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Post by scriptman on Jun 16, 2008 18:57:27 GMT 1
For those of you around to see George Best....and for those who weren't for that matter, what are your thoughts? I personally believe that a lot of what has been said about the man over the years, especially by the media, has been very Beckham(esque) in the over-the-top appraisals. In the same era, I can recall layers like Eddie Gray, Charlie George, Tony Currie, Frank Worthington...all of whom, in my opinion, were equally as good if not better. I'm not saying Best wasn't a good player. It's just i don't think he deserved the same kid of accolade bestowed upon the players like Pele and Maradona.
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Post by aussieowl on Jun 16, 2008 22:55:00 GMT 1
Have to disagree with you there scriptman....................for me, Georgie boy is the best ever, slightly ahead of Pele.................Best had everything a footballer could want.............the reason i put him ahead of Pele is that the Brazilian was a bit lazy, Best worked his socks off, getting back to defend & tackling...............he didn't cheat, didn't dive & took some tackles that defenders would be banned for life for these days......................yes i know he didn't play in a World cup but that wasn't his fault........imo had he been South American or Italian or the like there would be no doubt today who the greatest player of all time is.
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Post by exiledwhite on Jun 16, 2008 23:39:13 GMT 1
I'm with the aussieowl on this one scriptman.......
Never saw him play in the flesh (or with clothes on for that matter) but from the old footage I've seen on the tele he looked a class act. Would never stop fighting and throwing himself in there, skill in abundance and could score with most parts of his body (ask the women)....
....don't know if he was better than Pele and Maradona etc but he is definitely to be mentioned in the same breath as these sort.
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Post by scriptman on Jun 17, 2008 0:24:56 GMT 1
I think the legend of George Best and the aura if you like, what was about him...were far greater than his talents as a player....and what is said about him is clouded in sentimentality. What we saw on television were the highlights. If you put up an hours worth of George Best, followed by an hour of Thierry Henry and then Matthew Le Tissier....I'll pretty much guarantee that there won't be much between them.....yet one of them has gone down in the annals of history as being one of the greatest players ever to walk this earth. The media made George Best into a superstar...and his off the field antics, as once being described as the fifth Beatle.....ensured he could do no wrong on the football field. I can recall once when Best was getting no change from Johnny Giles, and so he flapped his arms at the crowd as if to say Giles was out to maim him. It wasn't true...Best gave as much as he took, but the papers the next day portrayed Best as a victim of the devil himself. I do have my prejudices...not least that I have always loathed Man U above any other......and maybe it is I who was/is in fact refusing to acknowledge the genius tag...others bestowed upon him. It's all about opinions....and I do respect the both of yours.....but I've yet to be convinced the man is in the same league as Pele, Maradona, Eusébio, or Cruyff.
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Post by foo on Jun 17, 2008 8:26:57 GMT 1
I've seen clips of him play, as i'm much too young to remember him in the day, eh'hem... and I have to say, I think he was the best player ever.
I personally couldn't stand him because of his behaviour off the pitch, and was disgusted when he started drinking again after his liver transplant; so it really pains me to say he was the best footballer...but I think he was...he also wasted his God-given talent.
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Post by aussieowl on Jun 17, 2008 8:57:21 GMT 1
Unfortunately foo i AM old enough to have seen him play...3 times.........i think a lot of people don't/didn't like the man, as you say because of off field antics, from the 5th Beatle thing to his drinking & seemingly unforgivable "waste" of his transplant...the disease he had was real enough & unless we experience it we don't know how hard it is to cope with...............for me though he was the greatest player ever.
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Post by scriptman on Jun 17, 2008 12:13:48 GMT 1
.....for me though he was the greatest player ever. He would have never got into the Donny Rovers team of 1973 though
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Post by foo on Jun 17, 2008 13:19:13 GMT 1
I know what you mean aussie...don't pass judgement until you walk a mile in their shoes...But I can't help thinking, what a smack in the face of the liver donor's family when he started drinking again. If I was that person's mother, I would have been insulted and furious that my loved one's organ could have gone to a more deserving person who didn't waste it.
