For me its Lakey no question about it.
You know when you're playing 5-a-side....and there's a guy who had a few trials for clubs when he was younger....and he's just a class apart from everyone else? He sprays the ball about, always has time in abundance, and strolls instead of huffing and puffing like the others.
Well that was Paul, only as a teenager and in one of the best leagues in the world.
His class, his poise, his vision....he was just on a different level to all around him.
Someone else has already mentioned the crying shame that he and Gazza never played in the same England midfield. I'd go further and suggest that, because these two magnificent talent's careers were either curtailed or hampered by serious injury, England's entire development suffered as a consequence for an entire generation.
We're talking about just two players here yet your entire footballing history could have been changed.
With Lakey and Gazza running the show England would have surely qualified for USA 94 for one thing. And Carlton Palmer would have recieved precisely the amount of caps his meagre talent deserved.
And going back four years it makes me kind of emotional to think of Paul amongst the finest England team since '66, playing alongside Robson and Gazza, surrounded by talents such as Barnes, Beardsley, Lineker and Waddle.
An already fantastic team enhanced further by the Colin Bell of the modern era.
The closest player to Lakey today is Rodwell. But Paul was in my opinion much better at a similar age. And its our duty as slightly older City fans to forever remind other supporters of just what they missed out on.
