After this weeks incidents at Chelsea v Arsenal I was thinking of the biggest thugs I have seen playing in England. No goalkeeper springs to mind but this team should have been permanently banned for the safety of others... Vinny Jones, Tommy Smith, Norman Hunter, Ron Harris Billy Bremner, Peter Storey, Charlie Adam, Roy Keane Luis Suarez, Diego Costa Graeme Souness, Duncan Ferguson, Paul Scholes in reserve
Amen to that one - and on the top of the list I would put Johnny Giles - nasty, cheating, fouling scumbag!
Jens Lehmann managed to combine some nasty fouls with some blatant dives - which is impressive for a goalkeeper. Also, no Ben Thatcher? His running elbow that sent Pedro Mendes into the hoardings would've made Mitsuharu Misawa proud.
I know we are looking for players in England, so my choice doesn't count but goalkeeper would be Harald Schumacher for what he did to Battiston in the 82 World Cup.
Steve Stone wasn't nasty, but the way he ran meant he elbowed about 30 people per game. Does that count?
In the same vein we've had one or two at Watford over the years who must have rendered 2 or 3 people in the stands unconscious every week trying to find the goal - or a team mate...
Costa Felleini I'd love to elbow both and smash their face and cripple them for a few months so they have to wear a face mask, apart from that their quite likeable.
Graham Roberts for putting Charlie Nicholas in the stands at scumbury. He should of got a medal for doing that!
Alan Shearer frequently got away with murder on the pitch, too: happy to lead with the elbow, raking his studs down defenders' shins, some nasty tackles that bisected opponents' boots, kicking Neil Lennon in the head - and the most amazing thing is that, given how often the press look for scapegoats after an(other) England loss, nobody ever mentioned it was his shoving the Argentine keeper that led to Judas' header being disallowed in 1998. Ricardo Carvalho was a sneaky bastard: it seemed every time he went for a header, the opposing player would be in a heap on the floor after taking a sneaky punch or elbow. Unsurprisingly, he's one of the few Porto players who was there before Moron took over that kept his place in the team - and then followed him to Chelsea and Madrid. Keeping with the Chelsea theme, Dennis Wise - a particularly obnoxious cocktail of being a dirty player, getting away with sneaky fouls as the referee wasn't looking, and utter bellendedness. In other words, what would happen if you put Diego Costa, Frank Lampard and John Terry in a blender. Jussi Jaaskelainen was quite handy at picking up straight reds, too.
"Graham Roberts for putting Charlie Nicholas in the stands at scumbury." Robbo was never a thug. Nor a dirty sneaky b*stard. At Spurs anyway. In that regard he was probably the closest to Dave Mackay in attitude.
Karl Henry and Lee Cattermole are worth considering but I doubt many from the modern era really compare to those in the past when the game was a lot rougher.
Pepe used to be an absolute animal but has calmed down a lot recently. Bruce Grobbelaar had a very nasty streak to him if you're in need of a keeper. Taking bungs aside, he always struck me as the sort to kill baby lambs and bury them in his back garden.
