winning Euro medal with Forest.
CB - Bobby Moncur - top CB over 300 performances and won the Fairs cup.
CB - Colin Vetich - waaaay back in the day but won it all captaining the club.
RW - Tommy Walker - quality winger who played with Jackie winning 3 cups.
LW - Chris Waddle - nuff said :p
CM - David McCreery - top notch CM played most his career with Toon and starred in two world cups.
CM - Gazza - legend :D
CF - Alan Shearer - top scorer in PL and Toon history. Great for England. Hero.
CF - Jackie Milburn - Wor Jackie, second top scorer for Newcastle. 300 in 350 games, 3 FA Cups, 10 in 13 England appearances blinking amazing!!!!


Have fun folks! :)
 
Gilly said:
I'll put a list together.

How do you define 'local'?
Click to expand...

I forget it easy in a one team city with Newcastle.

I would say local is the town/city itself or its suburbs. That and any smaller villages/towns which don't really have any decent teams of their own.

As an example one Newcastle player I picked is from Shields, it doesn't really have a decent team and is within a short commute (15-20mins) of Newcastle.

Just use best judgement really.
 
GK: Paul Robinson - much maligned now but one of the best stoppers with an extraordinary boot on him
RB: Gary Kelly - Bled Leeds. Always solid, always dependable. Never run ragged by anyone.
CH: Jack Charlton - World Cup, Fairs Cup, League Cup, FA Cup, 1st division...
CD: Lucas Radebe - The Chief. Proper legend. Shares my birthday. Nelson Mandela's hero! Turned down moves to manyoo, AC and Roma reportedly in excess of £10m and this was in the 98/99 season! Fergie commenting at the time 'everyone should be interested in Lucas'.
LB: Terry Cooper - Turned up at Leeds with his boots in a paper bag and asked for a trial. Was given one, made 250 appearances over 13 years!
CM: David Batty - greatest English miodfielder ever.
CM: Billy Bremner - Greatest Leeds player ever.
LW: Eddie Gray - when he plays on snow he doesn't leave any footprints ;)
CF: Peter Lorimer - 'HotShot', 'Lash' and 'Thunderboots' were his nicknames. Hardest shot in football.
ST: Allan Clarke - 110 goals!
FW: John Charles - Doesn't qualify but I'm having him anyway :)
 
Gilly said:
GK: Paul Robinson - much maligned now but one of the best stoppers with an extraordinary boot on him
RB: Gary Kelly - Bled Leeds. Always solid, always dependable. Never run ragged by anyone.
CH: Jack Charlton - World Cup, Fairs Cup, League Cup, FA Cup, 1st division...
CD: Lucas Radebe - The Chief. Proper legend. Shares my birthday. Nelson Mandela's hero! Turned down moves to manyoo, AC and Roma reportedly in excess of £10m and this was in the 98/99 season! Fergie commenting at the time 'everyone should be interested in Lucas'.
LB: Terry Cooper - Turned up at Leeds with his boots in a paper bag and asked for a trial. Was given one, made 250 appearances over 13 years!
CM: David Batty - greatest English miodfielder ever.
CM: Billy Bremner - Greatest Leeds player ever.
LW: Eddie Gray - when he plays on snow he doesn't leave any footprints ;)
CF: Peter Lorimer - 'HotShot', 'Lash' and 'Thunderboots' were his nicknames. Hardest shot in football.
ST: Allan Clarke - 110 goals!
FW: John Charles - Doesn't qualify but I'm having him anyway :)
Click to expand...

