This must be the most difficult vote, three from the modern era of midfielders is nigh on impossible, whether its the legend of Rocky the strength and skill of Patrick, the sublimity of Pires or the goals of Ljungberg. To choose three from those four is difficult enough and then we add Parlour, Silva and Davis into the mix for good measure and not forgetting probably the best player to grace the Emirates Cesc Fabregas. Any three or four of those will make a decent midfield.
We did consider extending the vote to 4 players for this section but soon realised that in reality most of us would want 7 votes to make sure we voted for all of our favourites.
Look at this list of players and remember how lucky we have been as Arsenal fans, very few fans of rival clubs can boast anything near the quality we had in this era.
Note from ed……..
Apologies for the superfluous extra ‘s’ in Gilberto Silva
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Voted for my three, no problem choosing, the elegance of Liam Brady, The Romford Pele and The Invisible Wall.
Is this poll fixed? 😀 There are a total of seven votes cast, How does that work?
Morning Norfolk, everyone can vote for up to 3 players but its not obligatory, I’d guess 2 people have cast 3 votes and one has placed only 1 vote.
JACK WILSHIRE AND CAZORLA THE BEST till now
Just want you to be aware Patrick is without our best ever MF and Those who can recall Robert Pires should know he was better than Cesc. It’s difficult to look further than the Invincibles.
I clicked on the “Create your own poll” button, I was trying to make us a centre back, I put in the following:- 6ft 8ins tall, athletic, fast across the ground, great at playing balls down the line, good at serving up crosses, good a cutting out shots close to the net and relatively unknown (therefore cheap).
And what did I get? A bloody tripe soup eating tennis player!!!
😀
Being an oldy I voted for P Davis I tought he was much under rated player
Plenty of oldies on here Joe so welcome….:D I agree on Davis shame he had the falling out with Graham that led to his exclusion for a while
No petit?? Ur mad
Peter. Manu didn’t play enough games for us (just 85) to reach the criteria set for inclusion.
But I agree …. a great player and I loved his song
I meant Patrick is without doubt our best ever midfielder and when Pires played he was a nightmare for the opposition. Even Man U fans would concede these midfielders were from another planet. Young Cesc was to learn from these Arsenal Standard bearers.
I was going to say if Talbot makes it in, what about Stevie Willliams, but then I saw the criteria of how many matches they played. I agree Pires was better than Cesc, Brady to my mind our best ever midfielder he had everything, Viera second best.
Hi Everyone.
Peter I totally agree with you about Petit, he was one of many gifted players that did not have the cut, as Raddy has already mentioned he simply did not play in enough games to meet my pre-determined criteria. However Emmanuel was a wonderful player who provided us with some of our greatest memories – so he deserves special mention.
Only a handful of comments but based on 3 votes apiece 110 + people have already voted.
Rasp the extra S in Gilberto made up for the missing G in Ljungberg.
(LOL)
demolition !!! fantastic !! what heroes are the Lions
Well I’m off of the fence now my votes went to –
Brady, Vieira and Pires – three extraordinary players.
But to be honest I could quite as easily voted for two other threesomes, as they were all outstanding players – but in my opinion the three that I chose were in a class all of their own.
GN5 – I feel really truly bad for not voting for the players from the distant past. You brought them back to life and they were the greatest again during last week. So even if they don’t win the voting, you resurrected them even if only in our memories
but I cannot help voting for Cesc, Freddie and Bobby. If I had more votes I would have votes for PV4, Parlour, Rocky…..all top guys
Raddy – my luck has changed!! Lions won, hurray !!!!
Evonne, they didn’t just win, The Lions smashed the Wallabies. What a terrific display of both forward power and backs running and kicking…..Awesome!!!
Evonne,
So far we have profiled 52 players and 6 managers – in their own right and within their respective eras they were all Great and very deserving of their status as some of our greatest ever players and managers.
The series will be concluded over the next two weeks when we will profile our 20 greatest forwards.
Finally we will reveal our “A” and “B” squads and the 50 players who received the most votes.
Strange how we lost Gnarley George 🙂
Really enjoyable game
GN5. I voted for the same players
I started off my day by watching the Lions win in Australia, next up will be the Ladies Final followed by Men’s Doubles Final from England – then Golf the PGA Greenbrier Classic from the USA and to end the day Baseball from the USA. – Today’s technology is really amazing – to think back to my early years we didn’t even have electricity in our Highbury home.
Tough old life ain’t it?
Great ways to fill the missing void caused by the “silly season”.
Woo, tough choice, I was torn between Pires and Fabregas.
Veira was a no brainer.
How about the extra L in Liam. I named by son after Mr Brady, so I know how to spell it !!!
Liam, Bobby and Rocky for me.
It does say ‘vote for your favourite’ after all.
Paddy and Cesc have lost their flavour shagging the bird up the road.
Brady not in the top three! Preposterous.
(yeah I know he left us for an Old Lady but time heals all wounds. I’ll probably like Vieira and Fabregas again just before I die)
For those that didn’t see it the first time, here’s Paulinho’s reaction to signing for the spuds.
Great stuff, GN5! 🙂
My choices (and let’s face it, there are different combinations I would be happy with) are Vieira, Pires, Fabregas.
Totally different types of player, which informed my choices.
Vieira: Opposition roadblock, superb leader, and frightener.
