The Premiership Footballer

KingEric7

Throughout the years, right down from school years up to where i am now, i've come across some talented footballers. There was one kid i knew who was absolutely leagues ahead of anyone else i'd come across and he used to go past people for fun, be it in a game or just pissin' about a bit.
A lot of the lads i knew kept playing football after their education. These lads are now scattered around lower leagues apart from this very same guy who is of league 2 standard.
Whilst thinking about this topic the other day, it got me thinking that these lads were actually incredibly good at football, much more talented than anyone i've ever met, yet the level of football they reached in the grand scheme of things was not exactly elite. If these guys weren't good enough, then who are?
This got me wondering about how good the average Premiership footballer actually is. Even the Brambles, and the other such footballers of the Premiership must be absolutely sublime with a ball at their feet. I have no idea what it'd be like if we were chucked into the deep end straight into a Championship game, for example. Would we even be able to receive the ball and move it on successfully? It is bizarre to think that even the least talented of footballers in the top 2 leagues are able to do absolutely incredible things if necessary. These are the very same footballers we laugh about and label them shit.

I guess the point of this thread is to ask you lot whether you know anyone of the highest standard in English football or any other nation. If the answer is yes, then just how good are they?

CnutOfAllCnuts

One of my best mates plays in the Norwegian top flight. He was good, but there were a couple of players in our team who were more talented, who never played any kind of top standard football.

The one who made it were more dedicated, wanted it more. When the rest of started drinking and chasing birds when we turned 14-15, he was in the gym or went running.

Psmith

A lot of it depends on luck as well. Which scout's looking at you etc..

All the footballers at the top level are very good and when players like Ronaldo stand out amongst them they really are something amazing. I'd say every single one of us would look out of depth in the Premier League. The game would fly past us.

Raven_Blade

At school ive played against a few people who were class footballers in every way. However rather than pursue a career in football they went on to college and university instead to get a degree in something else. The talent and ability is there but it doesnt always make it into the game. Thats a real shame.

KingEric7

It strikes me that in order to be a Premiership footballer, you must have to be talented to the extent that luck shouldn't be necessary.

FranklyVulgar

Naismith the young Rangers (ex Kilmarnock) striker was in the same school as me and played for the same youth team. He was the best player in his year by a fair bit and would score goals for fun.

But there were other players who looked better at the time but i think he worked hard and didn't get distracted. Obviously a tallented footballer but alot of it has to do with how much you want it and how hard you work.

Now everyone would say "if i could go back" but at the time alot of the most tallented kids in britain will turn to chasing skirt, gettin pissed on the weekend when if they were serious about football it would be all they do.

I'm sure that most if not all pros would tear us to shreds. What i wonder is how good a player like Ronaldo or Messi would be in a 5 a side game

I watched a clip of Zidane playing 5s with a bunch of algerians. Great stuff, just the way they move with the ball glued is incredible.

friendlytramp

its all about attitude and application...

Psmith

Hmm. I'm sure there are players in the lower leagues who are as good as average players in the Prem, but just haven't had a chance to show it. Playing with better players makes you look better as well.

jojojo

And strong, and fast and with an attitude that suits the coach and with a self-belief that borders on self-delusion etc.

KingEric7

This is entirely possible and Tim Cahill is a marvelous example of this. However, this is something that used to be a lot more common in days gone by. It is very rare now that a team will sign someone from a lower league and throw them straight into the deep end.

SmashedHombre

A lot of these freestylers are better with the ball at their feet than the majority of Premiership footballers. I think there are hundreds of people out there who can do stuff with a football I can't imagine the likes of John O'Shea or Phil Neville pulling off. A lot of it is about fitness and dedication to the game

Spammy

Fitness is the biggest factor. Intelligent players can play at any level, yet at youth level it's still fitness and physical prowess that are the most important attributes - from what I've experienced.

A1Dan

I was at primary school with Danny Higginbotham, but don't really remember him. I think he was in the school team with me breifly, but I'm a couple of years older. Played with his brother more, who I don't remember being exceptional - another kid we all thought would captain England is now an accountant.

Wizard Keyaz

Do you think that is one of the reasons why we lack in England and get in more outsiders?

A1Dan

There's a well established school of thought that says deprived areas (favelas of Brazil / industrial northern cities in England) produce more and better footballers as it is the "only way out" of poverty, whereas comfortable, well educated people can take the more straight forward route of going to Uni and becoming an accountant...

Wizard Keyaz

To be honest it has got a lot to do with the parents and what you are saying may not be accurate, as some middle class parents can't afford the time to take their kids to training sesions because they work so many hours and so fourth.

I take my oldest kid to Walsall Academy and hopefully he will go on trials to Villla in a few years time.

And my youngest son will start in two years time hopefully at Walsall too.

But the thing is parents encouraging kids to enjoy more than imposing it.

mosesfromtala

I played against Gary Kelly and Mark Kinsella as a kid, they were good but not the best players in the league. I knew some amazing kids who never made it ... Irish kids have to deal with the whole moving away to a new country too ... A lot of what makes the difference is fitness , pace and physique.

