Which club has the best XI of players who aren't "theirs"?

I personally don't know off the top of my head any teams but I think this would be fascinating with lower level clubs.

Like Stockport County, I'm sure there's players in their past that went on to do some great things but most people wouldn't associate the players to Stockport.

I think when we're using top english/European clubs its much easier and less interesting.

My local club for instance Linfield

We had Tommy Wright & Roy Carroll
Dennis Violett
Wor Jackie Milburn
Grant mccann
Paul Dalglish
Kenny irons

I've kept it to players that's played championship and higher level in england. There's obviously many other players I could add but most of you wouldn't have a clue about.
 
Sheffield United. Very old school blood and thunder 4-4-2 (although some of the picks are underwhelming)

Ian Rush - Dominic Calvert-Lewin
Gary Speed - Vinnie Jones - Martin Peters - Jimmy Johnstone
Gary Naysmith - Paul McGrath - Steve Bruce - Kyle Walker
Andy Goram​



Fulham. Litmanen in midfield four and Smalling at right back... the rest of the team looks brilliant though

Dimitar Berbatov - Andy Cole
Cliff Jones - Jari Litmanen - Mousa Dembélé - George Best
John Arne Riise - Bobby Moore - John Heitinga - Chris Smalling
Edwin van der Sar​


QPR. Ended up less impressive than I've expected but hey ho

Peter Crouch - Trevor Francis
Osvaldo Ardiles - Ray Wilkins - Dani Parejo - Ji-sung Park
Kenny Sansom - Rio Ferdinand - Kyle Walker - Bosingwa
Júlio César​
 
Too lazy to bother with a full formation but udinesse could boast of having had the likes Alexis Sanchez, Bruno Fernandes, Thomas helveg and a certain Brazilian!

There needs to be some adjustments in the criteria in regards to south American teams as most would agree that post 1990s globalization the creme de La creme of south America has had spent the majority of their peak at Europe's assortment of top clubs and so their native institutions would breeze past almost all European clubs in this competition.

Sau Paulo foe example would see amongst its ranks kafu, kaka, casemiro, rivaldo and others!
 
harms said:
I didn't reply immediately since I couldn't decide on whenever you've mixed him up with Abedi in continuation of Invi's jest or not... yeah, Abedi was a great player and certainly not a forgettable one.
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Yeah I thought you guys were talking about Abedi :rolleyes:

Anyways...now that I think of it, if we do this for Milan we get a CB pair of Vierchowood-Stam :nervous:

They'd win games by default when all of their opponent's forwards picked up an "injury" or "illness" before the game :lol:
 
Parma would be a good shout, this team would never work in reality.

Buffon
Thuram Cannavaro Couto
Ancelotti Veron
Zola Stoichkov
Crespo Inzaghi Adriano


​
 
V.O. said:
Bit of an international break type thread in the spirit of talking about something other than the current disaster and/or impending future disasters. Idea nicked from here and here.

Which team can put together the best side made out of players that played for them but peaked elsewhere and otherwise just aren't really associated with that club? All pretty subjective of course, but I'd say a player can be associated with more than one club, so even though (non-fat) Ronaldo peaked with Madrid, he's obviously seen as a United player as well, so I wouldn't have him in a United XI.

Can anybody beat AC Milan?

Lehmann
Reiziger Bonucci Ayala Ziege
Vieira
Beckham Davids
Rivaldo
Ronaldo Baggio
​
Maybe Baggio is cheating a bit as he was there a couple of years, but I can't picture him in anything other than a Juve (or maybe Brescia) shirt at club level. If so, they could do a straight swap for Vieri or stick Essien in midfield and do a flat 4-4-2 with Davids on the left and Rivaldo up front. Stam wasn't there long, but it's too easy for me to picture him in a Milan top so he's out. It's also too easy to see past it Ronaldinho with his hair band and that.

I'd guess Madrid, Chelsea, or one of the other big Italian teams might be able to match or better it?
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Probably would have found a place in there for Ronaldinho as well.
 
Squeaky_Bum_Time said:
Premier league winning fullbacks in a 4-4-2 (no woke nonsense formations)

Valdes
Simpson - Pique - Varane - De Laet
Di Maria - Casemiro - Bastian - Zaha
Ibra - Falcao
​
Bench: Owen, Cavani, Larsson,Smith

Lots of strikers. Does RVP qualify too?
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Viv Anderson RB
Giles CM
 
Everton were one of the first clubs that came to mind.

