The 50 Greatest Players of the Premier League
I hugely enjoyed putting together a list of the Greatest British Sportspeople of All Time - it was exhaustive, as well-researched as I could make it, and I was pretty happy with how it turned out.
However, it was very, very time-consuming, and there were obviously a few unsatisfactory elements - comparing across sports was, in a way, the whole point, but I often realised how tricky that was. Also, more than that, there were a fair few I never actually saw in action. That was hard too. And, you know, I think a list of 200 was too many.
So, in choosing my next list, I'm on much safer ground. The Premier League has run since 1992, and I've watched all of it. I know every player of which I speak. Also, comparisons are mainly like for like. Not entirely, there are keepers and defenders and midfielders and strikers, there are players for top clubs and players for lesser clubs. But it's not boxer from 1901 against jockey from 1973. 50 rather than 200 too. It's harder and harder to make honest and accurate distinctions the higher you get.
I'll get it out of the way pretty quickly. There's no need for potted histories or photos, you should know who all these folk are.
There are footballers I love in here and footballers I loathe. I've thought through the criteria and if someone else were to have different criteria for greatness in football, their list would be different.
Greatest does not mean best. If you just think in terms of "best" it gets much harder. Best when? Best as an individual or team player? If you're talking about the best players who've ever played in the Premier League, the logical conclusion is something like ...
Ronaldo
Ruud Gullit
Laurent Blanc
George Weah
Dennis Bergkamp
Jurgen Klinsmann
Thierry Henry
Andriy Shevchenko
Arjen Robben
Marcel Desailly
And, you know, that's not what I'm talking about.
It has to be for play in the Premier League, so great great players who played in the Premier League but more notably elsewhere are judged on the Premier League alone. That includes people who were around before it. John Barnes, Gordon Strachan, Peter Beardsley, Chris Waddle, Paul Gascoigne, Ian Rush etc are judged purely on how good they were in the Premier League. So none of them make the Top 50. Beardsley made the top 100, because he was great in the Premier League for a while.
Personally, I put a lot of weight on longevity and good service. If someone was great for one season, they'd probably lose out to someone who was solid and worthy for five seasons. I'd love to have included more stout yeomen, quite frankly, I'd have loved to have included Alan Wright, Steve Finnan, Ugo Ehiogu, David Unsworth, Kevin Nolan etc. They were all considered. They're what the Premier League is all about. Very good club footballers who put in decent season after decent season.
But there have been too many genuinely superb players. Those five would make the Top 100, but not the Top 50, and I'm determined to keep it to 50, otherwise, like I said, it loses focus.
So there's an inevitable bent towards the big clubs, because generally (particularly recently) the best players are at the biggest clubs. And it's the players at the biggest clubs who have the biggest effect on the outcome of the league. How well players' clubs do is also very important to me. In particular how well the clubs do relative to how well they should be doing.
If a player built his reputation at an underperforming club, in terms of their history and their potential, their rating suffers, even if they are highly regarded elsewhere.
Equally, someone like Gary Neville, if he'd played for Spurs, say, he'd still have been the best right back in England, still probably have had 50 odd England caps, but he still wouldn't have won any Premier Leagues. I can't deny his rating would have been lower then through no fault of his own.
Full disclosure: I'm a Spurs fan and I hate Chelsea. Just so you know. If you think this has made a difference to my list, let me know. I don't think so.
The numbers from each club reflect the club's standing, generally. The first 21 years of the Premier League belong overwhelmingly to Manchester United. They've won 13, come 2nd five times and 3rd three times. They could easily have won 3 more times, were really within a whisker of it. Man Utd players have shaped the Premier League and other clubs are a distant second. That'll be reflected in the list.
There's another category I'd loved to have included more of but couldn't - the cult hero, the guy who lit up the League for a while and is forever loved by one club's fans. Georgi Kinkladze, Jay Jay Okocha, Juninho, even Paolo di Canio and Peter Ndlovu - you know the type.
