Players who "embody" the club - Gone?

Lovely Bloke

Most clubs have one or two lads who are the "embodyment of the club on the pitch". Carragher and Gerrard for Liverpool, Terry for Chelsea, Scholes and Giggs for United, Puyol for Barca even.

Is the era of this kind of player gone? I can't really think of anyone younger at these clubs who is going to take up the mantle.

keano_afc

Fall_Guy

TheNinthGate wrote: »

Most clubs have one or two lads who are the "embodyment of the club on the pitch". Carragher and Gerrard for Liverpool, Terry for Chelsea, Scholes and Giggs for United, Puyol for Barca even.

Is the era of this kind of player gone? I can't really think of anyone younger at these clubs who is going to take up the mantle.

I think the likes of Fabregas and Pique, despite time away from Barcelona early in their careers, would fall into this camp. If Cleverley progresses and becomes a fixture in the United team I would look at him in a similar light too. Shelvey strikes me as a character at liverpool who has the sort of temperament that could see him becoming one of those sort of cult figures despite not being a strictly homegrown player.

gimmick

keano_afc wrote: »

Injury prone and over rated? Yup - that is the embodiment of Arsenal alright.

Ulysses Gaze

Casillas at Real Madrid is another.

Javier Zanetti is another (although he is not a one club man, or Italian, he is now part of the furniture at Inter)

Lovely Bloke

gimmick wrote: »

Injury prone and over rated? Yup - that is the embodiment of Arsenal alright.

Is Dan Murray FORAS's ?

gimmick

TheNinthGate wrote: »

Is Dan Murray FORAS's ?

Nope - George O Callaghan. He comes and he goes, but every remembers him and opponents are obsessed by him.

keano_afc

gimmick wrote: »

Injury prone and over rated? Yup - that is the embodiment of Arsenal alright.

Dont know whether to laugh or cry. No, I do. I'm going to laugh. You're right though, he's no Tom Cleverley.

WesternZulu

It's no conscience that most of the player names who get thrown about as ''embodying'' a club or cast as being a ''one club man'' are all players who play for the big teams.

The last player I remember who ''embodied'' a club was Matt Le Tissier.

missingtime

Totti at Roma?

mitosis

Marchisio - Juventus
De Rossi - Roma
Schweinsteiger - Bayern

GavRedKing

JT is our only one, a case can made for Lampard given what hes given to the club over the last 12 years or so.

Andersonisgod

Xavi Hernandez, all that Barcelona stand for embodied before you. Cesc Fabregas, Gerard Piqué and Sergio Busquets may well take that mantle in years to come.

Casillas and Sergio Ramos are perfect embodiments of Real Madrid.

David Albelda for Valencia is another good example.

Anyone

keano_afc wrote: »

Skillful player who will play for a number of years at Arsenal, win nothing, and sold on for a tidy profit?

elefant

I'm hoping Vicente Guaita or Paco Alcacer will be the next Albelda-type figures at Valencia. They both have the potential to be amazing players- hopefully the debt is now mitigated enough that they don't need to be sold.

Giggsy11

Is it only for a one club player? If not there are fair few who are from other clubs but looked home at current club (sort of like Cantona).

Lovely Bloke

Ah, Cantona certainly embodied United. No question.

the whole "We'll do what we want" and "Not arrogant just better" stuff. To a Tee really.

I find it bizarre how serious people are on here sometimes. If someone asked this question to a bunch of people in real life and someone started joking that Wilshere was injury prone and going to win nothing, people would laugh it off. Here though....

AdamD

Sacramento wrote: »

I find it bizarre how serious people are on here sometimes. If someone asked this question to a bunch of people in real life and someone started joking that Wilshere was injury prone and going to win nothing, people would laugh it off. Here though....

They said he was over rated and injury prone, which is nonsense really. One long term injury btw, one.

mike65

Ronaldo at Real Madrid! (flashy and rich)

Antonio di Natale must be one! A great player for Udinese who could have put in for a big transfer any number of times, seems to be a genuinely decent fella

WesternZulu

Forgot about Maradona and the city of Napoli.

Both mad, exciting, and dangerous!
They were the perfect fit.

klose

gimmick wrote: »

Injury prone and over rated? Yup - that is the embodiment of Arsenal alright.

He came back from a very serious injury like it was nothing and at his age is already a fantastic player, hes the next scholes/lampard/gerrard for englands midfield imo. Weather arsenal hold onto him is another thing, think hes said before he never wants to leave. I think its a fair suggestion

AdamD

AdamD wrote: »

They said he was over rated and injury prone, which is nonsense really. One long term injury btw, one.

Yeah I know what they said! It's clearly a wind up though, just laugh it off like. It's like a forum mentality or something, people don't react like this in real life.

GavRedKing

klose wrote: »

He came back from a very serious injury like it was nothing and at his age is already a fantastic player, hes the next scholes/lampard/gerrard for englands midfield imo. Weatherarsenal hold onto him is another thing, think hes said before he never wants to leave. I think its a fair suggestion

Yup, stormy and turbulent times ahead indeed.

carlop

WesternZulu wrote: »

Forgot about Maradona and the city of Napoli.

Both mad, exciting, and dangerous!
They were the perfect fit.

I think this is a great example, but a lot of the others above are just players who have played at a club their whole career, which isn't quite the same thing.

Xavi and Casillas are good shouts. Xavi is Catalan and his whole game is based around the way Barca play. Casillas is from Madrid and has that 'we are the gentlemen of football, everybody loves us' approach that is very typical of Real Madrid.

Lol at Ramos, if you told a Madrid shareholder that someone from gypsy heritage and Sevilla embodies their club they would cry.

