St David's Day question, who is our greatest ever Welsh player?

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

CrookesBlade said:
Glyn Hodges is the best we’ve had.

We’ve has two of Wales greatest ever players in Ian Rush and Gary Speed. Speed didn’t have the impact expected but still showed moments of quality and a good head to have round the dressing room. Ian Rush was well past it and stealing a living by the time he came to us on loan.

Some others

Dean Saunders - came to us as back up for Deane and Fjortoft when we were throwing daft money around in the Championship before the wheels came off. Again, his best years were probably behind him but chipped in with a few goals and I enjoyed watching him. The “cheeky” goal against Port Vale summing him up. Was sold to Benfica the following season when we were selling anything that wasn’t nailed down. We never got the full amount for either him or Brian Deane from Benfica as I recall. Lost respect for him in the past few years. The inaccurate stories he put out about Brian Clough’s alcoholism for a cheap laugh and to sell tickets for his after dinner speeches struck me as a real cunt’s trick and his drink driving episode certainly didn’t do him any favours.

Gareth Taylor - very limited footballer but a decent enough target man when everyone had one. Turned down a move to Utrecht despite being 4th or 5th choice striker. Scored a cracking volley from the edge of the area to beat forest at home. All the rest of his goals seemed to be headers.

Rob Page - Captained Wales and the Blades. Created a formidable partnership with Shaun Murphy at the back. Key part of the “triple assault” side. His legs had gone by the end of 03/04 and Warnock packed him off to Chesterfield.

Ched Evans - came from Man City for a surprisingly hefty transfer fee (at a time when we were relying heavily on free transfers and loans) and a lot of expectation. Struggled with form and fitness in his first couple of seasons and only found the back of the net a handful of times.

Had more or less been written off by the time of his arrest at the back end of 2010/11 which just added to the sense of doom and gloom around the club following relegation. The assumption was that he wouldn’t really feature for us again. Danny Wilson brought him on as a sub away at Scunthorpe where he bagged a late equaliser. The rest is well documented. One can only speculate how good a player he could have been had he not had so long out of the game.

Vinny Jones also turned out a few times for Wales in the late 90s when they were dreadful and would have anybody.
Click to expand...
An excellent summary of some of our players. I agree about Gary Speed, who had an excellent career, he was past his best when he joined us, he did OK but wasn't as effective as Gordon Cowans and Stuart McCall
 

1973Blade said:
Controversially, it may be Ched Evans for that season. Dean Saunders was a class player, who scored the cheekiest goal I have ever seen. Kieron Freeman was one of our better right backs, until being overshadowed by Baldock. I'm not sure we can really count Warrington born David Brooks as being 'proper Welsh'!
Click to expand...
For me it is Gil Reece he was only a small guy but when he jumped for a ball he looked 10 foot tall.The best header of a ball I can remember in a blades shirt.Scored such a lot of goals with his head from outside of the box on a few occasions they went like a bullet.
 
Got to be Gil Reece (shouldn't really mention Gary Speed in the same breath) only the brilliance of Woodward on the other wing overshadowed what a player he was for United.
 
ZLB said:
Saw a lot of Reece and Hockey. Not so much of Powell. Somebody Silent Blade? please remind me why he wasn’t a major part of the team from 1970 onwards.
Click to expand...
Got a bad knee injury at QPR in March 1971. Never the same player again when he was able to play again and got transferred to Cardiff. He was our POY in 1968-69 season. 11 caps for Wales,
 
  • Like
Reactions: ZLB
Brian Deane said:
Close call between Hodges and Rees (Didnt realise he was Welsh) for performances in a Blades shirt.
Click to expand...

Mel Rees looked like he was a great GK but you can't say he is in the top 2 Welsh players for us. He played about 10 games.

He's only being mentioned because he died. Tragic circumstances granted but a player who played a handful of games can't be considered in the list.

Hodges gave us 5 years
Evans got 30 goals in a season
Gareth Taylor had a right goal/game ratio
Then there's Dean Saunders, Gary Speed, David Cotterill, David Brooks etc...
 

Silent Blade said:
Got a bad knee injury at QPR in March 1971. Never the same player again when he was able to play again and got transferred to Cardiff. He was our POY in 1968-69 season. 11 caps for Wales,
Click to expand...

Thanks. How many games did he play in 70-71? Remember Colquhoun and Flynn as the two centre backs. Did Powell start off as first choice?
 
