What a random comment. If anything Luca Toni's stock has risen from the start of this season when he couldn't get a game at Bayern to where he was ok at Roma.

Toni ftw

Rest assured no Toni on the list or even in the honorary mentions which really could be updated well into eternity so check that out from time to time.

DOH! Still haven't included Park though, I just remembered...

Hmm about the order of the last entry (which might just overall have been the best I thought after rereading it just now) I did keep changing it and many have a case over others.

Milner and Arteta were always ahead though. They are just skilled in too many areas compared to Fletcher i think, to not be ahead of him. And so of course are clearly the large majority of players still to come. At least I think so.
I really thought it was Nasri that would get complaints about not being higher and he was also the player who've seen more swings in his ranking than the others in that entry, who mostly have remained close to where they ended up.

Anyway new entry coming right up

The list so far and every writeup:

New entries with a pole:



82: Thierry Henry - Barcelona - France
81: Thomas Müller - Bayern München - Germany
80: Ivica Olic - Bayern München - Croatia
79: Branislav Ivanovic - Chelsea - Serbia
78: Nemanja Vidić - Manchester United - Serbia
77: Giorgio Chiellini - Juventus - Italy

Tags that don't really cover the rambling on positions and their values: Barcelona, centrebacks, Chiellini, Domenech, France, Guardiola, Henry, Ivanovic, Muller, Olic, Rijkaard, Vidic, defending

I may be wrong but I'm almost certain that when you started the list you made a short list of players who just missed the list that had Ivanovic on it. I remember mentioning him in a post. I'll search for it now.

So Ivanovic both bubbled and made the top 100. Must have been one hell of a season.

Also seeing Milner.

Fletchers defensive ability, workrate, off the ball runs etc are being criminally underrated here I feel since neither Milner nor Arteta are exactly magicians on the ball.

Also Thomas Muller fail imo. Maybe in 2 or 3 years time. Atm he isn't close to top 100 in the world imo. He has far far too many weaknesses to be that high and his strengths don't come close to making up for it.

yeah that was months ago. beginning of the season I guess. like mentioned many times tons of players who wasn't on originally since entered. quite a few also higher than Ivanovic.

but at least I acknowledged he was really good I just wasn't still sure if so good that I could justify the adjustment that inserting him into a high ranking would result in.

hm not sure about henry he had a bit of a dropoff this year it seemed.

I fear a scenario where I have to compare Fletcher to every single player from now on, but with Milner I feel that he pretty much matches Fletcher's work-rate. They're both very sick in that department. Obviously Fletcher is better defensively but I don't think Milner is bad at all, whether on the wing or even central.

Then compared to Fletcher, and this is Fletcher's downfall compared to most who will be ahead of him, but maybe I'm missing something if he should really be top 50 like some think, Milner in all areas are just better on the ball. He has range of passing. Crosses it well and while not flashy can dribble too with decent pace. He can create. Has a great shot. And contribute with all those things in different positions.

Similar is the case with Arteta who aren't up to par physically with the two but I do actually think something of a magician technician. Great first touch and passing. Creating for himself and others. And defensively good enough to hold his own central.

Agree with this or he wouldn't be so high at all. He is ahead of other primarily defensive midfielders like De Jong, Palacios, Song, Gargano, Alou Diarra and Barry, Busquets + many others lower on the list just because I started seeing there was something more to his midfield presence. Like those off the ball runs and going forward. Quite a few of those below I would say have better technique than Fletcher. They're all good defensively and have great work-rates, but with his ability, not shared by some of those, of also applying pressure the other way while being excellent defensively, I put him ahead.

However I just think with many players still to come, many who will also have great work-rates (basically a must now) and be very good without the ball, that they're on a higher level technically than Fletcher is, even if he is underrated, putting them in some cases well ahead.

By now he could definitely have been much lower even if it would still look very wrong having Henry behind x player who at first glance would seem not even in the same universe as him.

I think his first ranking was 32 or something, then 40 something, down to 60 something and then I really didn't look for a while busy with the lower parts of the list.

Honestly I think most making a list such as this would still rank him pretty high at a much better rank than what I have done.

