Best player you can say you saw live


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Hurley
Worthington
Slim Jim

Seen plenty of them Johnny Foreigners, but as this is a Sunlun board not listing them
When I was at uni in the London's East End in the early 70's I lived behind West Ham's ground and so I often took the opportunity on the spur of the moment to go to the match.

Bobby was nearing the end of his career those days but you could see by his relaxed composure that he had an instinct for reading the game. By this I mean that he knew where all his team mates were at any time and where all the opposition was too. The playing area at Upton Park was very restricted those days and to give you and idea of it the depth of each goal was only about two or three feet. Bobby seemed thrive in that environment and could stroke a ball up field 30 yards or so with great accuracy and have it land on a sixpence. In many cases the sixpence was usually just at the feet of Trevor Brooking who was no mean player himself and a very effective goal scorer. On other occassions the recipient of Bobby's pass was our very own "Pop" Robson who also knew exactly what to do with a ball like that.

As a defender well just look up the old footage of Bobby versus Pele from the 1970 Mexico World Cup he did that sort of thing on a weekly basis . Sliding tackles that swept the ball away from the attacker without making any contact with them and the recovering his footing to take the ball up field .

Weaknesses? Well any of my Ammer mates at the time would be the first to tell you that although Bobby had a great gift for football and was by all reports a very nice guy he wasn't the sharpest tool in the box. Sadly when his playing days were over and despite his World Cup success he found it very difficult to earn a crust and shortly before he died I understand that he was obliged to flog cut price jeans around the pubs from the boot of his car in order to earn a living just like "Only Fools and Horses"

I think that Joe Public's reaction to his untimely death was not only borne out of respect for what he had achieved as a footballer but out of the sense of guilt that arose from how we had all rather ignored such a great player during the final years of his life
Not forgetting he was one hard bastard as well.Great player
 
I’d say Cantona too. He seemed to be twice the size of all our players. And when he had the ball, he seemed to have all the time in the world. Players would just bounce off him.
 
Stanley Matthews when he was 48 - as a Stoke player. I saw a game on 9th March 1963 in which Norwich City completely stuffed them 6-0 at Carrow Road. Have a feeling it was Jimmy McIlroy's debut for them too. A short time later of course Stoke beat us to promotion.
 
Saw Messi bag a brace down in Barca last year.

Watched Jozy start but fail to score against Honduras in Chicago - 2009.

Close.
 
One of the best performances I've seen by an away player at the SOL was Jason Roberts in a FA Cup match against West Brom.
Ripped us apart.
 
I watched a rerun of the Mexico 70 Brazil-England game a while ago - the full game - I never really saw Moore in his heyday but what a game he had that day, and up against possibly the greatest international side in history - I actually think the England side of 1970 was a far better side than 66

To be fair, I didn't see Moore with WHU live in his heyday, only on tv, I only saw him when he'd moved to Fulham & was on the downward spiral.
I agree that the England '70 side was better than '66 but lost out in Mexico to the climate.
The game we lost 3-2 in extra time to W. Germany was a total sickener
 
To be fair, I didn't see Moore with WHU live in his heyday, only on tv, I only saw him when he'd moved to Fulham & was on the downward spiral.
I agree that the England '70 side was better than '66 but lost out in Mexico to the climate.
The game we lost 3-2 in extra time to W. Germany was a total sickener
I only ever saw him playing for Fulham and he was gone by then - more's the pity, because from what I've seen of him years earlier he was right up there with the very greatest
 
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