Best Player In the EPL over last 20 years?

[koko]

No he is better than Henry.. there isn't any player who tortured the big 3 teams constantly as much as Zola.. u look at the stuff he pulled vs your ,United & Liverpool defenders is out of this world...

i dunno about liverpool or united but he never finished on the winning team against us in a league or fa cup game i do remember them beating our reserves in the league cup though....if thats torture then its fine by me

You put Henry in an average team and he won't be able to lead.. u put Zola in an average team and they improve dramatically .. Henry scores , Zola make things happen .

yeah right 25 assists in 02/03 with 30 something goals on top isnt making things happen...in arsenal career 318 goals/assists in 369 games thats making things happen if i ever saw it not only a great goal scorer but a scorer of great goals too and a provider about the only thing he couldnt do was head the ball

Henry didn't even win a European title with such a strong team like Arsenal even though he was hyped till there was no tomorrow .. Zola managed that

league>cup winners cup and zola never managed that did he

As i said only those who were small children in the 90's would say Henry is better cause they frankly haven't watched enough of Zola
Hell u don't see Britain giving Henry an OBE . Zola received one .

im 28 i remember zola playing very well i watched his whole chelsea career...i didnt know awards from the queen were the standard for judging footballers

As a player Zola is 10 times the man and the player Henry is.. it's him and Cantona in the last 20 years..

these were both great players but both henry and bergkamp were better than both of them imo maybe im biased but thats what i believe

 

[Barcafan 2304]

Koko, you must look back at the side that had the likes of Henry and Bergkamp in their pomp and wonder, how the hell did they not gain one European Cup at least? I cant help but feel Arsenal missed the boat there. Shame, cos they are one EPL club (more than Chelsea any way) who i wouldnt minded to see lift the cup.

 

[VivaBarca]

Le Tissier

He had the ability but he stayed at Southampton. He did net over 100 Premiership goals though more than Cantona, Bergkamp and Zola managed.

 

[Seamus]

Zola, Di Canio, Cantona, Giggs, Bergkamp all deserve to up there in the list but has to be Roy Keane

Correction

Zola was higher than Henry in everything.. and the poll is not about the best striker (and Zola wasn't one he was SS/AM ) as a player /technique/dribbling /smart thinking/finishing /free kicks he is better than Henry

True that Zola was better than Henry in nearly everything, maybe Henry had better pace but Zola was better at everything else.

Giggs is a brilliant player but no where near the likes of Zola Keane Scholes Cantona etc

 

[barcetia]

kEANOOOOOO

 

[desoe]

[youtube]8DNfgibZO5o[/youtube]

p.s. I'm not picking anyone, actually. I'm not sure enuff to have my say "this is it". There're a lot of great players and I can't decide to pick one. But we should agree what exactly defines what makes you "the best". Because talking about pure & raw talent, some players (like Bergkamp, yeah) could be considered better than Giggs. But speaking about length of career, overall success and stuff like this, Giggs has to be #1. So, yeah - what makes you the best really. Success, skill, legacy, talent - it's all different

 

[antonnn]

Zola, just magic. He learnt from Maradona, enough said.

My all time favourite free kick.

 

[Metaphysical]

really it has to be giggs or scholes for the longevity and the sheer dominance.

keane, cantona, zola, henry and bergkamp have cases for the sheer impact they had on their clubs. but really they all did it for shorter periods than giggs or scholes.

and if I had to lean to one out of those two, it would be giggs.

apart from a season each from overmars, pires, robben and ronaldo (and maybe ginola), giggs has been the best winger in the league for 20 fucking years. he's adapted his game to cope with his declining pace and hamstring problems. he's maintained a drive to win and win and win. and he's done it all with the utmost class and dignity. I see people here saying he's not all that which is just mind-boggling. I expect it from a gooner since he's filleted them on numerous occasions, but the rest of you? insane.

dude has 11 titles in 20 years and he played a big part in basically all of them.

just think about that. totalling up his wins the man has been champion of england for more than a decade.

you can't fuck with that.

but if we're talking individual seasons (and why not) then really:

beardsley 93/94
cantona 95/96
beckham 98/99
pires 01/02
henry 02/03
scholes 02/03
henry 03/04
ronaldo 07/08

pick one.

 

[La Furia]

Probably Giggs, longevity and reliability.

 

[koko]

you gotta remember giggs had loads of seasons even before he got old where he was just an ordinary player and he had some where he was just bad i remember united fans booing him he was rubbish actually really bad for a few seasons on the trot but all this gets forgotten for some reason and people look at giggs with rose tints.... even at his best he never reached the personal level of exellence that many other premiership players reached in terms of his own performances over a season scholes keane ronaldo cantona all hit higher peaks than giggs and theyre just the united players off the top of my head

all the trophies and everything he won might make him the greatest player of the prem era but to be the best the only thing that matters is your own level of performance and hes trumped in that department by quite a few players

Koko, you must look back at the side that had the likes of Henry and Bergkamp in their pomp and wonder, how the hell did they not gain one European Cup at least? I cant help but feel Arsenal missed the boat there. Shame, cos they are one EPL club (more than Chelsea any way) who i wouldnt minded to see lift the cup.

bottle jobs to be honest we consistantly went out to teams worse than us....03/04 should of been ours we were the best team in europe couldnt believe we went out to chelsea played them 5 times that season won 3 drew 1 and lost the one that mattered the most and they hadnt even beaten us for years and years

Zola, just magic. He learnt from Maradona, enough said.

My all time favourite free kick.

peach of a free kick look at carr and sick note keller smilling at the start too that smile got wiped off in style god i hate the spuds

 

[barca96]

1)henry
2)bergkamp

 

[Valon]

Bergkamp easily for me.

 

[Metaphysical]

you gotta remember giggs had loads of seasons even before he got old where he was just an ordinary player and he had some where he was just bad i remember united fans booing him he was rubbish actually really bad for a few seasons on the trot but all this gets forgotten for some reason and people look at giggs with rose tints.... even at his best he never reached the personal level of exellence that many other premiership players reached in terms of his own performances over a season scholes keane ronaldo cantona all hit higher peaks than giggs and theyre just the united players off the top of my head

what on earth are you talking about?

giggs... ordinary? he had a couple of years where injury held him back but he's never been ordinary.

you strange, strange man.

 

[desoe]

beardsley 93/94
cantona 95/96
beckham 98/99
pires 01/02
henry 02/03
scholes 02/03
henry 03/04
ronaldo 07/08

pick one.

Berbatov 06/07

Just kidding, of course.

 

[Petrinha]

Eric Cantona a.k.a. Le Funk
Simply ingenious & charismatic ... his talent backupped with power/strenght/vision/skills and confidence/arrogance combo brought United back on throne after the long dark ages years but even more important is the influence he had/left to his fellow colleagues and the generation to come and the developing of the game itself