But no. I took my criteria seriously. A lot of them overlap, of course. But these are the things I considered.
Here are some players that just missed out
- Nolberto Solano, I'm really gutted he just missed out, such an underrated player, a real king of assists for his long stint at Newcastle Utd.
- Arjen Robben. Personally, I'd say Robben is one of the Top 5 players in the world over the last 10 years, a mere heartbeat behind Messi and Ronaldo. His influence and achievement at the highest level is enormous. In terms of the Premier League, his influence on the Chelsea surge was massive, I think. He was sensational to start with, but regularly injured and then rather frozen out. So he doesn't make the Top 50, despite being an utterly magnificent player.
Les Ferdinand - I feel bad about this - scored a lot of goals but I'd put him just behind some of the other top strikers of the 90s for lack of influence at the highest level.
Lee Bowyer - particuarly at Leeds, he was really a superb driving midfielder, the heartbeat of that side that overachieved for a couple of years,
Gary McAllister - would definitely have made the Top 50 if the season before the Premier League was included. He was the best player in the league that year as Leeds took the title.
David James - again, gutted he doesn't make it. Just too many mistakes, too few baubles.
Xabi Alonso - a bit like Robben really, a wonderful player who had a huge influence while he was there, but just wasn't there long enough, and wasn't quite able to take Liverpool to the title.
I want to be clear how I've used the criteria - as a guide, rather than as a mathematical table. If I were to assign too much weight to one criterium, such a table would be skewed.[In fact, I have also "marked" players according to the criteria (with 10 for each category), and the results are pleasingly similar, but overly weighted towards attacking players and world class players who had relatively short careers. I'll publish that list underneath my own list, where I have been guided by the criteria rather than governed by them. I have also used the criteria for those players bubbling under, and there are certainly one or two who, when I totted up, might deserve inclusion].
Anyway, here is the list. I'll try to keep my comments as brief as possible:
50. Sylvain Distin
Good to start with a quality pro. I always thought Distin stood out in the teams he played for and could have played for one of the top teams. He has also played more than any other outfield foreign player in the Premier League.
49. Lee Dixon
Member of the best back four in the Premier League for many years, he was always better than workmanlike.
48. Scott Parker
Has been at his best shoring up average teams.
47. Damien Duff
For a few years while at Blackburn and Chelsea, he was one of the most effective attacking players in the country.
46. Phil Neville
Really more for what he did at Everton than at Man Utd.
45. Steve McManaman
Liverpool's best player of their quite good mid-90s, he had to go to Real Madrid to prove that he could be a winner.
44. Teddy Sheringham
A real star for Spurs, and had a couple of very good seasons at Man Utd which proved he belonged at the highest level.
43. Fernando Torres
Would probably have been higher two years ago. Almost managed the unthinkable of getting Liverpool to the title. I think he will be good again. I hope so, though I loathe Chelsea.
42. Ruud van Nistelrooy
Complex. The league's most prolific scorer, but his time at Man Utd was their least successful period of the Premier League area. Marvellous in 2002-03, but he just was too single-minded for a team like United, who are best when their goals come from everywhere.
41. David Seaman
Was a really great goalkeeper until the late 90s - I think he dropped off pretty rapidly after that, but not enough people noticed.
40. Yaya Toure
Currently the best player in the Premier League, in my opinion. Man City's key player - if they keep hold of him, dominance might well await.
39. Gareth Bale
Can't argue with two Player of the Year awards. He lit up the League then outgrew it, but skipped the step of ever having an effect on its outcome. And let's not forget the two years during which he was simply the worst player in the world.
38. Dennis Irwin
A real classic stalwart, great with both feet, scored a lot of goals, in some ways the proto-Paul Scholes.
37. Nicolas Anelka
What I like it was about Anelka is that, grumping aside, he was always good, whether a shooting star for Arsenal or slumming it at Bolton. He may not have acted the model pro but in a way, he was.
