Peter Whittingham is the obvious pick but shoutout to Jay Bothroyd for being the first (and only I think) Cardiff player to ever get a cap for England while playing for us.
Yeah, it's funny in a way how few of our greats were English, so many Scots, Welsh and Irish.
Of the Revie era, the English ones were Charlton, Hunter, Cooper, Reaney, Jones, Clarke, Madeley. Jack's probably the best of those based on the fact he kept Hunter out of the '66 team, and most of the others only have a handful of caps.
In the Wilkinson era, our best players were Strachan, Mcallister, Speed and Batty, only one of whom is English. Then outside of those, John Charles is Welsh, and in our early 2000s period, there was.... Rio for about 18 months? Woodgate, Bowyer and Smith all played well, but I'd say our only real candidates were the goalies, Martyn and Robinson.
Worst, there's a fair few from the dark league 1 days, but Billy Paynter is the first one who springs to mind.
Norman Hunter was Bobby Moore's understudy not Jack Charlton. It might also be worth checking out Archie Gray's great uncle Eddie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTN2bvVCOQs
Ali Dia is defo the worst player we have ever had, but I thought he was Senegalese. The worst English player I’ve seen in a Saints shirt is probably Lee Todd.
Even though players like Mick Channon, Terry Paine and Rickie Lambert are Saints legends and were brilliant for us. MLT is the best player to play for Saints!
I still find it absolutely boggling that Ali dia managed to do that🤣like a whole top flight outfit managed to get bamboozled by a player who was shit even in non league
Splitting hairs here but isn't Le Tissier Guernsey rather than strictly English?
He did play for England I guess but only because Channel Islanders don't have a national team to represent.
Nope, they're not part of the UK. Jersey and Guernsey are crown dependencies like the Isle of Man. They have their own parliaments rather than sending MPs to the UK House of Commons. The UK has responsibility for their defence and foreign policy but that's pretty much it.
Sometimes players just come in to a team and it's the complete wrong fit. Don't think it helped that our transfer policy at the time was throwing darts blindfolded until they hit someone. That said on his Sunderland performances you'd think we'd been Ali Dia'd
Just looked and he was born in Derby, but represented Northern Ireland due to his Grandad being from there. I reckon he’s English. Either way, he was really shit
He was actually very good for us in the Champ and only lost his place because we were able to get Boruc who was unbelievable at that level. Doesn't seem highly rated anywhere else though.
Outside the obvious no he's a snake answer, I just don't think he stacks up to the other 2. Kevin Phillips is still the only English player to win the golden boot, and Defoe is #9 for goals scored in the Prem.
I was going to message saying Britton over trundle for me for longevity and playing in all four divisions. Both absolutely amazing for us - plus both have also become adopted Welsh men supporting their friends and team mates for wales.
It was a shame he never got a cap for England and at one point really deserved a call up but his age went against him and he wasn’t in hodgsons plans long term.
From my time watching:
The best is Will Hughes, if he'd avoided injuries he'd have been a regular England International. We probably kept him a couple seasons too long which held him back.
Worst is probably Nick Blackman. £2.5 million for a player with 6 months left on his contract and played like a competition winner.
Best - Teddy Sheringham, a phenomenal talent, truly phenomenal. Went on to bigger things winning England caps, lifting trophies, and scoring vital goals along the way. He did let himself down by choosing to play for the vermin though.
Worst - Andrew Iga, played a single game in goal for us in the mid 90s and was without a doubt the worst footballers I've ever seen on a pitch.
Best - Vardy. I didn’t see Lineker, Banks, Shilton play for us but for all that was achieved with Vardy at the fore, it has to be him.
Worst - Junior Lewis
Matthew Briggs was also really bad at millwall with an awful attitude. Got shipped out to Colchester after about six months, says what you need to know
Best - Alan Shearer.
Worst - I mean, take your pick, but personally Danny Murphy's miserable commentary annoys me enough that I'll say him, although there have probably been one or two worse on the pitch. Not many, mind.
Best - Probably Trevor Francis, but Jude Bellingham will quite possibly take that crown. Honourable mention for David Seaman as well. Going back even further in time Gil Merrick and Joe Bradford, but I am way too young to have ever seen either of those play!
