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Monday, May 25, 2009
Do I have your attention? Good. Now read on, splutter furiously, say "What about .x or . x" several times, call me a complete idiot who knows nothing about football and start penning an email.
The background: I work at Times Online which has recently run several spurious lists (because lists do well online) about The 50 best players for Liverpool, Chelsea, United and so forth.
I grew bored of the Big Boy lists and gently remonstrated with the Sports Editor, who promptly called the bluff and challenged me to produce a list of the 50 greatest Saints players, to be published online in August.
What fun. And what a poisoned chalice, because you know that nobody ever agrees with lists. Which is the point, really, so that you come up with your own, agreeing on some, disagreeing with many and eventually agreeing that each to his or her own.
But I did some basic research, on the way back from a game with Reggie and a few other London Saints, the debate ending up like an advert for Churchill Insurance. "What about Ivan Golac?" Ooh, yes. "Steve Williams?" Oooooh, yes. "Matthew Oakley?" Oooooooooh no. And so on.
Very quickly we came up with 50 and more nominations, written in the margin of a sports section on a discarded newspaper. Then I did more research at home, relying heavily - among other sources - on the excellent 'In That Number' chronicle of Duncan Holley and Gary Chalk to help with a fading memory.
That's when the fun started. I am 51 and my first league game was in January, 1967. I can recall Knapp, Paine, Hollywood, Melia and Walker.
Freddie Kemp (pictured) was my first hero: Martin Chivers my first hate for leaving to go to Spurs. I had also been to Tommy Traynor's testimonial (my Mum went out with him. Honest) and was aware of Derek Reeves' scoring feats. I knew Ted Bates used to play for us. As did Alf Ramsey.
But I never saw them play, so how to square their remarkable playing records, or that of Eric Day (422 games, 159 goals) with those of Le Tiss (540 games, 209 goals)? Which is why lists are divisive. You can't know, because you didn't see them play - and there are no videos or iPlayer. I have no first hand opinion, just my Auntie Laurette's, who used to lift me over the stile (and Mum's, but she was quite keen on Tommy Traynor.)
And so for pre 1945, well forget it. I know nothing of Bert Lee, who played for Saints for 15 years from 1900 - with a six year gap for the Great War - and who made 275 appearances for the Club. So this list, through practicality, really concentrates on the last 40 years. I've pulled together 98 greats and am looking to trim it to 50 in the next couple of months - with your help.
We'll post players by position here on the website and ask you to vote. Clearly the most recent players will be best known to the majority (some may even think Surman worthy of mention) but please take the list for what it is - a bit of fun with a half-decent attempt to reflect the best of Saints since 1945.
And let the site - and the newsletter - know what you think. Who have we missed that really deserves to be in the Top 50? Was Dowie really worthy? Or should Colin Clarke be in there?! The first batch - the goalies - are on the site now: vote for your favourite or let us know of any other nominations email: steve.keenan@timesonline.co.uk
We'll post the 50 chosen in the next newsletter (with the Editor's approval) and then maybe get a bunch of London Saints stalwarts together for a social evening to hammer out the impossible - putting the 50 in order of greatness.
In the meantime, have fun with the voting and let's wallow in nostalgia.
Because let's face it, there hasn't been a lot of un around recently.
