World Class Rangers

[Beetle Bailey 0]

Alan Morton was considered the best player in the world by at least one English football writer of the time.

Sandy Jardine was regularly spoken of as world class in mid 70s, along with mcgrain.

[craig 5,195]

I want to say yes, as I remember the big man in goal for us however Keepers are a special type of player.

 

He's always said a keeper is only as good as the defence in front of him, which is modest but true. Goram was well protected in his time at Ibrox, and the league we played in ( although being better than today ) wasn't up to much.

 

I'd have liked to see him move on and prove himself on the world stage with other clubs to show that he can be as good elsewhere but in saying that, Goram being world class is an opinion, however I think we can all agree he's a Legend.

 

I don't mean to tarnish the man in any way but for me, I like players to expand and adapt to new environments over their careers.

 

It was only one game I know.... but you wouldnt have considered his performance against Leeds at Elland Road 1st class ? Even Cantona couldnt believe the saves he was pulling off that night.

[Tannochsidebear 2,306]

Of the players I have seen at Ibrox, I would definately have Numan as world class. He was most definately in the top 2 (with Roberto Carlos) left backs in the world at the time we signed him, and I'm sure made the '98 World team of the year, or World Cup best X1 or similar.

 

Add in Laudrup, both De Boer's, Gazza, Butcher, Gough, Goram all could have played in any club side in the world and added something to them, although FDB was past his best by the time we saw him. It was scary how well he read the game and I recall thinking how good he must have been to watch every week in his prime, a truly world class player.

[Scott7 5,140]

Eric Caldow beyond the shadow of a doubt and probably Sammy Cox.

 

Ian McMillan had world-class technique and a world-class football brain and part-timer's fitness.

[The Real PapaBear 0]

If we think of World Class as being Zidane, Messi, Maradona, Henry, Cruyff etc, then really the only players who were world class and could have played in a team with the aforementioned when they were at Ibrox were Baxter, Numan and Gough in the early 90s.

Gazza and Goram could have been world class with more professionalism, Laudrup was a very good player and maybe European class, but no more. His brother was the real world class player. Cooper in a different team at a different time would/could/should have been an all time great.

[chilledbear 16]

Baxter and Henderson played for a World 11 in the sixties. Both were world class, the rest is only speculation.

[BrahimHemdani 1]

By all accounts Alan L Morton,. "the wee blue devil" would have been rated world class in his day but it is very hard to tell.

 

I think we also have to separate players who WE might consider world class and players others might regard as such.

 

In terms of genuine WORLD class i.e. would the player have got into a World XI at his peak, I reckon Frank de Boer, Laudrup who "was named by FIFA as the 5th best player in the world in 1992 and was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers at the FIFA 100 ceremony in March 2004" (source - Wikipedia), and possibly Gascoigne (rated 4th in Europe in 1990), although his peak was very short lived, are the only major candidates and Laudrup is the only genuine certainty. Ronald de Boer had the best football brain of any player I've ever seen and Baxter the best natural ability so they are both worth a shout IMHO.

 

In fact Laudrup is the only player we have had since 1990 who made the FIFA top ten http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/fifa-awards.html#player10 You really need to look down this list to think about what constitutes genuine "world class".

 

Interesting debate about Goram v Kloss never mind Goram v The World; but was he in the same class as European Goalkeepers of the Year such as: Lev YASHIN, Oliver Kahn, Gianluigi Buffon and Dino ZOFF, perhaps but "world class"?

 

Equally interesting debate about van Bronkhurst but you really need to be at the Johan Cruijff, Ruud GULLIT, Marco VAN BASTEN, Ronald Koeman, Dennis Bergkamp type of level to get in the top 5 in Europe; I'd suggest that if you're not in the top 5 in Europe, you can't really be genuine "world class".

 

Denis LAW is the only Scottish player ever to have won the European Footballer of the Year title and he plus: Jimmy Johnstone, Gordon Strachan, Billy Bremner and Kenny Dalglish are the only Scottish players to have featured in the Top 5. Johnstone is the only player in the Scottish Leagues to have won a medal (bronze) and he and Strachan were the only Scottish players actually playing in Scotland, to have featured. http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/europa-poy.html#top5 So you have to be thinking about players at that level at least if not better in terms of true "world class". I'd chuck in Willie Henderson at his best, as being at least as good as Johnstone (bearing in mind that they played in the same Scotland team) as worth a shout; but world class, I'm not so sure.

 

Going down the European list, I'll throw in a wild card: Alexei Mikhailichenko [/b] was rated 4th in Europe when he was with Dynamo Kiev in 1988. Laudrup largely kept Mikhailichenko out of Rangers team in 1993/94 thus enhancing his (Laudrup's) claim to world class in my view.

[BrahimHemdani 1]

Baxter and Henderson played for a World 11 in the sixties. Both were world class, the rest is only speculation.

 

I'd tend to agree with that if you add Laudrup based on FIFA rankings.

[BrahimHemdani 1]

If we think of World Class as being Zidane, Messi, Maradona, Henry, Cruyff etc, then really the only players who were world class and could have played in a team with the aforementioned when they were at Ibrox were Baxter, Numan and Gough in the early 90s.

Gazza and Goram could have been world class with more professionalism, Laudrup was a very good player and maybe European class, but no more. His brother was the real world class player. Cooper in a different team at a different time would/could/should have been an all time great.

 

I'm not sure that you could rate Numan and Gough in the same league as Messi and Maradona or defenders like Franz Beckenbauer, Giacinto Facchetti , Franco BARESI or Paolo MALDINI?

 

Out of your choices: Baxter and Laudrup (accepting that his brother was a better player) are the ones for me.

[rbr 1,247]

The term world class is probably the most discussed term in football arguments , what actually is world class , is it the ability to get into any world team and improve it , can " world class players " transcend times , ie would Sir Stanley Mathews get the plaudits today when every player is an athlete ,

 

In every era how many world class players can there actually be , enough for 1 team , 2 teams etc etc if you get my meaning.

 

Many people including Frankie extol the virtues of Gazza as the biggest signing in Scottish football history and whilst that may be so , if you strip it down to pure footballing terms imho Laudrup was a far better player and would get into most teams ahead of Gazza,

but its all about opinions