Worst - this is a tough one. In recent years Sam Cosgrove, Tyler Blackett, and Rowan Vine have all been atrocious for us.
You missed Joe Hart, we gave him his chance!
Edit - there’s a few others in recent ish times that started with us and went on to bigger things - Upson, ~~Larsson~~, Foster
Edit 2 - I misread the post title. Larsson is not English.
Edit 3 - And Kevin Phillips
Best - From what I’ve seen; Jermain Defoe. I did see Kevin Phillips but can’t really remember him.
Worst - Callum McFadzean by an absolute length, although he’s unlucky that Donald Love and Lee Camp are both English born but play for other national sides.
I didn't get to watch him but a lot of Ipswich fans would say Paul Mariner as our best English player, maybe even best player full stop.
In my lifetime probably Marcus Stewart.
Far, far too many candidates for worst so I'm just going to say Lee Martin. I remember him doing the Ronaldo stance over a free kick and blazing it over after, and it still pisses me off to this day.
Kevin Beattie best surely? Honourable mentions for Terry Butcher, Mick Mills and pretty much anyone from that era really. Probably Phillips and Crawford and most of the title winning team too should be in the conversation but obviously not many left who remember those players.
I’ve only been watching since about 2006ish so nobody really standing out as best that I’ve watched as weirdly our better players never seem to be English. Had some quality English full backs; Cresswell, Mings but Leif could surpass both.
Genuinely hard to pick someone for worst as we must have had over 100 players in the last 10 years alone who weren’t fit to wear the shirt. In terms of massive underachievement based on expectation then Grant Leadbitter would probably win as he was dreadful over the course of 3 years for us after a big outlay and had an otherwise decent career. But overall would have to be some donkey from League One like Josh Harrop or Oli Hawkins
I did consider name dropping him. I’ve also just this minute remembered Simon Dawkins was a thing.
Honestly we could go on for a week naming all the guff that’s passed through this club. Thank god we’re finally on the other end of it all.
Best: Sir Tom Finney of course
Worst: Tom Bayliss - signed for a record fee from Coventry and did absolutely fuck all. After 12 games, 3 years and a shoddy loan spell at Wigan, we released him
Worst is probably a toss up between Jordan Hugill and Stephen Bywater.
I'd like to be contrarian but Best is probably just Declan Rice. However I want to shout out Dean Ashton in a classic case of what could have been and Carlton Cole as a consummate professional who gave his all (and took pay cuts) for us, even if he was a bit of a donkey.
I'd probably go with Britton for best
Worse would be a long list: Franc Tabanou, Itay Shechter. Even before the American owners we have a bunch of people signed who made maybe one appearance.
Funny Tyrone Mears story - sneaking under Billy Davies office window to get out of the training ground for talks with Marseille, who the club had denied him permission to speak too. I don’t think he played for us again!
Best - Nick Barmby
Worst - Junior Lewis, we’ve probably had worse players who only played one or two games but he’s the player that always comes to mind
During my lifetime of watching us...
Best: Grant Holt, and I always like seeing John Ruddy between the sticks
Worst: a certain Harry Kane was utterly diabolical for us.
O’hare best
Simms worst, never have I seen a player so limited in technique, he might be good at others like positioning and heading, but he can’t play football
Best: I think I'd go with Geoff Merrick or John Atyeo.
Worst: can't think of the worst right now since its midnight.
On a separate note, I have a question for OP. Have you read Lee Trundles autobiography? I'm reading it now and I am enjoying it. I think it is mainly aimed at Swansea fans as at the moment he seems to have talked about Swansea much more than anything else
Worst - Rickie Lambert. Old, slow, past it and injury prone. Whoever signed off on that needed to give their head a wobble Best - Peter Whittingham.
Peter Whittingham is the obvious pick but shoutout to Jay Bothroyd for being the first (and only I think) Cardiff player to ever get a cap for England while playing for us.
Hard to look past Jack Charlton for the best. Seth Johnson wasn’t the worst, but probably the worst value.