Being addicted to a substance must be terrible...but I find it very hard to sympathise with george Best, 'cos he had a choice, and his choice was to drink excessively.
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Mike
Conference
Posts: 6
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Post by Mike on Jun 17, 2008 13:41:34 GMT 1
Georges private life is another matter. The original post was about how he was over rated I believe. You could not rate this man as a player, there was no comparison (unless you talk about John Charles? aho was something else) with any other and certainly Beckham doesn´t merit being mentioned in the same breath. George was a genius and unfortunately genius is often flawed.
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Post by scriptman on Jun 17, 2008 14:16:10 GMT 1
shelfstacker
You're a Leeds..... what was it that George Best possessed that someone like Eddie Gray didn't? Like I said on another thread...I did see Leeds a few times in the 1970s, and I saw Eddie Gray skip around defenders before the defenders had time to stick a foot out. Granted Gray was never a prolific goal scorer but I doubt very much if there's a player in the last 45 year of football who has created as many goals as Gray. Best wasn't an orthodox winger...he was more a second striker...not dissimilar to Kenny Dalglish.. but without checking I should imagine Dalglish's goal scoring record would far surpass that of George Best. The truth is, George Best was the darling of the media. I'm not disputing the fact, in any way, shape or form that Best wasn't a fantastic player, but there's bee a few fantastic players...who I believe were equally as good, who have not been awarded the iconic status Best enjoyed.
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Post by mikelufc on Jun 17, 2008 14:26:40 GMT 1
shelfstacker You're a Leeds..... what was it that George Best possessed that someone like Eddie Gray didn't? Like I said on another thread...I did see Leeds a few times in the 1970s, and I saw Eddie Gray skip around defenders before the defenders had time to stick a foot out. Granted Gray was never a prolific goal scorer but I doubt very much if there's a player in the last 45 year of football who has created as many goals as Gray. Best wasn't an orthodox winger...he was more a second striker...not dissimilar to Kenny Dalglish.. but without checking I should imagine Dalglish's goal scoring record would far surpass that of George Best. The truth is, George Best was the darling of the media. I'm not disputing the fact, in any way, shape or form that Best wasn't a fantastic player, but there's bee a few fantastic players...who I believe were equally as good, who have not been awarded the iconic status Best enjoyed. Let me answer for Mike who is indisposed Technically Eddie was as good as any including GB and Maradonna etc. But he was lazy, if he had worked like George who knows: He was absolutely brilliant to watch when the mood took him, you can find stuff on Youtube sometimes but not necessarily his best (sic) stuff. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkd3HWQu32Q
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Post by mikelufc on Jun 17, 2008 14:28:54 GMT 1
"The truth is, George Best was the darling of the media."
It appears you feel about George the way I feel about beckham
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Post by scriptman on Jun 17, 2008 15:02:51 GMT 1
I think it's a good comparison though Mike....but George Best used to drink with journalists...so things could hardly be impartial and unbiased.....Beckham has them in his pocket.
Drifting off topic a tad, did you know Beckham owns his own image rights? Every time we see him in papers, magazines, or on the television it has to be sanctioned by his team of PR gurus. I doubt if it counts for live matches... but I think it counts for edited highlights. I was once listening to Talksport, and they suggested that Beckham had a say in what was shown on television highlights of the England versus Greece game a while back regarding himself........and so we got to see him score a last minute free kick... but failed to see the half dozen other freekicks he toatally wasted.
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Post by scriptman on Jun 17, 2008 15:08:53 GMT 1
Brilliant clip that.......but I wasn't aware Gray was Lazy. I knew Duncan McKenzie was....and he could have been one of the world's greats. Eddie Gray, for me, was one of the best players I have ever seen play. I also used to like the guy from Nottm Forest John Robertson..... and of course my first footballing hero Alan Woodward.
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