Fastest player in Premiership history?

mirwillbeback

Was discussing this last night with the lads and there were a number of names thrown about - Theo Walcott, Marc Overmars, Thierry Henry, Tony Daly, Michael Owen, Ronaldo, Mickey Quinn ( :pac:)

All fast no doubt, but I have never seen a player with the pure pace of Agbonlahor at Villa. Was watching the game on Sat, and there was one stage where there was a pass that I was giving out about saying it was well overhit and gone out of play and he kept it in by about 2 feet.

Anyone agree or have other suggestions?

shoutman

Agbonlahor or maybe Bryan Roy.

Vokes

In a straight 100m sprint?

Probably one of Henry, Walcott, Agbonglahor or Martins I reckon.

newballsplease

Paul McShane !?

JPA

Dennis Rommedahl was pretty fast. Don't know if he was a fast as Gabby.

will1977

Aaron Lennon must be up there

daftdave

lovenkrands was saying in a recent interview that he can do the 100m in under 11 seconds , not sure if others are quicker but to me thats pretty fast , id have to say martins also , hes a rocket or ronaldo , ashley cole ???

wynters

Tony Daley / Ruel Fox

Evil_Clown

daftdave wrote: »

ashley cole ???

If you put some money in front of him he can run pretty fast alright !

LuckyLloyd

Obafemi Martins is the correct answer.

Samurai

apparently obafemi martins is faster than gabby

edit: Luckylloyd is faster than samurai

iregk

Laurent Blanc, Didier Deschamps, Dean Windass, Teddy Sherimgham. All absolute speed deamons....

mercuroman

Surely Robbie Keane - quickest London to Liverpool round trip


hangs head in shame...

eagle eye

Well Lloyd is not going to say that if its not true.

I was just thinking about Daniel Amukachi, he was the fastest I ever seen play live.

Pepe LeFrits

Ashley Cole isn't that quick.

LuckyLloyd

eagle eye wrote: »

Well Lloyd is not going to say that if its not true.

I'm not joking, when coming through the ranks at Inter he was feted for sprinter level pace.

Of course the only way you could ever be completely sure is to test out all players in controlled track conditions when they are fully fit.

So, Martins may not be the quickest. But the perception that he is the fastest top level footballer in the major European leagues is certainly out there - and has been for a while.

I mean, I'll concede that the way players are statted out in football games like Champo, Fifa, Pro Evo, etc is not conclusive proof of anything - but the guys who do that job consistently rate Martins as the fastest player around. Could be pure myth - or maybe it could be that there is no smoke without...etc.

keane2097

Kanchelskis was a fast fucker as well...

LuckyLloyd

lol Mitch Connor, us mods see all!

As I said, you couldn't consider it to be conclusive proof of anything - but the consistency of it is interesting nonetheless.

eagle eye

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

I'm not joking, when coming through the ranks at Inter he was feted for sprinter level pace.

Of course the only way you could ever be completely sure is to test out all players in controlled track conditions when they are fully fit.

So, Martins may not be the quickest. But the perception that he is the fastest top level footballer in the major European leagues is certainly out there - and has been for a while.

I mean, I'll concede that the way players are statted out in football games like Champo, Fifa, Pro Evo, etc is not conclusive proof of anything - but the guys who do that job consistently rate Martins as the fastest player around. Could be pure myth - or maybe it could be that there is no smoke without...etc.

I was being genuine Lloyd. I believed you. Thanks for the story by the way.

LightningBolt

In a 100m Rommedahl was rumoured (wiki - not so reliable) to have run 10.2 as a sprinter which is lightning quick. Henry supposedly managed to do it in just over 10.5 secs although it's based on what others have said on other forums.

In terms of acceleration over the first 20/30 Walcott i would imagine. Remember reading when him and Henry raced that he left Henry for dead over the first 30m but Henry still won over the 100m.

leninbenjamin

Vokes wrote: »

In a straight 100m sprint?

Probably one of Henry, Walcott, Agbonglahor or Martins I reckon.

actually, from what i've heard Adebayor is meant to be the fastest over 100 metres, or at least he beats Henry and Walcott.

in football though, it's not the full 100 metres that matters, it's the pace over the 10 or 20.

dare I say it, but people are forgetting the rest of the positions as well. certainly some of the fastest sprints i've seen were from centre backs and full backs getting into recovery positions. the likes of Clichy and evra are exceptionally quick too, they just dont get as much of an opportunity to see it. Ferdinand too can make up a lot of ground exceptionally fast.

pierrot

agbonlahor isn't even the fastest in the premiership at the moment, is he? nike did a study recently when they were advertising the new boots. remember reading that rommedahl could do 100m in 10 seconds when he came to charlton (and had 20/20 acc. and pace im CM), but couldnt cross for ****. Kanchelskis for old times sake

Quint

Gary Pallister was supposed to be the fastest over 100m at united:pac:

Vokes

Leaving aside straight sprinting ....

Agbonlahor is the current fastest on the ball / to the ball apparently: http://www.skysports.com/whoisthefastest/index.html

Looks to be sponsered by Nike tho, so pinch of salt and all that.

Nalz

will1977 wrote: »

Aaron Lennon must be up there

yep gotta be Aaron Lennon

~Rebel~

Djibril Cisse is lightning as well
I remember this bit of this at 40seconds in, just absolute lightning after he pushes the ball away so he can open up. Awesome video anyway, worth a watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DItKXDh12NM

redout

Fergie said Gary Pallister when asked by Usain Bolt on ManUtd.com about 3 weeks ago !

