The League Doesn't Lie
Post categories: Football ramblings
|15:40 UK time, Thursday, 11 October 2012
After El Clasico last weekend we've spent a lot of time in the office this week discussing Lionel Messi: The greatest player ever?
Certainly the greatest current player. Or is he? Cristiano Ronaldo puts a spanner in that sentence. Two goals each on Sunday is just the tip of the iceberg. "It should be forbidden to say who is the best in the world because these two are from another planet," said Mourinho. And who are we to disagree? They certainly are a joy to watch right now.
If we are debating the greatest ever player how can you compare Ronaldo to Johan Cruyff? George Best ( who Pele has said was the greatest ever player) to Van Basten?
And so we have the basis of our new book: The League Doesn't Lie. In it we've taken the most debatable topics from the world of football and selected our top ten in each category.
While it took hours and hours of research writing the book was actually amazing fun to write. The random facts we discovered along the way... like the footballer who got five red cards in one game (most disruptive players), the 25 year old from Bristol who managed an international team (youngest managers), the goalie who had to urinate on the pitch before a World Cup penalty shoot out (most bizarre behaviour). And then the chapters that any football fan can discuss all day long - Best services ( Watford Gap*), best away trips (Craven Cottage or Anfield*), worst kits ( Arsenal 1991*).
If we rewrote The League Doesn't Lie tomorrow many of the lists would be argued over for hours more in the 606 office and, quite likely, changed. Is there really a definitive greatest ever goal? We've argued the case as best we can but if we had to put it to the vote in the 606 office and are still debating it now, then we're sure you will have your own top ten which will differ And we'd have to rewrite it every week to keep the worst tweets chapter up to date!
So Tito Vilanova says we don't know Messi's limits and if we wrote the book in ten years time the evidence is pretty much that Messi would be number one, but has he done enough to secure top spot this time round?
* my views only, not necessarily the number ones in the book!
The League Doesn't Lie was published on 1st October by BBC Books and is available online and in bookshops.
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