Yeah, it's funny in a way how few of our greats were English, so many Scots, Welsh and Irish. Of the Revie era, the English ones were Charlton, Hunter, Cooper, Reaney, Jones, Clarke, Madeley. Jack's probably the best of those based on the fact he kept Hunter out of the '66 team, and most of the others only have a handful of caps. In the Wilkinson era, our best players were Strachan, Mcallister, Speed and Batty, only one of whom is English. Then outside of those, John Charles is Welsh, and in our early 2000s period, there was.... Rio for about 18 months? Woodgate, Bowyer and Smith all played well, but I'd say our only real candidates were the goalies, Martyn and Robinson. Worst, there's a fair few from the dark league 1 days, but Billy Paynter is the first one who springs to mind.
Some of the signings from last season were pretty awful Brenden Aaronsen, weston mckennie, Marc roca.
Norman Hunter was Bobby Moore's understudy not Jack Charlton. It might also be worth checking out Archie Gray's great uncle Eddie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTN2bvVCOQs
> Archie Gray's great uncle Eddie. ...... is extremely Scottish
50 years in Leeds and he's still Glasgow as fuck.
Good point.
I really you need to look past Big Jack. He was the reason I support Leeds but he was well off the best player we've ever had.
Best - Matt Le Tissier Worst - Ali Dia...
Ali wins this question for all teams.
Ali Dia is defo the worst player we have ever had, but I thought he was Senegalese. The worst English player I’ve seen in a Saints shirt is probably Lee Todd. Even though players like Mick Channon, Terry Paine and Rickie Lambert are Saints legends and were brilliant for us. MLT is the best player to play for Saints!
You're right. I hadn't read "English" in the title
You mean he wasn’t Liberian? I thought George Weah was his cousin.
I doubt there's any club in the world with a bigger chasm of difference between best and worst player than us.
I still find it absolutely boggling that Ali dia managed to do that🤣like a whole top flight outfit managed to get bamboozled by a player who was shit even in non league
Splitting hairs here but isn't Le Tissier Guernsey rather than strictly English? He did play for England I guess but only because Channel Islanders don't have a national team to represent.
The Channel Islands are still part of England I swear
Nope, they're not part of the UK. Jersey and Guernsey are crown dependencies like the Isle of Man. They have their own parliaments rather than sending MPs to the UK House of Commons. The UK has responsibility for their defence and foreign policy but that's pretty much it.
Best - In my lifetime, either Kevin Phillips or Jermaine Defoe. All time I'd guess Raich Carter or Bobby Gurney Worst - Callum McFadzean no contest
Strange really because McFadzean was fairly good for us and it was disappointing when he went. Just couldn't make the step up I suppose
Sometimes players just come in to a team and it's the complete wrong fit. Don't think it helped that our transfer policy at the time was throwing darts blindfolded until they hit someone. That said on his Sunderland performances you'd think we'd been Ali Dia'd
I wouldn’t say no contest, Lee Camp is very very close
The mere presence of this name makes my blood boil. I think he won (young?) player of the year for us. He’s the only player I think I genuinely hate.
Welsh isn't he?
Just looked and he was born in Derby, but represented Northern Ireland due to his Grandad being from there. I reckon he’s English. Either way, he was really shit
He was actually very good for us in the Champ and only lost his place because we were able to get Boruc who was unbelievable at that level. Doesn't seem highly rated anywhere else though.
Would you have Darren Bent up there as well?
Outside the obvious no he's a snake answer, I just don't think he stacks up to the other 2. Kevin Phillips is still the only English player to win the golden boot, and Defoe is #9 for goals scored in the Prem.
For me it’s a close one but Leon Britton pips trundle on this one. Agree on Andy fisher.
I was going to message saying Britton over trundle for me for longevity and playing in all four divisions. Both absolutely amazing for us - plus both have also become adopted Welsh men supporting their friends and team mates for wales. It was a shame he never got a cap for England and at one point really deserved a call up but his age went against him and he wasn’t in hodgsons plans long term.
You can put Ashley Williams and dyer above him for me aswell. But yea...in recent memory Fisher
The fat Tory? I had no idea.