36. Dwight Yorke
Went to a new level when he joined Man Utd and really was one of the main stars of their treble season. Was never quite that good before or after.
35. Edwin Van der Sar
I think, if Ferguson had signed him sooner, as he wishes he had, they'd have had at least two more league titles and one more Champions League.
34. Jamie Carragher
Occasionally slightly exposed at the highest level, but maker of so very many stirring last ditch tackles.
33. Michael Owen
If only. 150 Premier League goals isn't too bad, but who knows, it could have been 300.
32. Gary Neville
Hard work and luck. Right place, right time, right attitude.
31. Robin Van Persie
The only negative with Van Persie is his relentless propensity to be injured. Utd were lucky, where Arsenal were unlucky, that his most injury-free season was his first at Old Trafford. What a magnificent left foot.
30. Robbie Fowler
Close between Owen and Fowler, but in his prime Fowler has the better player, wasn't he?
29. Roy Keane
Massively overrated, of course, but was very good, particularly when he was at Forest. Man Utd won the title the season before he joined and the three seasons after he left. And he missed one whole season through an injury for which his own malice was entirely the culprit. So there are plenty of negatives to balance against the positives.
28. Patrice Evra
You can pretty much pinpoint the start of the third great Ferguson era to the transfer window of 2005/6, when he signed Evra and Vidic. I think they lost the first game 4-1, but haven't really looked back since.
27. Robert Pires
Thierry Henry's right hand man, and completely prolific for a midfielder, he outshone Giggs for a few seasons.
26. Sol Campbell
Their loathing for Sol is a real blight on Spurs fans. Understandable for a few weeks to be a bit cross, mind. Served both North London clubs very well, and was still surprisingly good, if slow, at Portsmouth.
25. Cesc Fabregas
Perhaps unduly high, as his was the least successful period in recent Arsenal history, but he seemed to carry the team pretty much.
24. Gary Speed
His only win was the season before the Premier League, but he was one of the classiest midfielders - great left foot, great passer.
23. Robbie Keane
In the 2000s, he was one of the league's top scorers, and was always more than a goal scorer. An all round class player, who Liverpool messed about to their cost. Probably my favourite Spurs player of all, and I feel he kicked off the (moderate) Spurs revival of the last 10 years or so.
22. Nemanja Vidic
As with Evra, you can date Man Utd's triumphant last surge (5 titles in 7 years and the other 2 missed by a heartbeat) to his arrival. A monstrously good defender, though sent off a bit much.
21. Didier Drogba
Maybe Jose Mourinho's greatest weapon. Never the most likeable footballer, but what a lot of crucial goals he got.
20. David Beckham
1999 was his great year in the league. You only have to look at how United fared in the three years after he left to see his worth to them.
19. Gianfranco Zola
Perhaps too high, considering he never won the Premier League, but along with Bergkamp, seemed like the most influential foreign player. Lit up the league and was the closest person ever to making Chelsea tolerably likeable.
18. John Terry
Talking of Chelsea being likeable ... give the man his due, he's been an excellent defender. Usually needed a quicker, classier partner eg Carvalho, but great in the air and a scorer of a lot of goals too.
17. Andy Cole
The Premier League's second top scorer, it was he who was the catalyst for Newcastle's mid-90s glory years and it was he who scored the winner vs Spurs which kicked off Man Utd's treble.
16. Patrick Vieira
For me, the very best central midfielder in the history of the league - relentlessly immense when at Arsenal. Could easily be higher, but, again, perhaps his disciplinary record is against him.
15. Tony Adams
Seemed, in the 90s, to be the main point of resistance to Man Utd's dominance. What I did like about him as a footballer was that he actually got better in his last few years, seemed to learn new tricks from Wenger.
14. Steven Gerrard
Nothing you haven't heard from me before - no league titles, not quite enough goals or assists, didin't actually make Liverpool better in the league. His main glories have been in cups, seemingly not cut out for keeping his team at the highest level throughout a long league season.
