With the silly season about to start and every transfer rumour labelling players as world class, let's get a few things straight. What does World Class mean to you? Personally, I think it means that a player would walk into just about any team in the world, unless that team also has a world class player in the same role. So to be fair I reckon that a player can only be considered world class if he was one of the top 3-5 players on the planet, for his position. In our squad, I'd say that Vidic and Rooney are the two players that could be considered world class. Fans might argue that players like Valencia and Nani are world class too... I believe that Valencia is a world class "pure" winger, the type that beats his man on the outside and whips a cross in. But there are other wide players that would probably be considered better than him, such as Ribery and Robben (and obviously Ronaldo), but they are different types of players to him. So if a world XI was picked I think the wide right position would contain a player such as Ronaldo/Robben/Ribery before Valencia, but in his specific role on the wing I think he can be classed as world class in that limited sense. So I think there is a distinction. A world class striker would be one of the top 5 or so strikers, regardless of their specific style of play. But a striker who does not make that list might well be classed as a "world class target man", "world class poacher" etc.
