a.foley, in regards to Owen are you solely talking about his form at international level or club level as well. International level he has scored 24 goals in 44 starts. With all things considered he will no doubt go on to break Sir Bobby Charlton’s record for number of goals scored by an England player. I don’t know if "that goal" against Argentina is all he ever did. Certainly it propelled him into the limelight and gave him time to establish him as one of the most feared international strikers in the game. Unfortunately for Liverpool fans he is not reproducing that form for his club.
Hargreaves at 6 starts has not done enough to credit that he "performs" for England. In the games he has played he has looked useful enough. Energetic, hard working, but one that I would not look to for a great contribution to England’s success this summer. David Seaman Retired after the world cup blunder with Ronaldinho. At his peak, "safe hands" was a vital part of England’s national team, however seeing as he has retired I did not consider him for a "performer" Sol Campbell I think is a good shout, the big man is a world class centre back that took a little time to settle in the England ranks, but would have to agree that he is among the "performers". Gary Neville? erm, not so sure Gary should be playing professional soccer at all. Average at best, and for the lack of England producing any full backs of note lately he makes the squad from his experience, in my opinion definitely not a "performer". Ashley Cole, he is a strange kettle of fish. Wonderful going forward, but couldn’t defend one on one as long as the pope is a catholic. Would rate him as a very frustrating player, with international soccer’s room for error marginal, he may be suited to a more forward position, in front of a left back that can defend (NOT Wayne Bridge). You mentioned the fact about Scholesy’s abysmal scoring record in comparison to his club form. Add to that poor record, poor performances and I hope you would see why he did not count as a “performer” in my opinion.
I’m not sure if George Best was ever the greatest to play the game, Pele said he was, so who knows. My personal opinion would be Garrincha. I do take an issue with the “highlights.....against mediocre teams” comment. Best scored 115 goals in 290 games for united, yes some were against weaker opposition. However (in 1964-65) others like the 2 he scored against a Benfica side who had not been beaten at home for 19 games in the European cup, would surely not be called mediocre. This side including current (at the time) European footballer of the year Eusebio. And again to beat a Benfica side in the 1966 final with arguably one of the finest goals ever scored in European cup history. At that time Benfica were appearing in their 5th European final in 8 years. So I’m not sure even though he didn’t play in a major international tournament that you can just dismiss his contribution to World soccer and possibly being the best that ever was. Maybe in fact it is a tribute to his sublime skills that people talk about him in the same breath as Pele, Maradonna and Cruyff, all of which had the world cup to shine.