13. Ashley Cole
This guy deserves a pay rise! Always a great defender, always played for a top team and did his job. No good at crossing though.
12. Wayne Rooney
Could be Top 3 in another 5 years. Has five Premier Leagues and could end up as the League's top scorer if he keeps going for a few more years.
11. Dennis Bergkamp
I sometimes think he was a bit overrated - only scored double figures in four Premier Leagues, but changed the way Arsenal played and the way they saw themselves, and made the whole thing a much classier business.
10. Matt Le Tissier
I saw Le Tissier in his prime. Another time. Another time. Let no one doubt that this guy was the most talented English footballer of the last 25 years, nor that his single-handedly keeping Southampton up season after season was as much a success in its way as winning the league. A one-off.
9. Peter Schmeichel
According to the facts, the real facts, goalkeepers are very important and none more important than Schmeichel. The difference between winning a league and not winning a league/
8. Rio Ferdinand
The best defender there's been in the league, his presence has always made an enormous difference to whether United are good or not, as it has for England.
7. Paul Scholes
They're missing him now, United. It was the early 2000s when he was at his best, I think, when he walloped in all those volleys and just kept the whole thing ticking over.
6. Eric Cantona
I was initially going to place him lower (due to his relatively brief tenure) but then I remembered how he defined the first five years of the Premier League. There have been three "primes" in the league, three periods where one player has defined and dominated everything. The other two are still to come.
5. Cristiano Ronaldo
The current best player in the world was a bit rubbish to start with. Or at least surprisingly ineffectual and irritating. It took him three seasons to get the hang of it, three seasons where United didn't win the league. Then he did, and three titles came their way, with Ronaldo getting 66 goals across the 3 seasons.
4. Alan Shearer
A more generous placing than might have been, considering how singularly irrelevant the second half of his career was. So vital for Blackburn, at Newcastle he was only a goal machine, not a match winner, not an inspiring force. 260 goals, though. A lot more than anyone else.
3. Frank Lampard
More goals (far more), more assists, more league titles than Gerrard. Relentlessly excellent. You picture a Lampard goal, hammered in, but with a slightly imperfect, ungraceful flight, from 20 yards, at a crucial time in a crucial match. Over and over again.
2. Thierry Henry
Was actually pretty tight at the top. No one could deny that Henry's prime was the best we've seen. Perfect in every facet of the game for several seasons at Arsenal.
1. Ryan Giggs
Obvious, really. Because maybe, just maybe, United wouldn't have won any Premier Leagues if it hadn't been for him. Is that really an absurd statement?
So there we go. No great fanfare, but a pretty good list. Here's what would have happened if I'd been entirely governed by my criteria, including those players a little below - quite similar but different enough
However, it was very, very time-consuming, and there were obviously a few unsatisfactory elements - comparing across sports was, in a way, the whole point, but I often realised how tricky that was. Also, more than that, there were a fair few I never actually saw in action. That was hard too. And, you know, I think a list of 200 was too many.
So, in choosing my next list, I'm on much safer ground. The Premier League has run since 1992, and I've watched all of it. I know every player of which I speak. Also, comparisons are mainly like for like. Not entirely, there are keepers and defenders and midfielders and strikers, there are players for top clubs and players for lesser clubs. But it's not boxer from 1901 against jockey from 1973. 50 rather than 200 too. It's harder and harder to make honest and accurate distinctions the higher you get.
I'll get it out of the way pretty quickly. There's no need for potted histories or photos, you should know who all these folk are.
There are footballers I love in here and footballers I loathe. I've thought through the criteria and if someone else were to have different criteria for greatness in football, their list would be different.
Greatest does not mean best. If you just think in terms of "best" it gets much harder. Best when? Best as an individual or team player? If you're talking about the best players who've ever played in the Premier League, the logical conclusion is something like ...
