Top 10: Premier League Captains

Walters_19_MuFc

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Just watched MOTD with Linekar, Wright and Shearer, and they were discussing their top 10 Premier League captains.

Any great Premier League team needs a great captain, and there have been several legendary players to wear the armband over the years - but who has been the greatest leader of all?

What would your top 10 be?

You can do your own ranking on the link below.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51871622
 

Karel Podolsky

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1. Keane
2. Terry
3. Kompany
4. Vieira
5. Adams
6. Vidic
7. Gerrard
8. Shearer
9. Morgan
10. Henderson

*they only list Premier League tittle, so I assume it's 'performance' in EPL.
 
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DWelbz19

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Jordan Henderson is ninth on that list. :lol:
 

Skills

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Henderson? Christ.

Rio probably captained us for longer than Vidic. I think Vidic got injured the season, he got the captains armband.
 

POF

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Just watched MOTD with Linekar, Wright and Shearer, and they were discussing their top 10 Premier League captains.

Any great Premier League team needs a great captain, and there have been several legendary players to wear the armband over the years - but who has been the greatest leader of all?

What would your top 10 be?

You can do your own ranking on the link below.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51871622
That's a pretty good list but I would swap Vidic and Gerrard. Vidic 3, Gerrard 7.

The best captains are instrumental in their team's success and make their teams better. United's defence was the driving force behind their success from when Vidic arrived.

Gerrard was far too individual a player to be a good captain. He was their best player but they're a better team without him.
 

POF

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Henderson? Christ.

Rio probably captained us for longer than Vidic. I think Vidic got injured the season, he got the captains armband.
Rio was never United club captain. He filled in for a bit but was never club captain.
 

Kinsella

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Just watched MOTD with Linekar, Wright and Shearer, and they were discussing their top 10 Premier League captains.

Any great Premier League team needs a great captain, and there have been several legendary players to wear the armband over the years - but who has been the greatest leader of all?

What would your top 10 be?

You can do your own ranking on the link below.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51871622
And with 120k votes counted the public voted as follows...drum roll...

1. Keane
2. Terry
3. Gerrard
4. Adams
5. Vieira
6. Kompany
7. Vidic
8. Shearer
9. Henderson
10. Morgan
 

harms

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Wright originally put Gerrard at 8th, but then chickened out under pressure and swapped him and Vidić :lol:
 

Aidan Azar

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Id have Dennis Wise over Morgan or Henderson. Maybe I'm biased though.
 

Deery

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Was watching this morning and they dropped Rooney’s overhead kick for Balotelli’s why always me goal. So I don’t take BBC too seriously on these matters
 

2mufc0

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What did Gerrard do in the PL do get such a high ranking?
 

SalfordRed18

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Surely Rio, Neville and even Rooney get in ahead of Henderson? Shit list
 

Offside

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Was going to turn over when Cantona wasn’t even on the list when really he’s number 1. I stuck with it and then Shearer has Henderson ahead of Vidic and Kompany so turned over immediately.

There’s so much amnesia in football. Debates based on myth with serious recency bias and nobody can fecking remember anything.
 

POF

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Yeah why not Rio?
I think the main criteria of being one of the Premier League's best ever captains is actually being a captain!

My memory (although definitely not great) is that Rio and Rooney were bought and groomed to be club captains. They regularly wore the armband in their younger years late in games when captains were subbed off.

But over time they proved themselves to be too irresponsible (Rio) and selfish (Rooney) so were overlooked for Neville and Vidic. Even Evra was higher in the pecking order towards the end of Fergie's reign.

It's quite funny to watch Rio now in retirement when he is a far more mature and sensible character being able to sell himself as a leader of the group at United. Rooney too to a certain extent.

I really admire the media's ability to create a narrative and make it fact through influencing public opinion. I find it fascinating.
 

Berbaclass

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Gerrard shouldn't be top 5 IMO

I'd at the very least have Keane, Adams, Terry, Kompany and Vieira above him because all of them won at least 1 title.
 

Deery

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I think the main criteria of being one of the Premier League's best ever captains is actually being a captain!

My memory (although definitely not great) is that Rio and Rooney were bought and groomed to be club captains. They regularly wore the armband in their younger years late in games when captains were subbed off.

But over time they proved themselves to be too irresponsible (Rio) and selfish (Rooney) so were overlooked for Neville and Vidic. Even Evra was higher in the pecking order towards the end of Fergie's reign.

It's quite funny to watch Rio now in retirement when he is a far more mature and sensible character being able to sell himself as a leader of the group at United. Rooney too to a certain extent.

I really admire the media's ability to create a narrative and make it fact through influencing public opinion. I find it fascinating.
No, you’re right Rio wasn’t captain I could of swore he was maybe it’s because he was England captain
 

POF

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No, you’re right Rio wasn’t captain I could of swore he was maybe it’s because he was England captain
He (along with Giggs I think) lifted the Champions League trophy in 2008. I think he wore the armband that day. He filled in a lot as captain and it was definitely planned that he would be captain in the future.

But he was an unreliable player (both fitness and concentration levels) and Fergie went for the more reliable option in Vidic.
 

