Yeah I had him higher originally but injuries hurt his rank.

I suppose there is one Bundesliga DM if you can really call him that who is higher but he isn't German and wasn't even on my original list. Huge mistake I think.

Podolski I didn't realise actually jumped some spots in the new order but more than anything it was down to some of the players ahead of him slipping for various reasons.

With Ze Roberto I must have looked at an earlier season by mistake.

Von Bommel is more German than most Germans if you're referring to him

Haha Van Bommel being renounced by the Dutch as a Dutch makes good sense.

I would have guessed van Bommel or Josue but there shouldn't be doubt that those are DMs

Josue was on originally but got kicked out.

I think I lied earlier at whatever entry I don't remember now when I said that this was the time of the real gap appearing and it would be only very good players (without the many question marks) that would appear from now.

Since then obviously there have still been quite a few question marks.

However this time once again, starting with at least the bottom half of this entry, I do think the gap is just around the corner and it's time to get ready for a lot really good players.

This entry has at least one mistake, Camoranesi, as explained in the writeup. And it was tempting to just dump him all together and find someone not on the list at all to replace him with, but at this point that would only look worse, so Camoranesi stays...

Speaking of adjustments on the go it also hit me that I missed a golden opportunity in the last entry when with some justification (yea they're actually showing good form again I think) I could have included Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose with Raul and Ruud....

Anyway:

New entries, writeups of everyone (if you SCROLL) and introduction:

134: Mauro Camoranesi -Juventus -Italy
133: Simone Perrotta - Roma - Italy
132: Marcelo - Real Madrid - Brazil
131: Christian Chivu - Inter - Romania
130: Simao - Atletico Madrid - Portugal
129: Marcell Jansen - Hamburger SV - Germany

You misspelled Marcelo

thanks. that did look wrong now that you've pointed it out

From the Jansen writeup:

So who would have been the best Schalke and Dortmund candidates?

I think we discussed it earlier but it in the meantime it's only become a more pressing matter.

Top 3 this season for me are Kuranyi, Farfan and Bordon for Schalke, Hummels, Barrios and Sahin for Dortmund.

I also think that Jansen is too high on your list, I'd take someone like Marin or Elia for example over him.

I changed the name to something a bit more football related (unless the association you get is Stoke obv) since it's all I ever post about anyway.

This is the new address http://longthrowins.blogspot.com/

where incidentally there is a new update but first things first...

Introduction to the list

Some new order

and

+ new entries and writeups of everyone if you SCROLL:

128:Hatem Ben Arfa - Marseille
127: Rafael Marquez - Barcelona
126: Nigel De Jong - Manchester City
125: Grafite - Wolfsburg
124: Pablo - Valencia
123: Daniel Guiza - Fenerbahce
122: Ramires - Benfica


All in all another peculiar bunch with some like Guiza and Ramires who I don't see a lot being pretty hard to rank and others like Marquez and Grafite not showing good form this season and therefore have been moved way down since back when this thing started.

Another player Ben Arfa like many others wasn't on the list to begin with but I think now there aren't anymore of those left. He could be the last (wait I just saw at least 1 more coming up soon - also a young player).

There are definitely a few more I would have liked to have included but it's too late now. I'll try sum those names up later maybe.

woooo Rafa Marquez

All right here is another update.


Introduction to the list

Some new order

The list so far:
New entries and writeups of everyone if you SCROLL:

121: Mohamed Sissoko - Juventus
120: Dejan Stankovic - Inter
119: Stefan Kiessling - Bayer Leverkusen
118: Frederic Kanoute - Sevilla
117: Jermain Defoe - Tottenham

Sissoko, Stankovic and Kanoute were all higher, I think even much higher on the first list.

Defoe has sort of been around that rank throughout.

Pretty disciplined writeups but if it has interest look for a few thoughts on Kanoute's effect on Sevilla this season and Defoe's (perhaps) effect on Tottenham as they go forward.

edit: oh almost forgot - one of the upcoming shared rankings was just all wrong so I had to split it up meaning Pandev who was ranked 120 and who I was looking to move down anyway, has been squeezed into the last update and now share the 128 spot with Ben Arfa. That might not make all the sense in the world but the other pairing was even worse.
Anyhow Ben Arfa is much more talented in a lot of areas than Pandev but he is the kind of other attacking player Ben Arfa isn't really better than until he really puts it together on a consistent basis.

Where is Danny Rose?

I don't know if people even care about this anymore but I will persevere of course and continue with the updates and lo and behold right here is another one of those:

116-110 (top 100 so close now)

Introduction, the list so far, new order and write ups - it's all there!

