Who is the greatest, Henderson or Kelly?

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It’s always going to be subjective and Hendo has had the luxury of a stable defence that has done a brilliant job of protecting him. The true test will come when he’s playing behind a worse defence - we may find out next year if he moves to Chelsea!
 
Alan Kelly
Paddy Kenny
Simon Tracey
Dean Henderson
Phil Jagielka

In that order for me.

Alan Kelly deffinatly for me cos he gave me his shirt! Quite ugly multi coloured mish mash of shapes, Umbro I think, had Laver on. But I loved it... a bit too much. Remember my mum chucking it away 😥
 
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I sat next to Alan Kelly and his wife at the cup semi vs arsenal at old Trafford, she shared her wine gums with me, therefore Kelly gets my vote
 
Tracey was incredible at times, however, he could press the self destruct button from time to time. At one point Man United were heavily linked with him.

Kelly for me has to be tops. I reckon once Henderson gets into the England first team he will stay as number 1 for years.....sadly he will probably be at Man United when he does that.
 
Tracey for me, some of his saves were outrageous. Although like mentioned earlier could have the ' brains of a rocking horse at times.' Kelly was more consistent, but Tracey shades it just in my eyes.
Tracey
Kelly
Henderson
Kenny
* If only we could have seen more of Rees. But in his short time was outstanding and definitely deserves a mention.

How about the worse ?
Simmo, Leaning ??
 
Gannon's perm said:
Tracey for me, some of his saves were outrageous. Although like mentioned earlier could have the ' brains of a rocking horse at times.' Kelly was more consistent, but Tracey shades it just in my eyes.
Tracey
Kelly
Henderson
Kenny
* If only we could have seen more of Rees. But in his short time was outstanding and definitely deserves a mention.

How about the worse ?
Simmo, Leaning ??
Click to expand...
Lee Baxter can never be beaten as the worst!
 



Silent Blade said:
Very good in 1972-73 season. Wasnt the same after his comeback from two broken legs (October 1973 and pre season 1974-75)
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Exactly right. Until then looked very good only to improve. The Marsh studs up challenge I see now. Sickening!
These days with rehab and medical care, Tommo may have been back. I'd like to think so anyways.
Us Blades, we adored him.
 
Stevo said:
I sat next to Alan Kelly and his wife at the cup semi vs arsenal at old Trafford, she shared her wine gums with me, therefore Kelly gets my vote
Click to expand...
If you sat next to Alan Kelly and his wife, that means you sat in between them. Wasn't that a bit awkward? Did you have your own seat or did you just squeeze yourself in?
 
Kelly because he was actually our player.

But Henderson will be a future England N1 make no mistake.
 
Kev Gee said:
Kelly because he was actually our player.
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Yes, I agree. It depends what "greatest" means - to me it means more than just best. I don't see how any player can be described as great when they aren't even ours.
Even just going on who is/was the best, Kelly for me. Henderson has time to catch up, though.
Overall, I don't think anyone will ever match the "greatness" of Foulkes or Hodgkinson.
 
Hamburg Blade said:
If you sat next to Alan Kelly and his wife, that means you sat in between them. Wasn't that a bit awkward? Did you have your own seat or did you just squeeze yourself in?
Click to expand...
And the nit picker of the year goes to.........
 
Keith Waugh. Not because he was the best (he really wasn't, that's Kelly for me) but because when I was a young un and had to go in goal, in my head I was him.
And didn't he used to chuck a pair of gloves into the Kop before the game?
Just for his audience participation, he gets a vote from me.
 
Macallister-Henderson-Kenny for me but the best performance I ever saw ,(even better than Rees) was Jim Brown at Newcastle ,it was unbelievable he made a 10-1 defeat into a 1-1 draw ,many players and the ref applauded him off the pitch.
 
Paisley Blade said:
Because I thought you were a better judge :cool::)
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Oh I take it seriously when making judgements in something like this;

Attack wise we did better with Tracey because of his accurate kicks towards Deane especially in the 1989-90 season. I was surprised that only one manager in the division who noticed Tracey's distribution brought us goals and making the opposition defence line go further back, that was Howard Wilkinson at L**ds. He would instruct Bobby Davison to get as close as possible to Tracey every time he had the ball in his hands preventing him from rolling the ball out of the box. This clearly unsettled Tracey. Tracey had a great understanding with the defence and it really showed when we had a good start in the 1997-98 season (we lost only one league match until the beginning of December and he played in all of these matches). Nicky Marker always found space to receive a rolling pass from the keeper as Spackman wanted us to pass from the back as often as possible. Kelly's distribution wasnt as good and I always felt that the opposition defence line were able to push higher up.

Being a good keeper isnt just about shot stopping. Tracey was the better all round keeper

Tracey won player of the year in 1990 and 1992 before suffering a dislocated shoulder and it took him a long time before he was back to his normal self. We have won more games with Tracey in the team than Kelly. Kelly's kicking and dealing with back passes were his main weaknesses and was suspect in dealing with long shots. This is my honest opinion. Kelly is more popular with fans because he was a lot more approachable to fans than Tracey. Tracey had gambling problems and that didn't go well with fans.

Season by season breakdown (league matches only);

1988-89
Tracey P 7 W 3 D 2 L 2

1989-90
Tracey P 46 W 24 D 13 L 9

1990-91
Tracey P 31 W 13 D 4 L 14

1991-92
Tracey P 29 W 10 D 6 L 13

1992-93
Tracey P 10 W 3 D 2 L 5
Kelly P 32 W 11 D 8 L 13

1993-94
Tracey P 13 W 3 D 6 L 4
Kelly P 29 W 5 D 12 L 12

1994-95
Tracey P 5 W 1 D 2 L 2
Kelly P 38 W 14 D 15 L 9

1995-96
Tracey P 11 W 8 D 2 L 1
Kelly P 34 W 8 D 12 L 14

1996-97 (inc play offs)
Tracey P 8 W 3 D 2 L 3
Kelly P 41 W 17 D 13 L 11

1997-98 (inc play offs)
Tracey P 29 W 12 D 11 L 6
Kelly P 19 W 8 D 6 L 5

1998-99
Tracey P 17 W 6 D 3 L 8
Kelly P 22 W 8 D 8 L 6

1999-2000
Tracey P: 45 W:12 D:15 L: 18

2000-2001
Tracey P: 40 W:17 D: 9 L: 14

2001-2002
Tracey: P: 41 W:13 D:13 L: 15


Tracey's total league record is P 323 W 127 D 91 L 101. 55 Cup games W 24 D 10 L 20

Alan Kelly P 215 W 71 D 74 and L 70. 37 Cup games W 14 D 9 and L 14
 



SirNibletsO'Korne said:
Keith Waugh. Not because he was the best (he really wasn't, that's Kelly for me) but because when I was a young un and had to go in goal, in my head I was him.
And didn't he used to chuck a pair of gloves into the Kop before the game?
Just for his audience participation, he gets a vote from me.
Click to expand...
Same here, I randomly follow him on Twitter, seems like a decent bloke.
 
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