Carragher is a very good one, and Maldini would have been too.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Sacramento wrote: »

Yeah I know what they said! It's clearly a wind up though, just laugh it off like. It's like a forum mentality or something, people don't react like this in real life.

I guess a big thing is that you can't hear the tone of it so you don't know if people actually believe it or not.

Xavi6

Micah Richards would be the one for City and the club are very proud of his development over the past decade, so much so that there's a bit of shrine to him at the Etihad documenting the various stages of his development -

TheDoc

On recent evidence I'm feeling a lot of bromance for Cleverly at United.

When a goal is scored he goes mental, and he is just outrageously industrious in the midfield and looks to give it his all. His tenacity for me is at present a pretty good embodiment of the club, and I have to say I was a doubter of his towards the start of the season.

Neil3030

Aston Villa..... constantly touted as a sleeping giant.... venerable position in English football history.... born in the bleakest, greyest and most miserable City in the country..... a generational inability to move off-the-ball.....

giant.... venerable.... grey..... slow movement....

A grey LDV van is pretty much all I can come up with:

Dozen Wicked Words

This fella has been with Northampton twice, played over 150 times and nearly averages a goal every other game.



Before him there was Ian Sampson, he played nearly 400 games and managed them for 2 years. Not many like him any more.

mike65

Long since retired but Steve Bull was the essence of Wolverhampton Wanderers.

BhoscaCapall

While completely true, saying Terry embodies Chelsea is a hilarious insult.

markesmith

Ledley King (not sure who the gawky lad beside him is )

Only one club, 1999-2012. Retired last year due to chronic knee injuries, the start of which he believes he suffered on his debut.

Henry said he was the best centre-half he ever faced. He only received eight yellows in his whole career.

3hn2givr7mx1sc

dooferoaks wrote: »

This fella has been with Northampton twice, played over 150 times and nearly averages a goal every other game.



Before him there was Ian Sampson, he played nearly 400 games and managed them for 2 years. Not many like him any more.

The size of that man's upper body is ridiculous!

Neil Lennon for Celtic I'd say is a decent one.

eh i dunno

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Lawrence1895

Michael Zorc, Borussia Dortmund. Always played for the club, now sporting director (or sporting manager, not sure about the correct translation)

Or Lars Ricken, even if he is not so high ranked in the club's backroom staff, youth scout, I think.

Those two guys never left their home town, even if they retired from their active duties

StephenHendry

gary neville -man utd
paolo maldini -ac milan

Lumbo

eh i dunno wrote: »

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I would have went with this lad :cool:

Didn't cost much money, was a pain in the hole for the opposition defences and dispite his lack of skill he never gave up.

Hank Scorpio

have to lol at wilshere being overrated

Seaneh

Obviously Milan have traditionally always had one or two players who've been part of the furniture for years whether they came from the youth teams like Maldini or were brought in when they were young like Costacurta. Right now there is Abbiati and Ambrosini who've been at the club for over 20 years each already and then the likes of Abate and Antonelli who've been at Milan their whole careers so far (besides loan spells away). Milan are known as having a real "family" feeling about the squad because there is always players who've been Milan from their childhood there to take people in and make them feel at home.

Hopefully the youth products like De Sciglio and young signings like SES, Niang, Balotelli and Gabriel can stay at the club for the next decade + and become part of the history of Milan being a "family" club.

3hn2givr7mx1sc

nuxxx wrote: »

have to lol at wilshere being overrated

Have to lol even more at people getting all agitated at a bit of fun.

Hank Scorpio

Yes, I'm very agitated

wandatowell

gimmick wrote: »

Injury prone

Hows that?

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Someone said Wilshere was injury prone in another thread recently (not jokingly).

It seems that for some people, injury prone means 'has had an injury at some point in their career'.

Moneymaker

This man.

Jesus Navas(Sevilla) and Angelo Palombo(Sampdoria) some lesser known examples but definitely apply.

IncognitoMan

Raul at real was one of the biggest ones. Even amongst all the superstars real were buying he was always their favourite

upandcumming

Digger for us. A great man.

1985–2009 Paulo Maldini with Milan, won everything he possibly could at club level. Loved his attitude and leadership as a player, great example of how a footballer should be while playing for one of the greatest clubs in Europe. Rolls-Royce defender

In England I loved Le Tisser, could have left Southampton numerous times but stayed with them. What he could have acheived if he was in the modern era when fitness etc is paramount.

Wolf Club

As an Arsenal fan I'd have to say Dennis Bergkamp. I'm a bit too young to remember the George Graham era (when Tony Adams probably would have been that player) but from what I can tell, if there is one player who embodies the transition Arsenal made from a big, physical team to one based around passing and skill, it is him. Universally adored by fans to this day (including Jack Wilshire, who cites him as his hero), I think he embodies the club more so than Henry, Vieira, or any of the other modern greats who have worn the shirt.

ROCKMAN

Keane for UTD.

Andersonisgod

carlop wrote: »

I think this is a great example, but a lot of the others above are just players who have played at a club their whole career, which isn't quite the same thing.

Xavi and Casillas are good shouts. Xavi is Catalan and his whole game is based around the way Barca play. Casillas is from Madrid and has that 'we are the gentlemen of football, everybody loves us' approach that is very typical of Real Madrid.

Lol at Ramos, if you told a Madrid shareholder that someone from gypsy heritage and Sevilla embodies their club they would cry.

Carragher is a very good one, and Maldini would have been too.

Ramos has been at the club since he was a teenager, heart, leadership, determination and the pride he shows for playing for both club and country certainly represents Real Madrid IMO.

Btw after a bit of research it turns out Ramos isn't a gypsy. It's simply a nickname given to him because of his love of Flamenco music.