Ronaldo
Ruud Gullit
Laurent Blanc
George Weah
Dennis Bergkamp
Jurgen Klinsmann
Thierry Henry
Andriy Shevchenko
Arjen Robben
Marcel Desailly
And, you know, that's not what I'm talking about.
It has to be for play in the Premier League, so great great players who played in the Premier League but more notably elsewhere are judged on the Premier League alone. That includes people who were around before it. John Barnes, Gordon Strachan, Peter Beardsley, Chris Waddle, Paul Gascoigne, Ian Rush etc are judged purely on how good they were in the Premier League. So none of them make the Top 50. Beardsley made the top 100, because he was great in the Premier League for a while.
Personally, I put a lot of weight on longevity and good service. If someone was great for one season, they'd probably lose out to someone who was solid and worthy for five seasons. I'd love to have included more stout yeomen, quite frankly, I'd have loved to have included Alan Wright, Steve Finnan, Ugo Ehiogu, David Unsworth, Kevin Nolan etc. They were all considered. They're what the Premier League is all about. Very good club footballers who put in decent season after decent season.
But there have been too many genuinely superb players. Those five would make the Top 100, but not the Top 50, and I'm determined to keep it to 50, otherwise, like I said, it loses focus.
So there's an inevitable bent towards the big clubs, because generally (particularly recently) the best players are at the biggest clubs. And it's the players at the biggest clubs who have the biggest effect on the outcome of the league. How well players' clubs do is also very important to me. In particular how well the clubs do relative to how well they should be doing.
If a player built his reputation at an underperforming club, in terms of their history and their potential, their rating suffers, even if they are highly regarded elsewhere.
Equally, someone like Gary Neville, if he'd played for Spurs, say, he'd still have been the best right back in England, still probably have had 50 odd England caps, but he still wouldn't have won any Premier Leagues. I can't deny his rating would have been lower then through no fault of his own.
Full disclosure: I'm a Spurs fan and I hate Chelsea. Just so you know. If you think this has made a difference to my list, let me know. I don't think so.
The numbers from each club reflect the club's standing, generally. The first 21 years of the Premier League belong overwhelmingly to Manchester United. They've won 13, come 2nd five times and 3rd three times. They could easily have won 3 more times, were really within a whisker of it. Man Utd players have shaped the Premier League and other clubs are a distant second. That'll be reflected in the list.
There's another category I'd loved to have included more of but couldn't - the cult hero, the guy who lit up the League for a while and is forever loved by one club's fans. Georgi Kinkladze, Jay Jay Okocha, Juninho, even Paolo di Canio and Peter Ndlovu - you know the type.
But no. I took my criteria seriously. A lot of them overlap, of course. But these are the things I considered.
| -Sheer quality |
| -Impact |
| -Success |
| -Improvement of the team/s they played for |
| -Importance to title race |
| -Longevity |
| -Standing in the game |
| -Fulfilment of their role |
| -Flexibility |
| -Unswappability |
| -Brilliance |
| -Statistics |
| -Influence on the future |
| -Leadership |
| -Absence of negatives |
| -How much their own fans rate
them |
Here are some players that just missed out
- Nolberto Solano, I'm really gutted he just missed out, such an underrated player, a real king of assists for his long stint at Newcastle Utd.
- Arjen Robben. Personally, I'd say Robben is one of the Top 5 players in the world over the last 10 years, a mere heartbeat behind Messi and Ronaldo. His influence and achievement at the highest level is enormous. In terms of the Premier League, his influence on the Chelsea surge was massive, I think. He was sensational to start with, but regularly injured and then rather frozen out. So he doesn't make the Top 50, despite being an utterly magnificent player.
Les Ferdinand - I feel bad about this - scored a lot of goals but I'd put him just behind some of the other top strikers of the 90s for lack of influence at the highest level.
