Alex

He's more of a hero to me as well.

Yeah. He'd have been right up there with Kapil Dev, Botham, Hadlee and Imran Khan in that era of great all-rounders. I can remember him from the old John Player 40 over games that were shown on council telly. Back then you had the best players in the world playing county cricket. He used to open the bowling with Richard Hadlee. Don't know if you remember but back then tests were Thursday to Tuesday with Sunday being a rest day and if there was a test match on England players would play for their county in the one day games on the Sunday. Used to love Somerset with Ian Botham, Sir Viv and Joel Garner.

Depends how you define world class I suppose but I'd put Shearer at his peak in that bracket but not Ferdinand. And I love Sir Les. Shearer had a far superior first touch as well.

Both I reckon

I think Ferdinand's finishing was what stopped him being world class, as opposed to a very good player. Shearer was a much better finisher.

You should be like Mike Patton and have a shit in the OJ

Ferdinand's game was all about pace and power. And neither were immobile at by any stretch of the imagination at that time.

Correctomundo

Think it was Pav, Barton, Beresford, Peacock, Albert, Beardsley, Lee, Batty, Ginola, Sir Les and Shearer.

We don't sign players that are genuine hot property so it's a moot point.

That's just too zany that, Dave

Clive Rice tribute: http://www.espncricinfo.com/southafrica/content/story/903871.html

It was an example to illustrate the point. I wasn't basing it purely on that game. We came 2nd that year and used a variety of formations which included Shearer and Ferdinand (even 3-5-2 and 4-3-3) so that backs up my point too. No one is suggesting the game hasn't changed, it's a case of my challenging the notions that Shearer and Ferdinand were immobile, that they couldn't be effective together now and that you'd need to play with wingers for them to be effective when, as I've pointed out, that wasn't even the case back then.

Or cunts, as I like to call them.

Is a curry tache like a Dirty Sanchez?

But if he hadn't been suspended we'd have stayed up easier. But then Carver might be manager. Swings and roundabouts...

I agree to an extent but he didn't play as an out and out winger. In any case it refutes the claim you need to be set up that way for those strikers to be effective because we often weren't. Classic case in point the 5-0 v Man Utd.

Ferdinand had loads of pace, man. And Shearer had enough so that defenders couldn't get back at him if they were the wrong side of him. To suggest they were immobile when they played together for us is fucking ridiculous.

We didn't play with two wingers all the time when they played. We often played with one (Ginola) and either Asprilla or (more usually) Beardsley was preferred to Keith Gillespie. When Gillespie did come off the bench he often replaced Ginola.

Neither of those were lumbering target men though, not when they played together for us anyway.

Clive Rice has died. One of the best all-rounders ever. RIP.

Tbh, I'd attach more value to the opinions about players he hasn't seen

Aye. Love their psychedelic Amorphous Androgynous shit as well.