Right now many lower ranked would have a case against him but even having him below the people he is just ahead of, even now would seem a little strange or off I think. But yeah, only a matter of time of course.

did this die?

goal.com is doing theirs

http://www.goal.com/en/news/2466/goalcom-50

Ah I missed a bump, but yes it is indeed alive



Just won't finish though!

In the next few days I'll devote every waking (right now I'm going to bed...) moment to new entries though and here is the first of hopefully many (or just some very long ones):

The list so far + every single writeup (introduction and new ordering):

And of course the new entry aka the veterans/Roma/Man U edition:

76: Marcos Senna - Villarreal - Spain
75: Lass Diarra - Real Madrid - France
74: Francesco Totti - Roma - Italy
73: Antonio Di Natale - Udinese - Italy
72: Emmanuel Adebayor - Manchester City - Togo
71: Mirko Vucinic - Roma - Montenegro
70: Antonio Valencia - Manchester United - Ecuador
69: David Pizarro - Roma - Chile
68: Dimitar Berbatov - Manchester United - Bulgaria

I guarantee another entry tomorrow... and thanks beforehand for still following!

That goal.com write up. Rooney 13th best, Ronaldo 9th best of 2009/2010?

World Cup overrateaments????

Ozil not in top 200?

http://www.redcafe.net/f7/distance-r...7/#post4406678

Sums it up

Nice Berbatov write up. Objective and accurate rather than the same old recycled pundit nonsense.

Still 67 players to go

Of recent ranking mistakes (and I try not to look too hard or I'll end up wasting time making a revisionist entry) Suarez happens to be the most glaring.

He should have been higher. Actually this entry ahead of at least the defensive midfielders Lass and Senna could have been good.

While even though it's only a matter of time before he would pass them I would probably still keep him behind the veteran Italians still very effective in Serie A

Sorry for the delay with this entry.

I'll have another one up tomorrow and hopefully it's long!

On the GOAL top 50 players of the season list I don't think I can disagree too much with the actual names so far (there is the order of course) but Iniesta today at number 7 and the grave mistake of reading GOAL.DUMB user comments, put me on serious tilt.

The article trying to justify his ranking is actually more funny than anything since it's just one long pep talk about how despite being injured and out of form all the time, he's such a great guy that of course the conclusion must be that he had better seasons than the likes of Drogba, Rooney, Ronaldo, Schweinsteiger, Lampard etc etc

Anyway here is my new entry:

The list so far and newest right below:

67: Juan Manuel Vargas - Fiorentina - Peru
66: Robinho - Manchester City - Brazil
65: Patrice Evra - Manchester United - France
64: Michel Bastos - Lyon - Brazil
63: Seydou Keita - Barcelona - Mali
62: Javier Zanetti - Inter - Argentina

Hmm about to head to bed and don't know if many readers of this slow moving beast are up anyway but some closing thoughts on this entry:

First of all it's better than the last one where maybe only the Berbatov writeup was one I was happy with.

If these placings are controversial who knows? I guess I could see the placings of all of these, except Keita maybe who seems around right where he belongs, raise some eyebrows.

Robinho is polarizing enough that I think generally some would think he should be much higher and others much lower.

Evra, well the whole fullback order and the number of players in between them I've been unhappy with from the start. There isn't THAT much difference between many of them. Or even some who didn't make the list. But of course "their internal order" I stand by mostly I think. Similar to the centre-backs. I can say though, there won't be many spots at all before the next left-back.

Bastos was tough to rank. Has been up and down a lot. It's possible he is too high but I do at least like him over the players I put him over here.

Zanetti I never thought I would rank this high when I began but he keeps defying nature.

Evra should be higher. He is clearly better than Bastos. Only really 3, possibly 4 full backs have any argument of being ahead of him imo.

Bjorn I cant believe you're going to put that **** Cole ahead of Evra!

Bjorn I know this is kinda a trivial question, but this time a year ago, whereabouts would Berba, Robinho, Vidic and Terry have been?

Oh and keep up the good work, can't be an easy task

Just realised Vidic is already gone. Must be no CB's near the top 20 in his list. Fair enough I suppose depending on reasoning.