Lee Bowyer - particuarly at Leeds, he was really a superb driving midfielder, the heartbeat of that side that overachieved for a couple of years,
Gary McAllister - would definitely have made the Top 50 if the season before the Premier League was included. He was the best player in the league that year as Leeds took the title.
David James - again, gutted he doesn't make it. Just too many mistakes, too few baubles.
Xabi Alonso - a bit like Robben really, a wonderful player who had a huge influence while he was there, but just wasn't there long enough, and wasn't quite able to take Liverpool to the title.
I want to be clear how I've used the criteria - as a guide, rather than as a mathematical table. If I were to assign too much weight to one criterium, such a table would be skewed.[In fact, I have also "marked" players according to the criteria (with 10 for each category), and the results are pleasingly similar, but overly weighted towards attacking players and world class players who had relatively short careers. I'll publish that list underneath my own list, where I have been guided by the criteria rather than governed by them. I have also used the criteria for those players bubbling under, and there are certainly one or two who, when I totted up, might deserve inclusion].
Anyway, here is the list. I'll try to keep my comments as brief as possible:
50. Sylvain Distin
Good to start with a quality pro. I always thought Distin stood out in the teams he played for and could have played for one of the top teams. He has also played more than any other outfield foreign player in the Premier League.
49. Lee Dixon
Member of the best back four in the Premier League for many years, he was always better than workmanlike.
48. Scott Parker
Has been at his best shoring up average teams.
47. Damien Duff
For a few years while at Blackburn and Chelsea, he was one of the most effective attacking players in the country.
46. Phil Neville
Really more for what he did at Everton than at Man Utd.
45. Steve McManaman
Liverpool's best player of their quite good mid-90s, he had to go to Real Madrid to prove that he could be a winner.
44. Teddy Sheringham
A real star for Spurs, and had a couple of very good seasons at Man Utd which proved he belonged at the highest level.
43. Fernando Torres
Would probably have been higher two years ago. Almost managed the unthinkable of getting Liverpool to the title. I think he will be good again. I hope so, though I loathe Chelsea.
42. Ruud van Nistelrooy
Complex. The league's most prolific scorer, but his time at Man Utd was their least successful period of the Premier League area. Marvellous in 2002-03, but he just was too single-minded for a team like United, who are best when their goals come from everywhere.
41. David Seaman
Was a really great goalkeeper until the late 90s - I think he dropped off pretty rapidly after that, but not enough people noticed.
40. Yaya Toure
Currently the best player in the Premier League, in my opinion. Man City's key player - if they keep hold of him, dominance might well await.
39. Gareth Bale
Can't argue with two Player of the Year awards. He lit up the League then outgrew it, but skipped the step of ever having an effect on its outcome. And let's not forget the two years during which he was simply the worst player in the world.
38. Dennis Irwin
A real classic stalwart, great with both feet, scored a lot of goals, in some ways the proto-Paul Scholes.
37. Nicolas Anelka
What I like it was about Anelka is that, grumping aside, he was always good, whether a shooting star for Arsenal or slumming it at Bolton. He may not have acted the model pro but in a way, he was.
36. Dwight Yorke
Went to a new level when he joined Man Utd and really was one of the main stars of their treble season. Was never quite that good before or after.
35. Edwin Van der Sar
I think, if Ferguson had signed him sooner, as he wishes he had, they'd have had at least two more league titles and one more Champions League.
34. Jamie Carragher
Occasionally slightly exposed at the highest level, but maker of so very many stirring last ditch tackles.
33. Michael Owen
If only. 150 Premier League goals isn't too bad, but who knows, it could have been 300.
32. Gary Neville
Hard work and luck. Right place, right time, right attitude.
31. Robin Van Persie
The only negative with Van Persie is his relentless propensity to be injured. Utd were lucky, where Arsenal were unlucky, that his most injury-free season was his first at Old Trafford. What a magnificent left foot.
30. Robbie Fowler
Close between Owen and Fowler, but in his prime Fowler has the better player, wasn't he?
