Gary Lineker

Would you consider him one of the best English strikers of the last 50 years or beyond?

 

id probly put him in there but in about 15th position as they has been some good strikers big al would be 1st

 

Best goal poacher certainly. Given his Leicester connection, I'd say he is the epitome of the fox in the box.

I'd say there are others forwards who were better though:

Shearer has to be up there. Last 10 minutes and you're 1:0 down, you get a corner, there are few men you'd want in the box to get on the end of it than Shearer. Similarly, he was a sure fire bet to score in penalty shoot outs!

 

Hes up there, definitely, great pace, great finisher and all round top bloke

 

Most certainly, he scored for fun!

 

Bit of a random article Chappaz, what gives?

I'd say yes though, he was one of the best. He's what Owen could have been if he stayed injury free and made the right career choices.

 

Yeah I know. I was just reading about him and then realised that I've never really seen anyone speak about him as a player - just as an MOTD pundit/Walkers advert man.

His goalscoring record is rather remarkable and easily up there with Shearer's, if not better in some cases. 243 goals in 466 apps at club-level, and 48 goals in 80 apps for England, which is one short of Bobby Charlton's record.

 

lets be honest hes a better footballer than walkers advert actor ha ha

 

On comparison to Shearer, I don't think Linekar had as much about his all round as Shearer did.

 

He wouldn't have been were it not for a certain Peter Beardsley! Must have made at least half of those 48 goals for Lineker!

 

He was an all out poacher, but he was bloody good at it, and if you've got Peter Beardsley playing behind you what else do you need?

Quality player, but on top of that had the intelligence to not just play abroad but actually learn the language, do his media training and make a great career after he was done playing. I'm a fan.

 

Without doubt. He was fantastic and a top top player. I can remember watching him for Everton, Barca, Spurs, England. Can't remember his time at Leicester where he made his name. Born goalscorer with a better game than many give him credit for. He was so much more than a poacher. He was a very intelligent runner off the ball. I can't remember if he ever did, but I always remember they used to mention that he had never been booked as a pro. He was a real leader on the pitch aswell, always trying to get players going. Very passionate about representing his country, something thats been lost through the years.

It was very unusual for British players to go abroad but he did and was a massive success. I'm sure he managed one every two games for Barca, fans loved him. I wish more of our players would go abroad. The likes of Hoddle, Waddle, Gazza, Lineker, Hughes, the superstars of the English game all did and improved for it. Of course it doesn't work out for some (Des Walker) but it can for some and when it does they invariably become better players as a result.

 

I always think Robbie Fowler is underrated outside of Liverpool. I would actually rate Robbie Fowler ahead of Lineker, if we were talking about both of them at the peak of their powers. Lineker was just basically the English Inzaghi, if you ask me. Decent poacher with good movement but didn't create his own chances.

 

I'd say he's definitely top 5.

As someone else said, he seems to be known more for the Walkers ads and as a TV presenter, rather than being remembered as a player. I think that's kind of a shame because he was a very good player.

 

I rated Fowler highly. He was just very unfortunate to have been around at a time when Shearer was about. Same for Andy Cole. Great players in their own right, it just so happened that England had one of the worlds best at the time. When I look back to then and fast foward to now, it makes me shudder. At the time we were choosing from Shearer, Ferdinand, Sheringham, Cole, Fowler, Wright, Beardsley, Sutton, Barmby. Now we are struggling to get 5 worthy of wearing the shirt.

 

You can Ian Rush to the list of failed British players abroad as he did state "Playing in Italy was like playing in a foreign country". Bless him.

 

Good point, I wonder why that is though? Is it because of the foreign players coming in and younger, English players not getting a chanc as most people suggest? I personally find that hard to believe, I can't see anyone leaving someone who had the levels of talent of a Shearer or a Fowler getting kept on the bench.

 

A classic line. Though he is adamant its not actually true. I'm sure he reckoned Dalglish made it up for a joke, and he's been stuck with it ever since. Much to the amusement of Dalglish. Of course if I was him, I'd claim it to be fictional, wouldn't you! He got loads of stick as did Walker about their time in Italy. But Walker played left full back half the time at Sampdoria. As a right footed centre half, this was never gonna work. And I'm sure Rushie got something like 1 in 3 which was actually pretty standard in the Italian league at the time. The defences were tighter than a virgin.

 

I do think we had a freakish time of it around then. There were 9 or 10 all spurring each on to greater things. But I do think we have a shortage now. I would like to see less foreigners in our game and I do think it restricts English players in terms of getting European experience. At the end of the day if you have to play 8 English players, it stands to reason that your national team will benefit from more players playing at higher levels of the game. However I don't think its the reason for a shortage of strikers. That is more down to an arrogance and laziness in our approach to coaching standards in the last 20 years. And its also just the way it goes in terms of cycles. Sometimes you will be awash with certain types of players, sometimes you won't. You can't actually control it all for me!

 

great striker and should have beat bobbys record if it wasn't for old turnip head