Loving the banter - this thread at its best
! And hey, that's what makes football unique isn't it? We wouldn't be saying all this about cricket would we?
For what it's worth, I think the word
special is both overused, and used by different people in different contexts. In my own opinion, I only qualify the word special for those very, very rare players who do something special to me when they get the ball.
In all my years of watching football at Old Trafford, the only United players who have set my heart racing with anticipation and excitement have been Eric Cantona and Cristiano Ronaldo - absolute end of!
The likes of Bryan Robson, Roy Keane, Paul Scholes, David Beckham and numerous others were all world-class footballers, but they just didn't have that almost indefinable ability to make it look like they were so much better than anyone else on the park that they were, by
my definition
special.
The only opposition players whom I've been lucky enough to see at Old Trafford who - at the time I saw them - had that rarest of abilities have been Diego Maradona, Michel Platini, Romario (in my opinion the best player I have ever seen) Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
Separate mentions should go to Robbie Fowler and Thierry Henry, who both in their own ways could cause you some serious damage when in possession. Henry never seemed to do it at Old Trafford, though I do remember Fowler putting in perhaps the most menacing performance I've endured in person in Cantona's comeback match, the 2-2 draw in October 1995.
Others may have very differend interpretations of the word special; but I tend to use such a
special word sparingly. Steven Gerrard is a world-class footballer who as Yoda says, would almost certainly find a place in any leading club side (although perhaps the Busquets example is flawed as it takes certain types of players to make up a truly dominant midfield and Gerrard's presence in place of him might possibly cause a case of too many cooks - just my opinion), but I would stop short, by my own definition, of calling him special.
And in reply to the accusations that Paul Scholes is a dirty player, I'd argue that he's just a very poor tackler who happens to play in an area where tackling is an occupational hazard. I could also produce a long list of xxx-rated Gerrard two-footers, especially from his younger days and still cannot believe that he stayed on the field on most of those occasions.
are the only 2 on here who doubt Gerrards ability. Says it all really.![[Image: 76eafd119681317.jpg]](http://thumbnails36.imagebam.com/11969/76eafd119681317.jpg)
