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Perfect Saints XI

Four Four Two magazine has done  a supplement of clubs greatest XI's read about Saints here.

the magazine has compiled a list of what supporters of each football club consider to be their best XI, the Saints entry is chosen by Christian O' Connell who appears to be a DJ and to be frank seems to have limited knowledge of the club judging by his picks and the comments he has made.

His team is as follows.

Peter Shilton

Jason Dodd, Claus Lundekvam, Neil Ruddock, Francis Benali,

Alan Ball, Nick Holmes, Glenn Cockerill, Jimmy Caee.

Matt Le Tissier Mick Channon

Manager Lawrie McMenemy.

Of course every Saints supporter would have their own idea about who they would pick and there wouldnt be many teams alike but to be frank I dont think many Saints supporters would put Ruddock or Benali in defence, nor Glenn Cockerill in the midfield whom O'Donnell also names as a hard nut !

But other untruths seem to appear, Shilton only just get Christians nod over Tim Flowers who is described as having played the most games in nets for Saints, firstly Flowers isnt the record holder for a keeper that would be Tommy Allen, to be fair i had to look that one up, but in more recent times its Eric Martin who pushes Flowers into third, but who uses the phrase "Nets" I ask you.

Then Francis Benali is desribed as having a curry house as 500 yards from the Den (Sic) Im assuming this is a publishers typo, but in any case the place in question was in Oxford Street some 1 1/2 miles from the Dell and certainly more than 500 yards even from St Mary's apparently this Curry house once belonged to Francis's dad.

Of course we are blessed with many great legends to choose from and much as i love Francis Benali, I would be hard pushed to pick him ahead of David Peach, Wayne Bridge or even Mark Dennis at left back.

Neil Ruddock ahead of Dean Richards, Dave Watson, Chris Nicholl, Mark Wright Ken Monkou or Michael Svensson to name but five.  

Simiarly Glenn Cockerill in the midfield ahead of such greats as Terry Paine, Steve Williams, Dave Armstrong and many more.

It seems that O'Donnell's choices come from who was playing when he was a kid in Southampton in the mid 80's onwards, only Mick Channon and Alan Ball are from before that era and no one from after it, he seems to have chosen just from those and thrown in Channon and Ball because they played for England so must have been good.

So what would your Greatest XI be answers below

        

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