ZLB said:
Thanks. How many games did he play in 70-71? Remember Colquhoun and Flynn as the two centre backs. Did Powell start off as first choice?
Click to expand...
The year I started going ,I only saw Powell a few times though and Flynn took over ,same with Hodgkinson so not fair to form an opinion.
 
Seen a comment regarding Mel Rees which saddens me.
Please have a rethink fellow Blade.
My thoughts are Rees may have been the best of the three GK's we had. Ned was Grade A, Trace not far off.
Rees looked, to me, as though he was perhaps a bit more of a presence who could command his area a bit better than some do.
Three Goylies of that quality now?
 
benn5712 said:
My thoughts are Rees may have been the best of the three GK's we had. Ned was Grade A, Trace not far off.
Rees looked, to me, as though he was perhaps a bit more of a presence who could command his area a bit better than some do.
Click to expand...

One of the best debuts of any United player in the time I’ve been following us In one of my favourite games. And he built on that in the games that followed. He was not, however, fault-free and I do think sometimes we forget that when considering those three keepers – the injury that effectively ended his season in the Leeds match was in fact a result of him clearly not commanding his area well. In fact that game was probably Rees at his worst – before the injury he nearly fumbled a shot into his own net, and then for the injury he charged off his line when there were other defenders nearby, slid to the floor and ended up clattering (or being clattered by) a United player (can’t remember who exactly - Gayle?). This isn’t to say that he might not have become a brilliant long-term keeper for us, which tragically we never got to witness.
 
mattbianco1 said:
He's scored 34 goals in 55 starts for us. Attitude maybe, but player, no.
Click to expand...

Almost kept us up in 94. Remember being shocked when we sold him to Bolton but it coincided with the big turn around in our fortunes under Howard Kendall.

Fun fact re Blake (from Wikipedia)

Blake won the award for Best Supporting Actor at Film Fest Cymru 2014 for his role in short film The Homing Bird, in which he plays a football coach. He had been nominated the previous year in the same category for his debut role in Say It.[16]
 
LoughboroBlade said:
One of the best debuts of any United player in the time I’ve been following us In one of my favourite games. And he built on that in the games that followed. He was not, however, fault-free and I do think sometimes we forget that when considering those three keepers – the injury that effectively ended his season in the Leeds match was in fact a result of him clearly not commanding his area well. In fact that game was probably Rees at his worst – before the injury he nearly fumbled a shot into his own net, and then for the injury he charged off his line when there were other defenders nearby, slid to the floor and ended up clattering (or being clattered by) a United player (can’t remember who exactly - Gayle?). This isn’t to say that he might not have become a brilliant long-term keeper for us, which tragically we never got to witness.
Click to expand...
Brian Gayle it was.
 
ZLB said:
Saw a lot of Reece and Hockey. Not so much of Powell. Somebody Silent Blade? please remind me why he wasn’t a major part of the team from 1970 onwards.
Click to expand...
Not a big heavy weight bruiser of a centre half, think of him as our Jagielka of the 70's good in the air strong in the tackle and pace to burn, sadly he was never the same after the leg injury which he never fully recovered from.
 
ZLB said:
Thanks. How many games did he play in 70-71? Remember Colquhoun and Flynn as the two centre backs. Did Powell start off as first choice?
Click to expand...
sitwell said:
The year I started going ,I only saw Powell a few times though and Flynn took over ,same with Hodgkinson so not fair to form an opinion.
Click to expand...

Up to the QPR match he played in every game apart from the Leicester match in Boxing Day (31 league and 3 cup). Flynn played in only 9 league games that season.
 
CrookesBlade said:
Glyn Hodges is the best we’ve had

Some others

Dean Saunders.............. The “cheeky” goal against Port Vale summing him up.
Click to expand...

Glyn Hodges - pure class and a gent, met him at John Gannon's wedding whenever I turned round there was my Grandad and Glyn talking football both with a glass of whiskey in their hands. Boy did my Grandad have a fantastic night meeting all the team that night. The goal he scored against Arsenal in the FA Cup lives in my memory forever.


Dean Saunders... oh yes hmm.

 
varkanoid said:
Glyn Hodges - pure class and a gent, met him at John Gannon's wedding whenever I turned round there was my Grandad and Glyn talking football both with a glass of whiskey in their hands. Boy did my Grandad have a fantastic night meeting all the team that night. The goal he scored against Arsenal in the FA Cup lives in my memory forever.


Dean Saunders... oh yes hmm.

Click to expand...

Your Grandad scored against Arsenal in the FA Cup?
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

All advertisments are hidden for logged in members, why not log in/register?

Back
Top Bottom