29. Roy Keane
Massively overrated, of course, but was very good, particularly when he was at Forest. Man Utd won the title the season before he joined and the three seasons after he left. And he missed one whole season through an injury for which his own malice was entirely the culprit. So there are plenty of negatives to balance against the positives.
28. Patrice Evra
You can pretty much pinpoint the start of the third great Ferguson era to the transfer window of 2005/6, when he signed Evra and Vidic. I think they lost the first game 4-1, but haven't really looked back since.
27. Robert Pires
Thierry Henry's right hand man, and completely prolific for a midfielder, he outshone Giggs for a few seasons.
26. Sol Campbell
Their loathing for Sol is a real blight on Spurs fans. Understandable for a few weeks to be a bit cross, mind. Served both North London clubs very well, and was still surprisingly good, if slow, at Portsmouth.
25. Cesc Fabregas
Perhaps unduly high, as his was the least successful period in recent Arsenal history, but he seemed to carry the team pretty much.
24. Gary Speed
His only win was the season before the Premier League, but he was one of the classiest midfielders - great left foot, great passer.
23. Robbie Keane
In the 2000s, he was one of the league's top scorers, and was always more than a goal scorer. An all round class player, who Liverpool messed about to their cost. Probably my favourite Spurs player of all, and I feel he kicked off the (moderate) Spurs revival of the last 10 years or so.
22. Nemanja Vidic
As with Evra, you can date Man Utd's triumphant last surge (5 titles in 7 years and the other 2 missed by a heartbeat) to his arrival. A monstrously good defender, though sent off a bit much.
21. Didier Drogba
Maybe Jose Mourinho's greatest weapon. Never the most likeable footballer, but what a lot of crucial goals he got.
20. David Beckham
1999 was his great year in the league. You only have to look at how United fared in the three years after he left to see his worth to them.
19. Gianfranco Zola
Perhaps too high, considering he never won the Premier League, but along with Bergkamp, seemed like the most influential foreign player. Lit up the league and was the closest person ever to making Chelsea tolerably likeable.
18. John Terry
Talking of Chelsea being likeable ... give the man his due, he's been an excellent defender. Usually needed a quicker, classier partner eg Carvalho, but great in the air and a scorer of a lot of goals too.
17. Andy Cole
The Premier League's second top scorer, it was he who was the catalyst for Newcastle's mid-90s glory years and it was he who scored the winner vs Spurs which kicked off Man Utd's treble.
16. Patrick Vieira
For me, the very best central midfielder in the history of the league - relentlessly immense when at Arsenal. Could easily be higher, but, again, perhaps his disciplinary record is against him.
15. Tony Adams
Seemed, in the 90s, to be the main point of resistance to Man Utd's dominance. What I did like about him as a footballer was that he actually got better in his last few years, seemed to learn new tricks from Wenger.
14. Steven Gerrard
Nothing you haven't heard from me before - no league titles, not quite enough goals or assists, didin't actually make Liverpool better in the league. His main glories have been in cups, seemingly not cut out for keeping his team at the highest level throughout a long league season.
13. Ashley Cole
This guy deserves a pay rise! Always a great defender, always played for a top team and did his job. No good at crossing though.
12. Wayne Rooney
Could be Top 3 in another 5 years. Has five Premier Leagues and could end up as the League's top scorer if he keeps going for a few more years.
11. Dennis Bergkamp
I sometimes think he was a bit overrated - only scored double figures in four Premier Leagues, but changed the way Arsenal played and the way they saw themselves, and made the whole thing a much classier business.
10. Matt Le Tissier
I saw Le Tissier in his prime. Another time. Another time. Let no one doubt that this guy was the most talented English footballer of the last 25 years, nor that his single-handedly keeping Southampton up season after season was as much a success in its way as winning the league. A one-off.