Nigel Martyn
Ashley Young - Joleon Lescott - John Stones -Gareth Barry
Theo Walcott - Paul Gascoigne - Wayne Rooney - David Ginola
Gary Lineker - Samuel Etoo
 
---------------------Stekelenburg----------------------
Jacobsen-----Zouma---Dier--------Robinson
-------------------Allan----------Barry-------------------
Kanchelskis*-----------Rodriguez---------Eto'o
--------------------------Rooney*--------------------------

*Perhaps those two can't be included but if not then you can swap for Lennon / Lineker.

Tried to think of players I actually remember watching/I was alive for!

​

 
Hibs

Alan Gordon - Steve Archibald - George Best
John Collins - John McGinn - Ray Wilkins - Scott Brown
Efe Ambrose - Frank Sauzee - Mathias Jack
Andy Goram​
 
Gazza said:
Chelsea... playing a 2-3-5 formation

Thibault Courtois
Marcel Desailly
Thiago Silva
Kevin De Bruyne
Juan Sebastian Veron
Scott Parker
Mohammed Salah
Fernando Torres
Samuel Etoo
Romelu Lukaku
Andriy Shevchenko

I originally included Vialli but he became a bit of a Chelsea legend I guess... They're spoilt for choice there with Mark Hughes and Pierluigi Casiraghi there too
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Could put in Robben as well, though he was obviously good at Chelsea.
 
And Felipe Luis, Cuadrado, Higuain, Belletti, Brian Laudrup, Sterling, and probably some others.

Hell, Zola probably didn't play his best football at Chelsea in his thirties, but he's he's certainly identified with them more than any other club (outside of Italy, al least). Likewise Jimmy Greaves, I'd imagine, in a very different manner. (I know next to nothing about him as a player, though).
 
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Rather depressingly this is just the entire Red Bull group's business strategy isn't it?

Lacks the glamour and glory of other entries...and a goalkeeper, but otherwise this season a team lining up with all of these would be seen as one of the best on the continent.

Josep Martínez

Mukiele Konate Upamenco Gvardiol

Kimmich Szoboszlai Olmo

Lookman Sorloth Nkunku
 
Atletico would be in with a strong shout, they've had a good mix of selling rising stars off before their peak and bringing veterans back who still have some juice in them.

Courtois

Azpilicueta Demichelis Alderweireld Theo Hernandez

Valeron Rodri Schuster

Suarez Aguero Hugo Sanchez

That's leaving out Albertini, Baraja, Vieri, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Mandzukic, Capdevila, de Gea, Trippier, David Villa, Solari, Thiago Motta, even Santiago Bernabeu himself.
 
Atalanta (4-2-4)

GK: Rui Patricio
RB: Juan Cuadrado
CB: Gaetano Scirea
CB: Paolo Montero
LB: Antonio Cabrini
CM: Alemao
CM: Demetrio Albertini
RW: Angelo Domenghini
ST: Christian Vieri
ST: Giuseppe Meazza
LW: Roberto Donadoni

Other Options: Trevor Francis, Karl Aage Hansen, Jose Herrera, Franck Kessie, Humberto Maschio, Cristian Romero, Lionel Scaloni, Martin Skrtel, Alessio Tacchinardi, Mario Yepes

Real Zaragoza (4-2-2-2)

GK: Jose Luis Chilavert
RB: Cafu
CB: Gerard Pique
CB: Roberto Ayala
LB: Andreas Brehme
CM: Frank Rijkaard
CM: Ander Herrera
RCAM: Ruben Sosa
LCAM: Ivica Surjak
ST: Fernando Morientes
ST: David Villa

Other Options: Pablo Aimar, Fabio Coentrao, Kily Gonzalez, Shinji Kagawa, Faryd Mondragon, Diego Milito

Sevilla (4-2-3-1)

GK: Rinat Dasayev
RB: Dani Alves
CB: Sergio Ramos
CB: Gary Medel
LB: Alex Telles
CM: Diego Simeone
CM: Robert Prosinecki
RW: Daniel Bertoni
AM: Diego Maradona
LW: Samir Nasri
ST: Bebeto

Other Options: Ciro Immobile, Josimar, Seydou Keita, Erik Lamela, Lauren, Javier Saviola, Ivan Zamorano

Espanyol (4-2-3-1)

GK: Roberto Fernandez
RB: Pablo Zabaleta
CB: Eric Bailly
CB: Martim Demichelis
LB: Joan Capdevila
CM: Ivan Helguera
CM: Alfredo Di Stefano
RW: Marco Asensio
AM: Laszlo Kubala
LW: Zoltan Czibor
ST: Samuel Eto'o