Dippersripper

Foster

redmanc

A couple of lads from my high school got picked up from Stockport County on the day of our GCSE results, unfortunately they thought they were big time and were working in tescos by the time they were 21 as they blew it all away on the piss and so on.

Lil Cee

i played with Jonathan Spector at an Indiana University soccer camp. he did a "rainbow" to perfection during a training match. we were all pretty amazed by that but the average American footballer isnt as good as the average English footballer. and Spector's hardly a Premiership player.

on a side note i grew up with Greg Jennings (Green Bay Packers player) and the whole Jennings family and used to play american football and basketball with them and now he is/was catching touchdown passes from one of the greatest quarterbacks to play the game. but it was obvious that he was gonna be special, easily the best athlete ive ever played with.

Christofaux

Whats a rainbow? Is it the flick over your head from behind you?

If so anyone can do that... it would have to be the most practiced trick ever.

anything about now

Gareth Bale.

Jopub

Interesting thread

Although seemingly based on inherent talent / abillity / natural fitness and mental strength I'd say luck is a huge part in dictatiing whether a player 'makes it'.

Like any other 'talent' based industry we've all heard of / seen grew up with people who were infinitely 'better' more 'gifted' than many of those that are actually making it in their chosen fields

For myself I've seen more purely talented players get nowhere near making it not becuase they lacked anything other than being in the right place, right circumstances in their life, knowing the right / wrong people, at the given time when opportunity might have come knocking

In youth situations due to physical inequality its quite difficult for a club to say with confidence that a given player will make it - that speed king skinny winger running full backs into the ground in the under 13's suddenly gets lead in his feet when those same full backs at 14 get musclular strength that makes it much easier to deal with the once elusive winger who now looks out of his depth although maybe still has all the ball skill attributes he was born with. At that point he can find other less competitive pursuits that seem more attractive than some crazy coach / parent barking at him. Many gifted players fall by the wayside at this point

If you are seen by the right scout who can maybe focus on a gift you have in a specific way then you can get lucky and a club can nurture and invest in your future should you be able to withstand the highly competitve nature of the business

Can you take the pressure? As a physically stronger 15 yr old you may well be up for it, being a warrior for the youth side even making into the reserves but than maybe bumping into say, Roy Keane, getting back from injury playing a reserve team game can make you change your mind ......big time ! as you then realise that these 'big guys' are full on competitve even in a lower tier (for them) game

I think being able to mix with your other footballers helps, staying on the periphery of a circle , can put you on the wrong side of 'team spirit' as they say and its easy to see why - I've seen brilliant players that were out and out loners never mixed with the lads which oddly imo created bad feeling towards them - should'nt do but footballers are like that having that semi tribal mentality and managers like it that way- all lads together!

Mental strength is everything imo more so than talent up until the higher reaches of the Premiership Id say. I mean no one can argue that Savage for instance is any better than some of our old playground mates from our youth can they - hes rubbish - cant trap a ball, merely a destructive player. Does that take talent ? take tactical awareness ? take exatraordinary fitness levels, It may take some discipline and focus to simply stay with one opposing player and kick him but that hardly seperates him from say 50 players on this forum in a positive way does it.

Good question Savage was at Utd was'nt he? - Just exactly what did they see when he was invited to play alongside Scholes Beckham Giggs in that youth team? Begs belief frankly but they saw something - maybe not !

I do feel once you start looking at the top half of the PL then real talent and the capacity to recover mentally is what it is all about, being a stopper player is not enough to keep your place , defenders have to be able to do more than simply defend especially in the modern game and dealing with different types of tactical games that come from playing against european sides one week and league sides the next is always problematic but the modern footballer deals with it admirably imo - most of them anyway

In essence talent at the top level ( which takes natural technique as a given) is a basic component to that level but natural fitness ( good stamina levels) and a 'hard as nails' mental toughness can get you up to Championship level without being the most gifted imo

sincher

Savage was a striker for our youth team - he wasn't terrible by any means - he had a decent touch on the ball and could hit the ball properly. Nothing like the player he is now - more of a Crouch/Noel Whelan type.

RedRonaldo

Its all about dedication, fitness and some talent.
Ronaldo used to be such a shite player in terms of taking freekicks you know, but now he is the rocket.

krazyrobus

I remember one Ajax youth coach saying in a documentary that the 1st thing they measure in their kids is speed. They can have all the talent in the world but without a decent amount of pace they will not make it.

I've seen guys with as much technical ability as your average premier league football but can't make it because they lack either the speed or lung power to cut it. Very few exceptions to this rule and you have to be really out of this world to make it without those physical attributes, guys like Zidane and Riquelme.

Gio

Every level you go up the players get sharper, faster and stronger. That's the main difference.

enghuei

Zidane is deceivingly fast. He's also as strong as a bear.

kanchelskis14

I reckon fitness, luck and dedication are generally what makes it and who doesn't to a large extent.

When i was younger i used to play at a top level, i was really determined to make it until i got to about 16/17, then i was busy doing other things. That said, there are premierleague footballers who i don't feel have more technical ability than me, which may sound ludicrous, but true.

None other than John Barnes, one of the most talented individuals of his time, but he said he grew up playing with better players than im, who aren't pro.