WolfLing
Just doesn't shut up
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2016
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Comparing generations always creates far more heat than light. I loved Waggy and a host of others from late 50s and 70s, but before we get carried away with just how 'great' the likes of Richards, Bull, Wagstaffe, Hibbitt and so on and so on were, we should ask ourselves a simple question: "If they were SO good, how come they have but a handful of international caps between them?
Moutinho (admittedly mostly before he joined us) over a hundred, Patricio 107, Jimenez 104, Saiss 82, Neves 45, Jota 36, and of current crop Semedo 27, Sarabia 26 (and many on here thought both were rubbish!), Lemina 25, Cunha has 11 already for Brazil, Neto 5, Toti 1, Sa 1,
Yes - for England we had Billy with 105 and Ron with 49, Bert Williams 24, but also Jimmy Mullen 12, Bill Slater 12, Ince 53 (mostly elsewhere) Bobby Thompson 8, Bailey 2, John Richards 1, Hibbitt 0, Wagstaffe 0, Coady 10 (and of course throw in a few Welsh, Irish and Scottish players - but again few have many caps - apart from Hennessy (109) Dave Edwards (43) Dougan 43, Frank Munro 9.....
We have not exactly been blessed with many 'great' players over the years. In fact, the caps won whilst playing for us is pitifully small ... until recent years. So perhaps we should cut the 'younger element' some slack and allow them to hero-worship the likes of Rui, Raul, Ruben, Romain, Diogo, Nelson, Pablo and even Conor... And in future Joao and who else...? Bellegarde? Doyle? Who knows....
I think a lot has to do with how many English players there were back then. You can't pick them all.
We had a few like you say that were shoe-ins, but others that had hardly any caps.
Same happened in the 60's with United's great league and European Cup winning sides. They had great English players like Alex Stepney, David Sadler, Brian Kidd and Bill Foulkes, who only got a handful of England caps between them.
Nowadays, every top player is an international, as there are so many more competitive international teams, and so many more games.
I think judging any criteria based on international caps between eras is very difficult as a result.