City's greatest ever players

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Ric

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Back in 2009, I was asked by The Times to do a piece on the 50 greatest City players of all time (which you can view here). Obviously at the time the takeover had only just happened, so none of our current stars were included.

These lists are always subjective and you'll never get a proper consensus, but it'd be interesting to see how many of the current team people think would be on the list now. I guess you can never truly judge a player until they have left the club, but with rumours that Zabaleta and Toure could leave in the summer it feels like the natural cycle of the side that won two league titles is coming to an end.

Here's the list in full for ease of reference:

1. Colin Bell
2. Bert Trautmann
3. Peter Doherty
4. Frank Swift
5. Billy Meredith
6. Alan Oakes
7. Franny Lee
8. Eric Brook
9. Tommy Johnson
10. Neil Young
11. Mike Summerbee
12. Mike Doyle
13. Joe Corrigan
14. Ernie Toseland
15. Tommy Booth
16. Dennis Tueart
17. Joe Hayes
18. Tony Book
19. Sam Cowan
20. Horace Barnes
21. Glyn Pardoe
22. Roy Paul
23. Dave Ewing
24. Roy Clarke
25. Paul Power
26. Fred Tilson
27. Ken Barnes
28. Tommy Browell
29. Asa Hartford
30. Bobby Marshall
31. Willie Donachie
32. Peter Barnes
33. Paul Lake
34. Dave Watson
35. Shaun Wright-Phillips
36. Niall Quinn
37. Alec Herd
38. Uwe Rosler
39. Bobby Johnstone
40. Rodney Marsh
41. Johnny Crossan
42. Georgi Kinkladze
43. David White
44. Gary Owen
45. Denis Law
46. Richard Dunne
47. Shaun Goater
48. Don Revie
49. Max Woosnam
50. Kazimierz Deyna
 
Silva.
Aguero.
Toure.
Zaba.
Hart.
Kompany.

Would all be in my top 15 with the majority in the top ten.
 
Were watching Citys most successful ever team in a standard of league much greater when we were last successful. On that basis alone you could probably end up making a case for chucking around ten players into that top 50.

Silva, Aguero, Yaya, Zaba, Hart, Kompany, Tevex definitely and Dzeko, Barry would also probably eclipse the likes of David White, Richard Dunne for me.
 
That's a great peice, Ric, nice one.

Miffed not to see all the famous five on there, (Coleman appears to be missing) but 50 players throughout a lot of history. T'was always gonna be difficult not to miss anyone.

EDIT: While I agree that football is higher level these days, it's not fair to compare players from the different eras, in my opinon.

For example, I'm not of any doubt that David Silva is better than Colin Bell. Or Messi is better than Maradonnna. This is as close to fact as it gets, due to all the factors that must be considered.


The fair long and short of it... these players excelled, stood out head and shoulders above the rest of their peers, and were remembered long after they stopped playing. That's what it is to be a legend.
 
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