Other Options: Steve Archibald, Pablo Cavallero, Steve Finnan, Mustapha Hadji, Cayetano Re, Hector Rial, Pierre Wome
 
Squeaky_Bum_Time said:
Premier league winning fullbacks in a 4-4-2 (no woke nonsense formations)

Valdes
Simpson - Pique - Varane - De Laet
Di Maria - Casemiro - Bastian - Zaha
Ibra - Falcao
​
Bench: Owen, Cavani, Larsson,Smith

Lots of strikers. Does RVP qualify too?
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Without thinking too much about this you could probably also add Laurent Blanc and Tevez in there and convert to a woke formation
 
Oranges038 said:
Parma would be a good shout, this team would never work in reality.

Buffon
Thuram Cannavaro Couto
Ancelotti Veron
Zola Stoichkov
Crespo Inzaghi Adriano


​
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Parma is a good shout in that it isn't entirely "fantasy".

Buffon, Thuram, Cannavaro, Verón and Crespo provides the foundations of a real life spine which you won't see in many of the other random assortments of famous journeymen.

You can add Panucci at RB, Carboni at LB and Paulo Sousa in midfield to balance that out.
 
Not the best ever, but probably best City XI.

------------------------------Schmichael------------------------------
Maicon--------Boateng-----------------Savic----------Clichy
---------------------------------Hamann---------------------------------
------------------------Lampard---Vieira-----------------------------
---------------------------------Robinho---------------------------------
-----------------------------Law-----Weah------------------------------

Bench: Kancheslskis, Anelka, Trevor Francis, Sagna, Andy Cole, McManaman
 
padr81 said:
Not the best ever, but probably best City XI.

------------------------------Schmichael------------------------------
Maicon--------Boateng-----------------Savic----------Clichy
---------------------------------Hamann---------------------------------
------------------------Lampard---Vieira-----------------------------
---------------------------------Robinho---------------------------------
-----------------------------Law-----Weah------------------------------

Bench: Kancheslskis, Anelka, Trevor Francis, Sagna, Andy Cole, McManaman
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I'd pick Kazimierz Deyna over Robinho
 
harms said:
Gullit ---------- van Nistelrooy ---------- Robben
Romário ------- L. Ronaldo
Cocu ---------- Lerby
Branthwaite -------- Alex ------------- Stam
Menzo

​
PSV aren't half bad! You have to go with the 1950's formation but still...
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Not sure about one or two positions but this seems VERY hard to beat.
 
Acrobat7 said:
Not sure about one or two positions but this seems VERY hard to beat.
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What's crazy is that a lot of them were actually close to their peak.

Ronaldo would certainly improve in some areas over the next 2 years at Barça and Inter but he was already pretty much a finished product at the mere age of 18.
Romário came there at 22 and spent 5 seasons... which maybe disqualifies him from the team, actually, even though in my mind and in a mind of a regular fan, I'd imagine, he'll always be associated with Barça first and foremost (well, with Brazil first and then with Barça, at least from his European career). Both scored at a rate close to a goal per game — even with Romário's broken leg in that time period.
Gullit was arguably the best player in the world at PSV... alright, the best player in the world not named Diego Armando Maradona. His Ballon d'Or (and the world record-breaking transfer to Milan) was mostly earned in the Netherlands.
Same for van Nistelrooy — I'm not sure if he had gotten that much better at Manchester United individually, he just got more exposure. He was also more mobile before that knee injury that almost cost him his dream move (thank God it didn't!).
With Stam, I'd say, it was similar to Ruud... already a world-class player at his physical peak but struggling a bit due to the relative underexposure of the league.

Robben doesn't quite cut it, he was an amazing talent but not one of the best players in the world, I think only at Chelsea he steadily started to establish himself as one... before finally reaching his incredible peak fairly later at Bayern.
Lerby was past his prime but still instrumental in their treble-winning campaign.
Cocu was arguably even more impressive individually at PSV than at Barça due to having more attacking responsibilities (16, 9 & 17 goals in his three seasons there... as a central midfielder) — and still playing a key role after his eventual return.

The rest are just placeholders though.
 
Inter Miami? Should have a few goals in them at least..

Gonzalo Higuaín - Luis Suárez
Lionel Messi

?? - Blaise Matuidi - David Beckham
Sergio Busquets

Jordi Alba - Javier Mascherano - Kieran Gibbs?
??
 
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