Deery

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He (along with Giggs I think) lifted the Champions League trophy in 2008. I think he wore the armband that day. He filled in a lot as captain and it was definitely planned that he would be captain in the future.

But he was an unreliable player (both fitness and concentration levels) and Fergie went for the more reliable option in Vidic.
Yeah, you always remember him fixing the armband probably because he was handed it, must say you have an incredible memory on you..
 

POF

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Yeah, you always remember him fixing the armband probably because he was handed it, must say you have an incredible memory on you..
Only for useless unimportant information unfortunately!
 

The Don

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Henderson, 9th best captain in the history of the premier league? The BBC continues to embarrass itself. I mean, nevermind being a propaganda machine for the tory party and israel but this is the lowest of the fecking low. Cancel the license fee. I hope goes under.
 

youngrell

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Gary Neville won 3 PL titles as club captain and is nowhere to be seen while Jordan Henderson and Steven Gerrard are firmly in the top 10? Pathetic.

Vidic has been really hard done by too given his influence and the fact he won PL player of the year twice as captain.
 

Sassy Colin

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I was watching it and Wright's initial list was reasonable, but he changed his mind about Gerrard and ruined it.

It was quite clear Shearer's list was based on whether he liked the player or not. He put Keane in 4th because he hated him. Promoted him to 2nd when he realised what a twat he was being.
 

Chabon

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Rio probably captained us for longer than Vidic. I think Vidic got injured the season, he got the captains armband.
Vidic had a great first season as captain, probably his best year for us, and he should have won player of the year (hilariously Scott Parker won it instead, for leading his side to 20th in the league), then he got injured early the next season, and played relatively little, and certainly never again to the same standard, for his last three years. Same thing happened to Rio, was in his prime and got hit by an awful injury and was never the same player again (back for Rio, cruciate for Vida).

I've a strong hunch that Evra captained United more times than Vidic, gonna find a way to check the numbers now.

Edit: Not quite, in the four league seasons that Vidic was club captain he captained us 81 times, versus 64 times for Evra. I don't think either had the armband more than very occasionally before that year, so I didn't check.
 
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Dumbstar

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What did Gerrard do in the PL do get such a high ranking?
All these captains, barring Morgan, had peak PL winning Ferguson, Jose, Wenger and Pep as the managers. In other words, they captained at the clubs' absolute peak for their histories. It's easy for a chef to bake a great cake when you have all the expensive ingredients and top of the range equipment.

Gerrard was baking with piss and shit for the majority of his captaincy (declining Houllier, declining Dalglish and Woy FFS). Not to mention the players he had to work with and Hicks and Gillet. Absolute dark ages for LFC in contrast to the above. Heck even Morgan won a PL while Stevie 'slipped'.

What did Gerrard do in the PL? He kept us just about relevant with the big boys when really we should have become a West Ham, or, gulp, Everton.
 

Tom Cato

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What did Gerrard do in the PL do get such a high ranking?
Gerrard was a incredibly good player, so probably that.

Tony Adams is 2 behind Keane for me. Time has a way of dilluting how influental someone was.
 

2mufc0

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All these captains, barring Morgan, had peak PL winning Ferguson, Jose, Wenger and Pep as the managers. In other words, they captained at the clubs' absolute peak for their histories. It's easy for a chef to bake a great cake when you have all the expensive ingredients and top of the range equipment.

Gerrard was baking with piss and shit for the majority of his captaincy (declining Houllier, declining Dalglish and Woy FFS). Not to mention the players he had to work with and Hicks and Gillet. Absolute dark ages for LFC in contrast to the above. Heck even Morgan won a PL while Stevie 'slipped'.

What did Gerrard do in the PL? He kept us just about relevant with the big boys when really we should have become a West Ham, or, gulp, Everton.
So nothing of note really, the biggest thing he will be remembered for is that slip, top captains are not bottlers.
 

Ibi Dreams

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Yeah, I don't think that just because Gerrard never won it doesn't mean he wasn't a good captain. He carried that team hugely at times and stuck around when their other actually good players like Alonso, Mascherano, Torres and Suarez left the club. For better or worse he absolutely embodied Liverpool for a decade or longer
 

IRELANDUNITED

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Looking at MOTD last night just proved that you don't need to know much about football to be a football pundit, or that you don't even need to be a reasonably intelligent person. How Gerrard was as high on the list as he was is mind boggling and how Henderson was on the list at all is equally strange. The fact that they failed to even mention Cantona or Steve Bruce shows how clueless these so called football "experts" are.
 

Old Ma Crow

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Ridiculous list(no Bruce, Cantona,Neville) Only useful as click bait. Henderson :lol::lol:
 
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Ridiculous list(no Bruce, Cantona,Neville) Only useful as click bait. Henderson :lol::lol:
Henderson is a strange one. He’s not even been a nailed on starter over the last 2 years. There’s pretty much zero impact to Liverpool if he doesn’t play.

Bruce should definitely be there - even if it’s just for that match against Sheffield Wednesday. Clearly he was far more than that one game, but you get my point.