who are the modern day characters and hard men of the premier league?

pgj2015

I dont watch the premier league much these days, part of the reason is there doesnt seem to be any real characters or hard men playing, no roy keanes, joey bartons, vinnie jones etc

are there many premier league players playing now that it might be worth reading their autobiography when they retire?

Strumms

Probably none, the rules and culture of the game have changed so significantly since those guys played. The rewards are so significantly more now too that it is literally paying to keep your feet on the pitch and your name out of the tabloids.

monkey9

Yeah, the way the game is these days, those type of players or characters don't really flourish at the highest level. You'll probably find them and great stories in the lower divisions or the likes of South America etc.

kerry37

pgj2015 wrote: »

I dont watch the premier league much these days, part of the reason is there doesnt seem to be any real characters or hard men playing, no roy keanes, joey bartons, vinnie jones etc

are there many premier league players playing now that it might be worth reading their autobiography when they retire?

Nope. Dont exist anymore. Every tackle seems to be a foul now. Lost count of the amount of good slide tackles I've seen, ball won and players up but ref gives a foul. Commentators go on about the follow through, his trailing leg etc etc but it's all bollocx. Also the amount of acting that goes on to con referees, players would rather feign injury than get up and get stuck in.

Costa was probably the last baastard player in the PL and even though I'm not a Chelsea fan, I miss watching him and his shiithousery. Him and Koscielny had a few battles but the kinda guy you're talking about doesn't exist any more.

~Rebel~

The mould for that role has just changed entirely... now it's players like Kante, and Fabinho, and Fernandinho, who can cover the ground quickly, go in hard, but win the ball clean and get attacks started immediately.

pgj2015

it really is a pity that them kind of players are gone now in the premier league, they were the kind of players who got a lot of people interested in the league in the first place. no one likes watching players dive and fake injury. i prefer watching league of Ireland these days, money hasn't ruined it like it has with the premier league, some tough players playing in it as well.

J. Marston

Mark Noble probably thinks he is a hard-man.

charolais0153

Milner? Glenn whelan?

riffmongous

pgj2015 wrote: »

I dont watch the premier league much these days, part of the reason is there doesnt seem to be any real characters or hard men playing, no roy keanes, joey bartons, vinnie jones etc

are there many premier league players playing now that it might be worth reading their autobiography when they retire?

I don't want to get a ban for player abuse but all those guys deserve some. It might be a pity there aren't many characters anymore but we don't need the kind of person who goes out to break another players leg

-=al=-

Mitrovic or Torreira is all I can think of and even at that they’re not that bad. Costa was probably the last villain

Fernandinho is great at fouling people and getting away with it

Different kind of hard lad these days!

Esse85

I wouldn't put Joey Barton in the same sentence as hard man.
Didn't he stub a cigarette in the eye of a 16 year old.
Scumbag yes, hard man no.

Schwiiing

Barton as soft as a bad Guinness ****e.

Hard men and ****housers will bow out with Ramos and Costa

Drumpot

I’d say this ref is harder then most premier league footballers

Trigger

charolais0153 wrote: »

Milner? Glenn whelan?

Whelan is in the Championship now with Villa, I wouldnt say Milner is in the same mold as hard men of the past but he doesnt take any shīt anyways. I'd put Kompany there with Milner too, the game has just changed so much these days though. There isn't even any crazy keepers like Lehmann around

monkey9

astradave wrote: »

Whelan is in the Championship now with Villa, I wouldnt say Milner is in the same mold as hard men of the past but he doesnt take any shīt anyways. I'd put Kompany there with Milner too, the game has just changed so much these days though. There isn't even any crazy keepers like Lehmann around

That's an understatement. I wouldn't class Milner as a hardman at all, he's just one of those who gets up when fouled and gets on with it. He'll put in a tackle as well, but no hardman.

If Milner's today's 'hardman', it probably answers the OP's question.

~Rebel~

monkey9 wrote: »

That's an understatement. I wouldn't class Milner as a hardman at all, he's just one of those who gets up when fouled and gets on with it. He'll put in a tackle as well, but no hardman.

If Milner's today's 'hardman', it probably answers the OP's question.

At least he matches the other criteria though, of being a bit of a character. Himself and Robertson seem like good craic.

monkey9

~Rebel~ wrote: »

At least he matches the other criteria though, of being a bit of a character. Himself and Robertson seem like good craic.

I wouldn't even agree with that in terms of the OP. Milner and Robertson aren't characters, not in what the OP is asking. They're just sound lads.

dundalkfc10

astradave wrote: »

charolais0153 wrote: »

Milner? Glenn whelan?

Whelan is in the Championship now with Villa, I wouldnt say Milner is in the same mold as hard men of the past but he doesnt take any shīt anyways. I'd put Kompany there with Milner too, the game has just changed so much these days though. There isn't even any crazy keepers like Lehmann around

Artur Boruc

~Rebel~

~Rebel~ wrote: »

At least he matches the other criteria though, of being a bit of a character. Himself and Robertson seem like good craic.

Huh?

Granted, he may not be as boring as the boring James Milner twitter character he inspired, but it's grim if he is being held up as a character or a hard man.

charolais0153

J. Marston wrote: »

Mark Noble probably thinks he is a hard-man.

https://youtu.be/9TGE9lkjMws
2.55 in this video :pac:

kona

Ander herrera a subtle ****housery merchant.

Lingard is another character imo.

League is better off sans gob****es like jones and duncan ferguson.

Schwiiing

Would have loved to have seen a bad tempered Classico with Keane, Vieira, Van Bommel, Vidic, Ramos, Costa, Gattuso and Pepe.

