Off Topic Just saying like

Gerrard was a very good player but he wasn't a team man. He couldn't hold a position as it had to be about him. That sometimes had a negative impact on the team. He looked like the all star hero but the team suffered for it.

 

To the OP, Cantona wouldn't even be in the top 10.
Ridiculous.
Flash in the pan

 

The best player of the PL era is Ryan Giggs, without a shadow of a doubt.

Longevity, skill, talent, medal haul, the guy was a ****ing Legend.

Cantona ffs

 

He won 5 league titles in 6 years with two different clubs. The one season he didn't win it he was banned for months.

That's some flashy pan.

 

Giggs was a Fcuking legend alright...his brothers wife will testament to that.

 

And it was Cantona was it?
In only one of those season did he even score more than 15 goals.
Completely overrated.
Thats like saying Wes Brown is the best defender ever because United won 3 back to back titles with him and then finished 2nd when they sold him to Sunderland.

 

He was a massive influence on that team. I can assure you of that, I was very often there. You're basically suggesting that Fergie didn't know how that team worked.

The Wes Brown comparison is quite frankly ******ed Bod.

 

His goal and celebration at the crowd totally changed that game. Yes others scored etc. but he was vital to that CL win. Even in the knockout stages his last minute goal against Olypiakos (sp?) to see us through etc etc etc. He was hugely influential in us winning the CL in 05.

 

"Cool Story Bro" moment and slightly unrelated.
I remember when I was a kid, about 12ish, just after the Kung Fu kick incident, we had a task at school to write about our heroes, or people we looked up to, could be an athlete, musician actor etc.
One kid in my class chose Eric Cantona, and the teacher went ****ING MENTAL!
She tore him apart in front of the class and made him cry, it was funny as ****. Saying how much of a thug he was and a disgrace etc.

 

I am sure he did have influence, but are you really saying you would rank him over Giggs as the best player in PL era?
That's ludicrous.

 

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The OP was about influential characters and Cantona was certainly one...he was pivotal in United finding their glory days again, that's the point...his influence on the club. He carried a lot of young guns around him and left when they got a taste of glory for themselves....then Keane took over. Type of character this Spurs team needs...someone to focus the young guns on the pitch and to teach them to think like winners on and off it.

 

Of course he did....he drove that team. You have to have been a baller in your heyday to realise how strong characters are paramount in achieving success.

Drogba was the nearest for Chelsea.

 

Jesus of Navas....

 

By the way, using his goals record to at he was overrated would be like saying Zola didn't have much of an impact for Chelsea.

I haven't ranked anyone as the best player in the PL era, I responded to your ridiculous comment that Cantona was a flash in the pan.

 

I was responding to the OP which said Eric Cantona - Best player in the PL's 25 years, or some ****.

 

Why does Wes Brown keep popping up as if he was some sort of Jon Flanagan?

Fergie rated Wes Brown as one of, if not the best natural defenders he'd ever seen. If Wes Brown hadn't been ravaged by injuries and completely unreliable as a result, he'd have probably been the most decorated defender in English football history.

Him and Woodgate, on a technical level are better than anything else this country has produced in my lifetime. Possibly throw Ledley King in there too, although he was an extreme crock.

 

You said he was a flash in the pan. Ridiculous!

 

JT

 

I totally get this thread.

It's like Lee Cattermole for Sunderland. When he plays it picks the team up and they rally around him. He's the driving force, the petrol in the car.

 

Because they weren't there, read some forums, watched him struggle whilst injured later on in his career and subsequently chatted **** like sheep?