Greatest club sides

Europe - Real Madrid 56-60

First Division (old) - Liverpool Mid to late 80s

Premiership - Manchester United 1999

Current - Barcelona

What could have been - Manchester United Busby babes

Personal - Reading 2005-06

There are three candidates for my best ever club teams (not in order) First , the Liverpool team of the late 80s. That team had hardly any weaknesses at all, and John Barnes in particular was unstoppable (shame about his England form). They could conceivably have won three doubles in a row but were thwarted by Dave Beasant in '88, Michael Thomas in '89 and, er, Alan Pardew in '90
Second, the Milan team of the early 90s with the three Dutchmen of Rijkaard, van Basten and Gullit. It was a real pity that van Basten's career ended early because of injury. He scored hatfuls of goals in Serie A, enough said. This was his finest moment though, an unbelievable goal in the Euro 88 final against the USSR.



Thirdly, the current Barcelona team. They are just superb to watch and destroy teams for fun (including a very good Real Madrid side). The core of the team has now won a World Cup, European Championship and two Champions League titles in the last four years, and who would bet against them adding to that tally this season?

And to finish, my own favourite Palace team was the one which finished 3rd in the old First Division in 1990-91, i.e. above the Man U side which had beaten us in the Cup Final the previous season, above the Spurs side which had Gazza and Lineker, above everyone except Arsenal and Liverpool.
Nigel Martyn, John Humphrey, Eric Young, Andy Thorn, Richard Shaw, Eddie McGoldrick, Andy Gray, Geoff Thomas ©, John Salako, Mark Bright, Ian Wright

Nowadays we're lucky if we just get into the Premier League for one season before a quick return to our natural level.

Portsmouth have been champions of England twice, in 1948-49 and 1949-50 with more or less the same side in both seasons. This makes it very easy to say that this was Portsmouth's greatest ever team.

(01-11-2011 06:43 )eagle_si Wrote:  It was a real pity that van Basten's career ended early because of injury. He scored hatfuls of goals in Serie A, enough said. This was his finest moment though, an unbelievable goal in the Euro 88 final against the USSR.

When you look at that goal, it is remarkable at how almost acute an
angle he hit it, not to mention first time volley. I would say that is arguably that is one of the greatest international goals ever seen.
I think then many believed Holland could have acheived so much more. Whether this current Dutch is anything as close to that '88 side
i'm sure many will probably say that it is on a par with it.
Who know what Van Basten could have achieved?

When it comes to arguments about things like how easy it was to win the European Cup in years gone by comparisons aren't really possible because so many other things were different: 42 League Games instead of 38, an era of worse winter weather causing fixture backlogs not helped by endless replays in the FA/League Cup, no allowances made to the domestic fixture list for teams playing in Europe, only one substitute allowed and most importantly a first-team squad - even for the big guns - of no more than 18 or so players.

It wasn't unknown for teams to have to play three league games in four days over the Easter weekend (Fri, Sat & Mon), then have to fly half way across Europe to play a quarter or semi final on the Wednesday and back for a Cup tie on the Saturday. If that was drawn the replay in those days was in the midweek immediately following. Could you imagine a team nowadays playing six games in thirteen days with a squad of just 18 players??? All you needed was a couple of injuries or further postponements at a crucial time and you can see why a seemingly easy task on paper eluded so many British teams.

It is often forgotten that the Celtic team of the late 60s/early 70s not only won the European Cup in 1967 but also reached the 1970 final and twice lost in the semis in that era.

The Liverpool teams dominated a decade - it was once speculated on how well they would have done had they been able to enter the 1982 World Cup!

Given the resources they had at their disposal, Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest winning the European Cup two years running with a team of journeymen was a phenomenal achievement and one that I doubt will ever be repeated....unless of course you fancy Apoel Nicosia to win this year!!

Celtic 67
Liverpool 88
Man Utd 08

europe - real madrid 5 in a row

premier league - arsenal 03/04

what could have been - if roman didn't sack mourinho

personal - mourinho era 2004-07

1. REAL MADRID 1960

2. AJAX 1972

3. LIVERPOOL 1977

4. LEEDS UNITED 1974

5. AC MILAN 1989