9. Peter Schmeichel
According to the facts, the real facts, goalkeepers are very important and none more important than Schmeichel. The difference between winning a league and not winning a league/
8. Rio Ferdinand
The best defender there's been in the league, his presence has always made an enormous difference to whether United are good or not, as it has for England.
7. Paul Scholes
They're missing him now, United. It was the early 2000s when he was at his best, I think, when he walloped in all those volleys and just kept the whole thing ticking over.
6. Eric Cantona
I was initially going to place him lower (due to his relatively brief tenure) but then I remembered how he defined the first five years of the Premier League. There have been three "primes" in the league, three periods where one player has defined and dominated everything. The other two are still to come.
5. Cristiano Ronaldo
The current best player in the world was a bit rubbish to start with. Or at least surprisingly ineffectual and irritating. It took him three seasons to get the hang of it, three seasons where United didn't win the league. Then he did, and three titles came their way, with Ronaldo getting 66 goals across the 3 seasons.
4. Alan Shearer
A more generous placing than might have been, considering how singularly irrelevant the second half of his career was. So vital for Blackburn, at Newcastle he was only a goal machine, not a match winner, not an inspiring force. 260 goals, though. A lot more than anyone else.
3. Frank Lampard
More goals (far more), more assists, more league titles than Gerrard. Relentlessly excellent. You picture a Lampard goal, hammered in, but with a slightly imperfect, ungraceful flight, from 20 yards, at a crucial time in a crucial match. Over and over again.
2. Thierry Henry
Was actually pretty tight at the top. No one could deny that Henry's prime was the best we've seen. Perfect in every facet of the game for several seasons at Arsenal.
1. Ryan Giggs
Obvious, really. Because maybe, just maybe, United wouldn't have won any Premier Leagues if it hadn't been for him. Is that really an absurd statement?
So there we go. No great fanfare, but a pretty good list. Here's what would have happened if I'd been entirely governed by my criteria, including those players a little below - quite similar but different enough
1.
Ryan Giggs
2.
Thierry Henry
3.
Frank Lampard
4.
Eric Cantona
5.
Dennis Bergkamp
6.
Paul Scholes
7.
Peter Schmeichel
8.
Matt Le Tissier
9.
Cristiano Ronaldo
10.
Wayne Rooney
11.
Gianfranco Zola
12.
David Beckham
13.
Rio Ferdinand
14.
Didier Drogba
15.
Cesc Fabregas
16.
Tony Adams
17.
Patrick Vieira
18.
Edwin Van der Sar
19.
Yaya Toure
20.
Alan Shearer
21.
Sol Campbell
22.
Gary Neville
23.
Gary Speed
24.
Robin Van Persie
25.
Ashley Cole
26.
Stephen Gerrard
27.
Robbie Keane
28.
Robert Pires
29.
David Seaman
30.
Nemanja Vidic
31.
Jamie Carragher
32.
Andy Cole
33.
John Terry
34.
Roy Keane
35.
Robbie Fowler
36.
Dennis Irwin
37.
Gareth Bale
38.
Michael Carrick
39.
Ian Wright
40.
Gary Pallister
41.
Patrice Evra
42.
Xabi Alonso
43.
Dwight Yorke
44.
Teddy Sheringham
45.
Arjen Robben
46.
Leighton Baines
47.
Michael Owen
48.
Phil Neville
49.
Gary McAllister
50.
David Ginola
51.
Sami Hyppia
52.
Carlos Tevez
53.
Martin Keown
54.
Nicholas Anelka
55.
Fernando Torres
56.
David James
57.
Lee Dixon
58.
Nolberto Solano
59.
Steve McManaman
60.
Scott Parker
61.
Sylvain Distin
62.
Les Ferdinand
63.
Lee Bowyer
64.
Joe Cole
65.
William Gallas
66.
Luis Suarez
67.
Ruud van Nistelrooy
68.
Damien Duff
69.
Robbie Savage
70.
Dimitar Berbatov
71.
Steed Malbranque
72.
Kevin Davies
73.
George Boateng
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