No John Lukic!? :mad:
 
--------------Wilson
Rice---Campbell----Adams---Cole
-------------Fabregas
Parlour-------Merson------Bastin
---------Wright---George

GK: Bob Wilson: Chosen because he's the only decent keeper I can think of who meets the criteria
LB: Ashley Cole: One of the best in the world in his position
RB: Pat Rice: Picks himself pretty much.
CB: Tony Adams: Great defender and leader, I actually think he was underrated by fans of other clubs and the England management at times, when he was in his pomp he was the best in the business IMO, despite all the 'donkey' remarks
CB: Sol Campbell: Rock solid in the early noughties, very very rarely made mistakes at that time and was one the best players in both the 2002 and 2004 tournaments (officially as well as my opinion).
LW: Cliff Bastin: Never saw him play but has a very good reputation, being club record scorer for over 50 years isn't bad for someone who wasn't even a striker.
RW: Ray Parlour: His name is synonymous with The Arsenal, there was also a time around the late 90s when I felt he was a bit underrated and should have featured in more England squads albeit perhaps not the team
CM: Cesc Fabregas: Brilliantly creative, Arsenal looked a different team when he played. Very dynamic and not just a one-trick pony, he helped inject urgency into our game
ACM: Paul Merson: My favourite player as a kid, he had a lot of flair and always chipped in with his share of goals
ST: Ian Wright: Great eye for goal and scorer of some great goals as well
ST: Charlie George: Before my time but picked on reputation due to limited options

Worth noting that my team of 'locals' (as defined by OP) contains 4 foreigners and even some of the Londoners spent significant portions of their career away from the club.
 
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Fabregas is kosher, 10 year career with 8 years at Arsenal so easily qualifies.
Henry on the other hand spent well under half his career at the club.

(personally I think percentage of career kinda skews team selections a bit because it means for players who started their careers at the club are more likely to be eligible if they are young, due to not having racked up more years since leaving - in other words Fabregas is still eligible but if he was older likely wouldn't be unless he returns. Had this question been posed in 1999 one could have had Nicolas Anelka as an option for example, but not any more)
 
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The best I could come up with:

GK: Ray Clemence - 14 years at Liverpool winning everything there is to win.
RB: Phil Neal - Maybe not regarded as a great but 11 years, 8 League titles & 4 European Cups can't be argued with.
LB: Steve Nicol - Older Liverpool fans always tell me he's the most underrated player to play for Liverpool. The best fullback the clubs ever had and could play in 4 or 5 positions.
CB: Alan Hansen - Picks himself. The best CB the club's had.
CB: Phil Thompson - Could only think of either him or Carra that met the criteria and he edged it.
CM: Steven Gerrard - Maybe not as good a CM (specifically) as Souness but only bettered by Dalglish in regards to the best player that's played for the club.
CM: Jan Molby - Touch and go whether he meets the criteria but I can't think of anybody else (worth considering) that does. An absolute genius of a player and despite him being a generation before my time, he's one of my all time favourite players. He's got a scouse accent so he counts imo.
RW: Ian Callaghan - Well before my time but I was struggling to think of many wingers fitting the criteria. The club's record appearance holder and won the lot.
LW: Steve McManaman - One of the most skillful players I've seen play for Liverpool and somebody the club's never replaced. Left in a bad way but he was a fantastic player and the only wide player I could think of.
FW: Kenny Dalglish - The clubs greatest ever player.
FW: Ian Rush - The greatest goalscorer the club's had.

-------------Clemence
Neal---Thompson--Hansen---Nicol
Callaghan--Molby--Gerrard--McManaman
-----------Rush--Dalglish
 
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Jim Leighton - Best Scottish goalkeeper ever

Stuart Kennedy - Top class right-back
Willie Miller - God. One of the best defenders to have played the game
Alex McLeish - The other half of the most fearsome centre back pairing this side of Milan
Stuart McKimmie - Primarily a right-back but Kennedy was better, so he gets shunted over

Neil Simpson - Outstanding ability, the original box-to-box midfielder
Jim Bett - Best passer of a football to have been lucky enough to be born in Scotland
Gordon Strachan - Doesn't quite fit the criteria, but an iconic player for Aberdeen so he's going in. Livewire, made things happen
Peter Weir - Best Scottish left winger ever. Absolute travesty he was only capped 6 times

Denis Law - One of the best players of all time
Eoin Jess - Boyhood favourite of mine. Sadly unfulfilled potential
 
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