so being nominated for the ballon d'or and finishing 6th isn't world class?

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no because i use my eyes to watch him play and i don't rate him as world class. as i said he's quality but i could name you plenty of players in his position who are better than him. he got massively overrated after the world cup. people were saying he underperformed last season, but it was also a case of hyping him the year before. he miskicks so many passes/shots, makes so many wrong decisions and lacks any killer instinct to be world class.

I'm not saying he's world class now. I made it clear that he used to be. But I agree in principle.

We, as Arsenal fans, will need to realise that, after the season has started and the window is closed, we're stuck with what we've got, so we might as well do all we can to lift them.

"Deco, Owen, Suker, Litmanen, Beckham and Mijatovic have all finished in the top 3 for Ballon D'ors and have never been world class."

Not sure about that to be honest.

he got massively overrated after the world cup

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which world cup was that?

People need to realise that before Messi and Ronaldo, there were other world class players. The likes of messi and ronaldo are not the first world class players in soccer's history

euro's, my bad

and considering rosicky is naturally a central/attacking midfielder... you look at the quality of fabregas, iniesta, xavi, sneijder. i mean rosicky is a decent little player but isn't/wasn't at that level.

I did not say that. But they are a level above. I'd only put Zidane up with Messi in recent years. Not even fat Ronaldo would be there.

Just my opinion JJG I think the term world class gets thrown around way too much.

I think many players achieve World Class form at points in their career.

a player with world class ability would have the consistency to perform at that level for a longer period of time. a player could just hit an amazing bit of form but that doesn't make them world class if they don't perform to that standard for 90% of their careers. arshavin had an amazing euro's, got hyped and got labelled world class even though majority of footy fans don't watch the russian league. he's a quality player but performed above his level for a few games and suddenly gets called world class.

and considering rosicky is naturally a central/attacking midfielder... you look at the quality of fabregas, iniesta, xavi, sneijder. i mean rosicky is a decent little player but isn't/wasn't at that level.

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rosicky no

arshavin has proven himself on the world stage and objective opinion placed him as one of the top players in the world in 2008. I'm not entirely sure why any Arsenal fan would knock it

Just my opinion JJG I think the term world class gets thrown around way too much.
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To an extent yes but I think people bias or hatred effects their opinion. As a premierleague and la liga neutral i'm in a good position to judge. At the moment la liga is better. Between 04-09 the PL was better. The following PL players are/or have been WC at some point of the last few years. Drogba, Terry, Cech, Cashley, Essien, Rooney, Vidic, Evra, Scholes, Ferdinand, Gerrard, Lampard, Torres, Tevez, Fabregas

You may disagree but all of those players have dominated europe at some point

On the sick, tut, tut
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I known, and I'm not even a Scouser.

(Sorry Liverpudlians, I couldn't resist it so please feel free to come back with some Irish (my country of origin) jibes (although, given the heritage of many from your fine city (we all know Rooney is Irish - take one look at him) that would be a case of "pot" and "kettle")) (I've lost track of how many parentheses - if you are from Liverpool, that means "brackets" - are needed here). Arghh, I've turned into a bigot.

Van der sar*

comment by rannafabregas (U1182)


posted 5 minutes ago

I did not say that. But they are a level above. I'd only put Zidane up with Messi in recent years. Not even fat Ronaldo would be there.
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Hang your head in shame mate

What? Messi scores 53 goals and gets 24 assists in just one season. That's incredible. The assists in particular.

Who remembers how could the old brazilians were Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Roberto Carlos, Cafu

"Just my opinion JJG I think the term world class gets thrown around way too much."

Yeah I know what you mean but I also think that people go too far the other way as well. As if only one or two players in the world can be world class at any one time, which is patently ridiculous.

For me World Class is basically what Paul Merson would call a "top, top player, top player, top, top player, top." Then there are players who transcend that, like Messi and Zidane.

Great players. Spectacular, wonderful. That free kick v France etc etc. But they're not Messi.

arshavin has proven himself on the world stage and objective opinion placed him as one of the top players in the world in 2008. I'm not entirely sure why any Arsenal fan would knock it

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cos public objective opinion is always right people were judging him on 5 games in euro 2008 to judge whether he's world class or not even though the majority haven't seen any of him beforehand.

i'm not saying he's pants... he's got obvious quality. seems any player who is half decent nowaways is world class. but with many players above him in his position and obvious flaws in his game, i don't see how he can be.

As good as Messi and Ronaldo are, the defences in La liga aren't what they used to be. Every team, even the smaller ones try to play football with Barca and Real

cos public objective opinion is always right

people were judging him on 5 games in euro 2008 to judge whether he's world class or not even though the majority haven't seen any of him beforehand.
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I love the way you put in a laugh smiley to indicate that you know what you're talking about. What you're totally missing is that sport is Egalitarian hence you can't compare it to general "public opinion".

The facts here speak for themselves, like in any other sport if you perform on the world stage such as blitzing performances to carry your team to the Semi-finals you are world class. It's really not that difficult to understand.

comment by rannafabregas (U1182)


posted 1 minute ago

Great players. Spectacular, wonderful. That free kick v France etc etc. But they're not Messi.
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Brazilian Ronaldo is arguably the best striker that's ever lived. He's been world player of the year 3 times. If you don't think that at his best he doesn't belong alongside Zidane and Messi then I think you probably haven't seen him when he was at Barca and especially Inter. Not having a go as it's not your fault you don't know what you're talking about but you are so wrong it's unreal.

"Great players. Spectacular, wonderful. That free kick v France etc etc. But they're not Messi."

And therefore they're not world class? That's like saying Stephen Hawking isn't a genius because he's no Albert Einstein.

"The facts here speak for themselves, like in any other sport if you perform on the world stage such as blitzing performances to carry your team to the Semi-finals you are world class. It's really not that difficult to understand."

Like Milan Baros in Euro 2004