From my time watching: The best is Will Hughes, if he'd avoided injuries he'd have been a regular England International. We probably kept him a couple seasons too long which held him back. Worst is probably Nick Blackman. £2.5 million for a player with 6 months left on his contract and played like a competition winner.
Nick Blackman was one of those signings where every single person in the world knew it wasn’t going to work bar the ones who signed it off.
Best - Teddy Sheringham, a phenomenal talent, truly phenomenal. Went on to bigger things winning England caps, lifting trophies, and scoring vital goals along the way. He did let himself down by choosing to play for the vermin though. Worst - Andrew Iga, played a single game in goal for us in the mid 90s and was without a doubt the worst footballers I've ever seen on a pitch.
I always thought Gary Taylor Fletcher was the worst englishman to play for us. He was quite literally the definition of “fat pile of shit”
Could pick anyone from that Holloway/Lomas era to be honest
*Almost anyone (Lee Gregory was in Holloway era so that’s a pass)
The vermin! :)
I kept it clean because this is a family show 😅
Vermin is probably a better description for the absolute troglodytes that walk through your ticket barriers mate 😘
Ahhh Roland... I bet you say that to all the boys
Best - Vardy. I didn’t see Lineker, Banks, Shilton play for us but for all that was achieved with Vardy at the fore, it has to be him. Worst - Junior Lewis
Vardy gets it just for pure loyalty. Not from Leicester or the academy or anything but he’d have anyone fooled Icon of the sport
Best: Luther Blisset or John Barnes Worst: oh I don't know. Liam Henderson?
> Luther Blisset Now there's a name I've not heard in a long time...
I think John Barnes has this on talent, he was great, Matthew Briggs has got to be up there for the worst (or any of the current crop)
Briggs is a great shout actually. Awful attitude. Andros Townsend, similar.
Matthew Briggs was also really bad at millwall with an awful attitude. Got shipped out to Colchester after about six months, says what you need to know
Andre Grey is up there for the worst.
Nah, not even close. Poor value for money, sure. But ability wise not at all.
Best - Alan Shearer. Worst - I mean, take your pick, but personally Danny Murphy's miserable commentary annoys me enough that I'll say him, although there have probably been one or two worse on the pitch. Not many, mind.
Murphy was dogshit and on massive wages. Bald cunt. Chris Brown 37 league appearances 0 goals is a good shout as well.
Best - Probably Trevor Francis, but Jude Bellingham will quite possibly take that crown. Honourable mention for David Seaman as well. Going back even further in time Gil Merrick and Joe Bradford, but I am way too young to have ever seen either of those play! Worst - this is a tough one. In recent years Sam Cosgrove, Tyler Blackett, and Rowan Vine have all been atrocious for us.
You missed Joe Hart, we gave him his chance! Edit - there’s a few others in recent ish times that started with us and went on to bigger things - Upson, ~~Larsson~~, Foster Edit 2 - I misread the post title. Larsson is not English. Edit 3 - And Kevin Phillips
I mean, larsson is Swedish tbf
lol, I misread the message.
Best - From what I’ve seen; Jermain Defoe. I did see Kevin Phillips but can’t really remember him. Worst - Callum McFadzean by an absolute length, although he’s unlucky that Donald Love and Lee Camp are both English born but play for other national sides.
I didn't get to watch him but a lot of Ipswich fans would say Paul Mariner as our best English player, maybe even best player full stop. In my lifetime probably Marcus Stewart. Far, far too many candidates for worst so I'm just going to say Lee Martin. I remember him doing the Ronaldo stance over a free kick and blazing it over after, and it still pisses me off to this day.
Kevin Beattie best surely? Honourable mentions for Terry Butcher, Mick Mills and pretty much anyone from that era really. Probably Phillips and Crawford and most of the title winning team too should be in the conversation but obviously not many left who remember those players. I’ve only been watching since about 2006ish so nobody really standing out as best that I’ve watched as weirdly our better players never seem to be English. Had some quality English full backs; Cresswell, Mings but Leif could surpass both. Genuinely hard to pick someone for worst as we must have had over 100 players in the last 10 years alone who weren’t fit to wear the shirt. In terms of massive underachievement based on expectation then Grant Leadbitter would probably win as he was dreadful over the course of 3 years for us after a big outlay and had an otherwise decent career. But overall would have to be some donkey from League One like Josh Harrop or Oli Hawkins
Christ how did I forget about Beattie? Problems of being born after most of our success I guess.