Dancor

I once heard that Ljungberg was faster than Henry at Arsenal.

Dont belive it though

keane2097

dancor wrote: »

I once heard that Ljungberg was faster than Henry at Arsenal.

Dont belive it though

This post made me lol due to its ridiculous pointlessness - well played sir

Bubs101

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

I'm not joking, when coming through the ranks at Inter he was feted for sprinter level pace.

Of course the only way you could ever be completely sure is to test out all players in controlled track conditions when they are fully fit.

So, Martins may not be the quickest. But the perception that he is the fastest top level footballer in the major European leagues is certainly out there - and has been for a while.

When he first went to Inter I think it was Mihilovic who used to just smash the ball ahead of him because he'd always outrun any defender on the pitch. He'd get my vote too

markesmith

Read an interesting article about a month ago on this - it was either Sunday Times or Observer (both class on football, btw).

Players mentioned were the usual - Agbonlahor, Lennon, Walcott...

Interestingly, Spurs' own David Bentley was ranked as fastest with the ball at his feet. Don't know where that came from.

I'd put Torres, Martins, Defoe and Cisse in there too. Would be class to see a race.

Actually, here's an interesting link:
http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/messageboard.aspx?mode=thread&TopicID=67963&page=1

Evil_Clown

dancor wrote: »

I once heard that Ljungberg was faster than Henry at Arsenal.

Dont belive it though

Think this came from a Wenger interview where he said that when Ljungberg was at Arsenal he was faster running with the ball than Henry

dyl10

I'm sure a few premiership clubs have some completely greyhounds who aren't up to Premiership footballing standard lying in reserve :pac:

Helix

aaron lennon was the fastest in the nike tests they did, agbonlahor second

Helix

dyl10 wrote: »

I'm sure a few premiership clubs have some completely greyhounds who aren't up to Premiership footballing standard lying in reserve :pac:

i can think of one or 2 who are in the first team too lol

Bounty Hunter

iirc Gabby was actually injured with Villa when the nike tests took place, doing it in the middle of the season was a bad move imo and i dunno if they are the same results linked above but i remember some mad inacuracies in them like one player maybe Lennon was a good bit quicker with the ball than without it and that makes no sense. From the sounds of things Martins is probably officiallly the fastest i.e probably clocked some record times at Inter but Gabby def plays like the fastest and i would actually prefer to see say Martins trying to outpace i defender playing for a team i support (in this case lets say Ireland) than Gabby who's pace has scared me before (both would skin em alive anyway if given enough space).

RichTea

Ryan Giggs as a youngster has to be up there. Greased bloody lightning!

Guy:Incognito

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Djibril Cisse is lightning as well
I remember this bit of this at 40seconds in, just absolute lightning after he pushes the ball away so he can open up. Awesome video anyway, worth a watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DItKXDh12NM

Pitty he had so much trouble with the ball though.

Maybe should have sidestepped into rugby league or the NFL.




Wonder how much success soccer am would have replacing the crossbar challenge with 100m sprints. Each team could put forward their top 5 or somesuch.

Raskolnikov

I always thought Rommedahl was fastest. He was supposed to be able to do the 100m in 10 seconds flat.

IvySlayer

JPA wrote: »

Dennis Rommedahl was pretty fast. Don't know if he was a fast as Gabby.

Rommedahl also took part in the olympics...who can beat that?

EDIT: I can't find anything to back me up, maybe it was a lie, but a good few sites said he did 100m in 10.1 seconds...

Second fastest: Matt Le Tissier

Neil3030

When Michael Johnson invited Gabby and Ashley Young to his sprinting camp this summer, was it purely a Villa thing or did he scout the whole premiership? As far as I recall they were the only two invited...

Juan Pablo

Nedum Onohua was a junior sprint champion prior to playing ball, I'd say he'd do the 100m fairly sharpish

eirebhoy

Soccer am teammates is a good guide as to who the fastest players at each club are. As far as I remember Ledley King was fastest at Spurs and Anelka at Chelsea. I remember those 2 as they surprised me.

hunter164

eirebhoy wrote: »

Soccer am teammates is a good guide as to who the fastest players at each club are. As far as I remember Ledley King was fastest at Spurs.

If he doesn't break something in the process.

Third_Echelon

Andrei Kanchelskis... He was lightening fast!

Seen him live a few times for Everton and that boy had pace to beat the band

K4t

Jaap Stam. I kid you not.

gosplan

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

So, Martins may not be the quickest. But the perception that he is the fastest top level footballer in the major European leagues is certainly out there - and has been for a while.

Translation: I'm basing this on accumulated Pro Evo ratings.

Helix

Neil3030 wrote: »

When Michael Johnson invited Gabby and Ashley Young to his sprinting camp this summer, was it purely a Villa thing or did he scout the whole premiership? As far as I recall they were the only two invited...

twas a villa thing

afaik we invited him over

Dempsey

I'd imagine completely different top 10's for out and out speed vs. sprint dribbling.

I'd reckon Robinho would be right up there on both counts

LuckyLloyd

gosplan wrote: »

Translation: I'm basing this on accumulated Pro Evo ratings.

What else do you want us all to base it on? It's a question that even the players or coaches probably couldn't give a definitive opinion on!

jdivision

didn't owen used to say that heskey could beat him over any reasonable distance? Might sound strange cos he's so slow over first few yards but maybe he kicks on after that