This is what tracyc considers Pompey’s best 11.
MY ALL TIME POMPEY 11
There have been many legendary Pompey players back in the old days – the name Jimmy Dickinson should never be forgotten. But I can’t pick players that I know of only by reputation, I have to stick to those I know and remember and have seen play.
So this is my eleven.
GOALKEEPER
David James
He is simply the best goalkeeper that Portsmouth FC has ever had, and in all likelihood ever will have. Yes of course, not perfect, and he does have a penchant for the spectacular in his mistakes, but sometimes his saves are pretty spectacular too. Also an England international, who regained his England place whilst at Pompey, which is quite special too. This is not to dismiss the Legend that was Alan Knight, but James is world class. (I’d have Knightsie on the bench though).
LEFT BACK
Matthew Taylor
I must confess I struggled with this position. I realise Matty is better as a left-sided midfielder, the position from which he scored some superb long range strikes, however he did have the versatility of being able to play left-back as well, and this way I can also fit him into my team. Pity he never played for England, I always felt he should.
CENTRE BACKS
Sol Campbell & Linvoy Primus
From the 2006-2007 season when they made such a superb partnership in what was a very mean defence indeed. Over the course of his career, Sol is probably one of the finest central defenders in the country, and has been a fine captain for Pompey. Linvoy is a legend for Pompey, and the way he fought his way back into the side and formed that great partnership with Sol was sheer class. I think we all hoped he would come back from his knee op and force his way back into the side, but it seems it’s not to be.
RIGHT BACK
Glen Johnson
What an exciting prospect this boy is turning out to be! From a rather dodgy young defender who came on loan and kept giving the ball away, he’s turning into a world-class player, and regular England international. Not only is he an excellent defender, but his runs forward and occasional goals are fantastic. He has a glittering career ahead of him, I hope that a bit more of that yet is with us, but that remains to be seen.
WINGERS
Vince’n’Cally (Vince Hilaire and Kevin O’Callaghan)
They formed a formidable partnership running up the wings, and somehow it wouldn’t be right to have one without the other. I seem to remember (might be wrong) that at this time it wasn’t often the ‘done thing’ to play two wingers, but it worked for Bally with these two. There used to be such a roar when Vince got hold of the ball and started a run on goal. He was also good at diving, and used to get away with it because he was only little.
CENTRAL MIDFIELDERS
Lassana Diarra
Sheer class – what more can you say – and how we’ve missed him since his move to Madrid.
Kevin Dillon
Dill used to strut around the field as though he owned it – I guess he did really because he made it his own. And ‘deadeye Dillon’ could take a penalty too. We could do with someone like him in the team right now.
STRIKERS
Mark Hateley
I just caught the end of Mark’s Pompey career, in fact I’m not sure I saw him play for Pompey but I did see him play for England. There was something incredibly exciting about him – he was picked for England from the 2nd division (Championship in today’s money), and we sold him for a whole million (equivalent to about 30 million today probably) to AC Milan! Wow! I used to get in passionate arguments with Chelsea fans about whether he or Kerry Dixon should play for England.
Peter Crouch
Recent goal drought apart (thankfully over now), Crouchie is a class player who will always score goals. His super-tall gangly appearance makes people think you should just knock the ball up to him to header into the net, but in fact he plays the ball much better than people give him credit for – and he gets back to help out in defence too. He seems a really nice lad who seems genuinely to like being back at Pompey.
MANAGER
Not strictly part of the ‘eleven’ but I wanted to pick a manager for my team, and it is the legendary, late, great Alan Ball. A man of supreme passion, both for the game and the club. Because of his rather high-pitched voice you could hear his voice screeching out from the dug-out to the players. And his teams played with passion, and gave it all they could –never afraid to get ‘stuck in’.
PS – I’ve noticed that all but one of my eleven are English. I’m not sure why that is, it’s actually surprised me.
Selected by tracyc in March 2009.
No right or wrong…
Remember there is no ‘right or wrong’ it is the opinion of the individual who is selecting, people might not agree but it is their call, so lets respect this.
PLAY UP POMPEY!
Others to complete so far are as follows, click on them to check them out!
MikePTID … 007 … StuartM … stillthewhizz … Justin … Gleams … Pompeyscum … Highland_Pompey … Owenspompey … UKTony … linvoyforengland … knocker