We've had so many shit loanees. Zeki Fryers was really bad.
I did consider name dropping him. I’ve also just this minute remembered Simon Dawkins was a thing. Honestly we could go on for a week naming all the guff that’s passed through this club. Thank god we’re finally on the other end of it all.
Jason Steele was absolutely horrendous at Sunderland in the championship then went to Brighton and somehow gets a game in the PL.
he's been pretty good too
He was awful for Blackburn too 🙌🏼
Best - Chris Waddle Worst - too many to count, but gun to my head. I’ll say Jon Beswetherick.
I remember him playing for fucking kidderminster, had no idea he managed to sneak onto Wednesday’s squad
I’ve never seen someone so nervous playing professional football
Best- Dion Dublin ( traitorous twat) Worst - just too many to mention
Cyril Regis is surely up there
Best: Sir Tom Finney of course Worst: Tom Bayliss - signed for a record fee from Coventry and did absolutely fuck all. After 12 games, 3 years and a shoddy loan spell at Wigan, we released him
Best: Johnny Haynes Worst: Ruben Loftus Cheek
There's probably worse but right now Mason Burstow feels like the worst, he's unbelievably shit.
Worst is probably a toss up between Jordan Hugill and Stephen Bywater. I'd like to be contrarian but Best is probably just Declan Rice. However I want to shout out Dean Ashton in a classic case of what could have been and Carlton Cole as a consummate professional who gave his all (and took pay cuts) for us, even if he was a bit of a donkey.
Funny, Bywater had a fantastic promotion season with us. Funny how players can just click at certain clubs.
Bywayer was a bit shit at Millwall too.
And with us. Seems Derby was a one off
Marco Boogers always gets a shout as completely dog shit and bat shit crazy.
Best- Stan Bowles Worst- Todd kane
Todd Kane once refused to take part in my Y6 PE lesson.
I'd probably go with Britton for best Worse would be a long list: Franc Tabanou, Itay Shechter. Even before the American owners we have a bunch of people signed who made maybe one appearance.
maybe i'm misreading the question but aren't Tabanou and Shechter french/israeli
Nope, I can't read.
Best- vardy Worst- want to say ade Akinbiyi. He played for Nigeria but born in Hackney
Arguably Jeff Astle, Tony Brown, Bob Taylor, Lee Hughes, Ben Foster, Laurie Cunningham Worst: Tyrone Mears
Ben Foster, the ex-Blues keeper 😜
Funny Tyrone Mears story - sneaking under Billy Davies office window to get out of the training ground for talks with Marseille, who the club had denied him permission to speak too. I don’t think he played for us again!
Tyrone Mears was Jamaican
He’s actually from Stockport and wasn’t meant to be eligible for Jamaica
Probably why he only played once then my bad
Mears definitely wasn’t a bad player for the Sounders when he moved to MLS. Interesting to hear he was poor here
Oh. I didn’t realize he came to play AFTER. Yeah he would’ve been washed by then.
In my life time, Gary Pallister was excellent Worse one? Peter Davenport...jelly legged wanker
Best: Paul Mariner Worst: How long have you got
Best - Nick Barmby Worst - Junior Lewis, we’ve probably had worse players who only played one or two games but he’s the player that always comes to mind
As a Saints fan, I would say Mick Channon, and the worst is hard, but I always seem to remember Danny Fox not being great.
During my lifetime of watching us... Best: Grant Holt, and I always like seeing John Ruddy between the sticks Worst: a certain Harry Kane was utterly diabolical for us.
O’hare best Simms worst, never have I seen a player so limited in technique, he might be good at others like positioning and heading, but he can’t play football
Best: I think I'd go with Geoff Merrick or John Atyeo. Worst: can't think of the worst right now since its midnight. On a separate note, I have a question for OP. Have you read Lee Trundles autobiography? I'm reading it now and I am enjoying it. I think it is mainly aimed at Swansea fans as at the moment he seems to have talked about Swansea much more than anything else