Some big names in this one (finally I'm sure some are thinking) and a sign of things to come. First two writeups, Puyol and Alou Diarra are pretty meh, call it warming up, but I like that I found some interesting angles (at least to myself) with Cassano, Deco, Giggs and to some extent Vermaelen and Barry as well.

Im still reading Bjorn.

Cant say im happy with your new found love of this bounce ball crappy sport though

The only Samp player I take it?

I don't know whether there is 60 places difference between Giggs and Scholes (Giggs probably benefited from being very good early in the season when you started making the list even though he has been quite average or even poor sometimes in the 2nd half, whereas Scholes is the exact opposite) but it's nice to see them both on the list. I'll be interested to see where you rank the remaining United players, I'm guessing there are still 8 or 9 of them to come.

Yeah that struck me too the way things started going for them respectively. At the time maybe wrongly I didn't really remember Scholes having much impact compared to Giggs say the last couple of years, when it came to what games they were starting (easy or tough opponents) as well. Maybe totally wrong.

In what's now looking like a strange reversal of fortunes back then I had Scholes as the player only being his old self in glimpses, with some bad games in there too, when given the chance, while Giggs almost whenever given the chance was the reinvented excellent GiggsV2 of himself. Now it has become the other way around.

Some of the players originally ahead of Scholes looks criminal now. At least the new order made good on some of that.

Badminton,

I've liked basketball for a long time (and badminton too for that matter which is semi big here. Danes have often been only real threat to the Asians)!
Just didn't always have the opportunity to follow it as closely as I'd like. But International League Pass (much improved this year imo) has put a final stop to that and I'd recommend it to all Euro nba fans.

Kevin,

To put it very cryptic there is one less Sampdoria player to go than there are Napoli players left to go, so the question is how many Napoli players are there left? 1? That would of course leave Sampdoria with nothing or perhaps there are 2 Napoli players left? If so one more Doria player to go.

One of the next two updates, depending on how many players I include, will provide the answer.

Oh how you tease

The mission (impossible) is still to finish before the World Cup starts.

And with this entry I can now FINALLY start the top 100 which is something of a dream come true....

I won't post the 200-101 list so far before every entry either (way too much scrolling) but from now on just a link containing them all. It will be almost like starting fresh.

Anyway this entry is yet another interesting bunch:

109: Wilson Palacios
Tottenham - Midfielder - Honduras

108:Gabriel Agbonlahor
Aston Villa - Striker - England

107: Ashley Young
Aston Villa-Winger/Forward - England

106: Giampaolo Pazzini
Sampdoria-Striker - Italy

105: Toni Kroos
Bayer Leverkusen (on loan from Bayern Munich)
-Attacking midfielder/Winger - Germany

104:Alexandre Song
Arsenal-Midfielder/Defender - Cameroon

103:Jérémy Toulalan
Lyon-Midfielder/Defender - France

102:Alvaro Negredo
Sevilla-Striker - Spain

101:Walter Gargano
Napoli-Midfielder - Uruguay

The rest of the list, writeups, introduction rambilng and some new order - it's all there if you scroll down a bit.

Some quick non writeup thoughts:

I was already writing these when Capello ****ed me over by not including the Villa guys. Like I touch upon in the writeups I wasn't surprised to see Agbonlahor missing since Rooney does everything he does and so much more a lot better and Capello prefers other types along with him in the squad, but Young I strongly believe is better than the likes of SWP and Walcott.
I guess his season has been a lot worse than I thought.
He has fallen down the ranks quite a bit recently while Agbonlahor has been around where he ended up for a while. I doubt many would rank him this high but I think he is very good.

Kroos and Song weren't on originally but it didn't take too long before I realized that they should. That doesn't mean they were easy to rank though especially not Kroos who I still haven't seen enough.
All in all I think cases can be made both for higher and lower placings.

Negredo has taken quite the fall. If I started the list today I guess he would be lower.

Toulalan: zzzz couldn't think of anything to write zzzz

Pazzini: Yes one more doria player indeed. I will admit I get a kick out of ranking him ahead of Cassano. Resisted the temptation of doing the same with Palombo.

Another thing, I wish people would print out my list or at least parts of it and read it on the toilet.

*overtired now*

Maybe the kitchen table or in bed.

It's all good.

Good stuff as always Bjorn.

I'm curious, do you intend on including Bale or was his emergence a little late in the game for this exercise?

You'll get hate from Cashy but I think Song is in the right position (assuming Van Bommel doesn't move above him). A great two-way player, as Cashy talked about during the ANC but he doesn't have great acceleration, which makes guys like Mascherano or Essien >>> Song defensively, at least at this stage of his career.