Pires: Great winger; devastating finisher.
Fabregas: Midfield general, creative genius.
Look, there are other adjectives to describe each of them, equally worthy, but they are their main attributes as I see them. 🙂
If the rumours are true, that RM are being difficult about Higuain’s fee, I think Arsenal should pull the plug.
Sod them!
They know the player wants to go, so eventually they will come back to the negotiating table, in the meantime Arsenal should show some sangfroid and call their bluff. 🙂
Hi BR
If you watched the TdF today you would have seen why Wiggins was dropped, as in, not allowed anywhere near this year’s tour by Sky.
Having been in the void of North America from 1974 to 1997, when we started getting TV coverage, I completely missed people like Brady and Davis so I cant really appreciate them. My votse went to Vieira, Pires and Cesc but I almost replaced him with Romford Ray
GN5 we always had electricity but I do remember the outside loo and bathing in a tub!
LB. Froome was superb today as were the whole Sky team. Did you watch yesterday … the green machine &Sagan? Very impressive.
I watch every day BR.
Am I right in thinking that the TdF is basically Cyclists Porn !. hahaha
Neaman,
We had gas lighting, my mother cooked on a cast iron range that was heated by either wood or coal, an outside toilet a tin bath and only had running water in the back scullery. To take a bath we had to heat the water, pan by pan on the iron range, even on scorching hot summer days.
I’m talking about the late 30’s early 40’s, by the end of the 40’s we had running water in a kitchen area and electricity was added in the early 50’s. Mind you my memory may be out by a few years here or there.
Now we waste more water in a week than we used in a month.
Times have certainly changed my cyber friend.
Next week we profile 10 fantastic forwards 6 of them, from some of our early eras are considered as true Arsenal legends.
As a young child I used to listen in awe as my Dad and his 8 brothers talked about them, Jack, Lambert, Brain, Drake, Hulme, James………
GN5 – every bit of water except for what I drink I use at least twice, usually 3 times. No water wasted in my house.
I envy you those memories of your Dad and his 8 brothers, all Gunners….lucky, lucky you
I voted for my “favourite” midfielders: Ljungberg, Rocastle and Brady. Pires is probably a better footballer than both Ljungberg and Rocastle, but I just “loved” those players more. Also, Fabregas and Vieira are possibly better than Brady, but Brady was my favourite player back in the 70’s when I started supporting The Arsenal.
IUF
Yes, you are right in thinking that.
Now there’s a proud Man, Chas. ROLF
GN5
This is a really tough vote, and I have given it an unhealthy amount of thought.
First up, for me the “Best” three would be PV, LB and CF, but I have to squeeze in Rocky and I always thought Paul Davis was a massively underrated smooth operator. Jeepers, then there’s Bobby.
Off to vote now, and it’s going to be a slight mix of heart and head.
Wow….
Paddy on 203, Brady on 75!!!!
Done it, and it was all heart 🙂
Got in at about 10 last night, flicked on Sky News telly to see sports news, and what a day I missed. TDF, Lions and Wimbledon (although I find that French Girl too irritating to watch).
Still, so much telly, so little time 😦
I am actually quite shocked by the result of yesterday’s poll, ok Patrick would always be top, Cesc second is a turn up for the books. Brady sneaks in 4th but Rocky and Freddie only 31 votes between them.
GiE
I was convinced that Liam would have been top by some distance.
Am I allowed to ask who you voted for in the secret ballot 🙂
Freddie?
Look, I know we all loved the bloke, but he wasn’t anywhere near top three of that lot.
I am ready to vote for next week’s already 🙂
Aha GiE – Freddie “wasn’t anywhere near top three ” in YOUR opinion. But we were all given generous 3 votes to express OUR opinion. If we all agreed with you there will be absolutely no point in voting 🙂
Freddie top three for me 🙂
Talbot but the solitary vote.
I agree that Fab in second is a surprise. Would he have added to the RP/ TH/ PV /DB team? I think not.
have you all heard about Gay Gunners? Very modern 🙂
evonne. No – they don’t exist.
just for your info Raddy – “The aim of this group is for all gay men who supports Arsenal Football Club to discuss freely about men and football at the same time. Gatherings and games can be planned for closer male-bonding. Supporters of other teams, lesbians and bi-sexual are also welcomed”
http://www.gaygooners.moonfruit.com/
Oh how modern. Not sure about the “closer male bonding” bit 🙂
Evonne
Are they the good looking type of Lezzo, or the Dungaree/Doc Marten/Greenham type?
Doesn’t apply to you Raddy, you and DidIt already have a strong bond
Just for the record – I am not homophobic and could not care less about anybody’s sexuality. But I find it amusing how gay people promote their sexuality, setting themselves apart from straight people. The ‘in your face’ so to say is off putting, for me anyway
Right, shall we have a heterosexual Gunners where mix sex bonding is encouraged?
Lions got smashed last night, jeez the state of them 🙂 Fair play to them, they deserve a bottle (or two) of bubbly
I’ve heard about the Gay Gordons, it was a dance a while back, GN5 will remember it I’m sure.
By the way do the Gay Gunners also welcome non-gay, non-lesbian and non-bi-sexual supporters?
Oh! sign me up for the mixed sex bondage group pleeese!!! 😀
Morning all
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