Skylinehead

pgj2015 wrote: »

it really is a pity that them kind of players are gone now in the premier league, they were the kind of players who got a lot of people interested in the league in the first place. no one likes watching players dive and fake injury. i prefer watching league of Ireland these days, money hasn't ruined it like it has with the premier league, some tough players playing in it as well.

I prefer the fake injuries and diving to the likes of Karl Henry, Dennis Wise, David Batty and Michael Brown making constant horror tackles and deliberately injuring people. Not ideal, but better than the alternative.

Iang87

Hard man or scumbags with zero regard for fellow professionals???

Op needs to clear that up

pgj2015

Hard men not scum bags, footballers who showed passion for their club and loyalty to the club. not even hard men but characters like robbie savage, paolo di canio, jimmy bullard, balotelli. most premier league footballers these days seem boring.

~Rebel~

pgj2015 wrote: »

Hard men not scum bags, footballers who showed passion for their club and loyalty to the club. not even hard men but characters like robbie savage, paolo di canio, jimmy bullard, balotelli. most premier league footballers these days seem boring.

Honestly, given most of those names, I'm happy enough without them!
Balotelli was a bit of craic alright at times (even if most of the stories were fictionalized), but the others... the less I hear from those lads the better.

Mr.Nice Guy

There are no modern day hard men because there's no modern day hard tackling. It's as simple as that, sadly.

Fronting up physically has been replaced by flopping to the floor. In-your-face aggression has been replaced by off-the-ball acting.

It used to be about gaining an advantage by leaving one on an opponent, risking a straight red in order to show who's boss. Keane on Overmars for example. Nowadays you gain an advantage on an opponent by trying to get him sent off via rolling around on the ground over a tackle that barely warranted a yellow.

I'm grateful that I was able to witness the final days of when football had a bit of fire to it.

thebaz

Burnley would have a few - but I guess in comparison to the old Crazy gang , they are tame

castletownman

Sokratis has the look of someone who could legitimately be a member of a Greek organised crime syndicate

Nixonbot

Nixonbot wrote: »

I prefer the fake injuries and diving to the likes of Karl Henry, Dennis Wise, David Batty and Michael Brown making constant horror tackles and deliberately injuring people. Not ideal, but better than the alternative.

Huh?

Batty? He was tough, but don't remember him "making constant horror tackles and deliberately injuring people" like Brown. He had to be tough, he began his career when footballing teams like Liverpool and Everton had a McMahon or Reid, while teams like ManU and Arsenal were better at brawling than football.

beertons

Phil Jones.

Skylinehead

Deleted User wrote: »

Huh?

Batty? He was tough, but don't remember him "making constant horror tackles and deliberately injuring people" like Brown. He had to be tough, he began his career when footballing teams like Liverpool and Everton had a McMahon or Reid, while teams like ManU and Arsenal were better at brawling than football.

No that's fair, he's not a Brown or a Henry tbf. Never liked the guy, probably why I threw him in there.

Nixonbot

Nixonbot wrote: »

No that's fair, he's not a Brown or a Henry tbf. Never liked the guy, probably why I threw him in there.

He seemed...dour. Read before he has a caravan in Scarborough and holidays there. Which is wonderfully grim.

pgj2015

Deleted User wrote: »

He seemed...dour. Read before he has a caravan in Scarborough and holidays there. Which is wonderfully grim.

caravan club:pac:


https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1DSGQ_enIE519IE519&biw=1366&bih=653&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=8aaJXML3KOqT1fAPr960wAk&q=caravan+club+jay&oq=caravan+club+jay&gs_l=img.3..0i8i30l3.1325.1932..2437...0.0..0.46.81.2......0....1..gws-wiz-img.......0i24.49MmYM5hMVA#imgrc=esXsrWh4FtnpyM:

keano_afc

Iang87 wrote: »

Hard man or scumbags with zero regard for fellow professionals???

Op needs to clear that up

This.

Vinny Jones was no hard man. He was a dangerous thug who went out to deliberately injure players.

beertons

beertons wrote: »

Phil Jones.

greendom

The less we have of the likes of Muscat, Hutton, Vinny Jones etc the better as far as I'm concerned. Players whose main attribute is their level of thuggery don't belong in the game.

Tomw86

There's still a few around - but nothing in the bracket of the late 90s early 00s. Reason being that the game has changed.

A lot more foreigners and more stringent laws on tackles (scissors tackles, two feet off the ground, etc) that now warrant harsher punishment.

To name a few in the league at the moment; Torreia, Herrera, Rudiger, Van Dijk, Kompany, Troy Deeney, Defour, Ben Mee, Coleman, Gueye, Wes Morgan, Robert Huth.

I've forgotten a lot but most aren't in the same league as the originals.

DeanAustin

I’d put Vertonghen down by today’s standards. He’s a filthy ****er who leaves a bit on opponents, will grab and pull and is not averse to going down easy if it suits.

I can’t believe people are lamenting the loss of Keane on Haaland, Vinnie Jones on Gary Stevens or Ben Thatcher on Pedro Mendes type stuff. Yeah real hard men. Scum the lot of them and the game is better off without that sort of thing.

LeBash

Im not saying there aren't more examples but this is the last one I remember of what I assume the Hard Man the OP is talking about without being dirty and no foul given.

https://youtu.be/pUcgq-HmK5s


For years the Premiership has been moving from a tackling midfielder to a guy who can intercept. The best example I can think of is Keane was more or less replaced with Carrick.

The Championship still allows a tackle and while I never watched it until my team ended up down there, I'll watch a championship game over a PL game any day now. The skill level isn't far off but the game is much quicker and less whistle blowing. There is play acting but I'd liken it to the same thing 15 years ago in the PL.

Wheety