| Our best ever passer of the ball? 12:08 - Oct 16 with 11598 views | OakR |
I rarely watch MOTD , but I did watch this weekend and saw Kevin de Bruyne's passing masterclass - it was amazing.
So it got me thinking about who we've had with an unbelievable eye for a pass, and the talent to make it happen. It also helps having people make the runs, and clearly they often come hand in hand.
The only 2 I have in my mind that standout are:
1. Ray Wilkins. I used to sit in the Loft Upper, and watching him pick up the ball from the back and thread them through the middle for Ferdinand to run onto was something you could almost rely on.
2. Adel. I don't want to start another Adel thread, but again his ability to see a pass others couldn't, and make it work was amazing. At times his delivers and passes were unplayable.
Anyway, I have an awful memory - who have I missed? [Post edited 18 Oct 2017 11:29]
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| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 23:27 - Oct 16 with 2517 views | bosh67 |
Don Masson as others have said. Would have been a £200 million player today.
He saw a pass so early it would often arrive from a previous game. He passed like a time lord. |  |
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| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 23:34 - Oct 16 with 2514 views | DWQPR |
| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 23:27 - Oct 16 by bosh67 |
Don Masson as others have said. Would have been a £200 million player today.
He saw a pass so early it would often arrive from a previous game. He passed like a time lord. |
Totally agree. Great to see so many remember Masson as the player that he was for us. Would hit a sixpence from 50 yards. Cannot think of anyone in the modern game that has his ability. | |
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| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 23:38 - Oct 16 with 2512 views | ted_hendrix |
| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 21:46 - Oct 16 by blacky200 |
Yep have to agree with most on here. In my 40 years going its got to be Super Ray. On a side note about Ray, I remember a reserve game he was playing in as he was just coming back from injury. The ball goes out for a throw in and Dominic Iorfa picks it to take the throw. Ray shouts at him to wait and let ray take the throw. So Ray runs across the pitch and DI waits till Ray is about 3 feet away then throws the ball over his head straight to an opponent. Ray had a mouth on him that day  |
On a similar note way back when, we travelled up to Tranmere for a Friday evening game in the rain,
During the match we were playing towards our fans behind the goal and from the halfway line Wilkins put a lovely ball over the top and into space near the corner flag for the terminally useless Steve Slade to run onto, Slade never moved at all so Wilkins gave him a few waving arm gestures as if to say 'move your bloody self'.
Ten minutes later Wilkins made the same pass again only this time along the floor catching the Tranmere defenders out and the terminally useless Steve Slade who again failed to move, once again Wilkins let rip only this time verbally and the whole of Merseyside heard him, we lost 1-0, we usually did up there. |  |
| My Father had a profound influence on me, he was a lunatic. |
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| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 23:52 - Oct 16 with 2499 views | BazzaInTheLoft |
Joey Barton was a decent passer of the buck. |  | | |
| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 00:17 - Oct 17 with 2474 views | SydneyRs |
Wilkins all day, was like a puppeteer at times, just pulling the strings and running the show. That second half where we stuck 4 past Spurs, he was sublime. He also did it in the top flight unlike Adel who bossed it at championship level.
I thought Wilkins was over the hill when he went to Glasgow Rangers. I wasn't happy when we then signed what I considered to be a has been from them. He was incredibly good for us though, a class act. | | | |
| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 00:18 - Oct 17 with 2473 views | Boston |
| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 23:52 - Oct 16 by BazzaInTheLoft |
Joey Barton was a decent passer of the buck. |
oh deer | |
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| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 00:55 - Oct 17 with 2460 views | isawqpratwcity |
| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 00:18 - Oct 17 by Boston |
oh deer |
Doe |  |
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| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 07:22 - Oct 17 with 2409 views | ngbqpr |
Agree with all those nominated so far.
Used to have a lot of banter with my geordie father in law about Ray, "that bloke who only ever passes sideways & backwards" was usually his opening gambit...oh how I enjoyed that legendary 2-1 win at SJP, everyone remembers Les terrorising them (hence Keegan then signing him) and Stejksal's penno save, but Ray ran the show. "Super."
One of Faurlin's first starts was away at Stamford Bridge in the League Cup. We had the whole end, and I had a great seat, upper tier front row, pretty central. Perfect view of Ale standing about 30 yards out from our goal, facing our keeper (my memory says Tom Heaton when he was on loan?). Anyway, keeper fizzes the ball out to him along the deck at some pace, and he just let it roll up to him then in one move swivelled and hit a perfect 30 yard reverse pass out to our winger that completely threw the oppo. Sublime. |  |
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| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 18:55 - Oct 17 with 2334 views | PinnerPaul |
| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 23:34 - Oct 16 by DWQPR |
Totally agree. Great to see so many remember Masson as the player that he was for us. Would hit a sixpence from 50 yards. Cannot think of anyone in the modern game that has his ability. |
Often it was his first touch, followed by the uncanny knack he had of always facing the right way for the right pass.
Plus of course he seemed to have what all very very good players have/create - time! | | | |
| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 20:26 - Oct 17 with 2306 views | BostonR |
Was fortunate to see Don Masson - an absolute genius in midfield. He orchestrated that amazing 75/76 team and could pass equally with either foot. He also had a nasty streak in him-was never bullied out of games. |  | | |
| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 20:42 - Oct 17 with 2292 views | flynnbo |
Have to agree about Masson. Superb passer of the ball and wondered why nobody took a punt on him earlier in his career. Maybe he was lucky to have great players with him. Remember when Parejo was with us but he was surrounded by lesser mortals. |  | | |
| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 21:06 - Oct 17 with 2267 views | CliveWilsonSaid |
Wilkins for me. What's struck me most about this is that really aren't that many to choose from. We must have had some decent passers in the 80's? |  |
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| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 21:51 - Oct 17 with 2240 views | MrSheen |
Too young to see Don Masson. I agree about Ray. However, for pure technique, I used to love watching Richard Langley, the cleanest striker of the ball I've ever seen. Akos could play a bit, too. [Post edited 17 Oct 2017 22:40]
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| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 22:14 - Oct 17 with 2227 views | BazzaInTheLoft |
| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 21:51 - Oct 17 by MrSheen |
Too young to see Don Masson. I agree about Ray. However, for pure technique, I used to love watching Richard Langley, the cleanest striker of the ball I've ever seen. Akos could play a bit, too. [Post edited 17 Oct 2017 22:40]
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Richard Langley. Great shout.
Martin Rowlands not terrible either. | | | |
| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 09:33 - Oct 18 with 2127 views | headhoops |
Given all the comments on Masson is he already in the Forever R's club? Not certain if anyone has a list of its members?
If not he should be. |  |
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| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 10:28 - Oct 18 with 2110 views | BillericayR |
During he sixties everything good for me always came through Rodney Marsh.
But my father always mentioned that it was Les Allen that pulled the strings. | | | |
| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 18:24 - Oct 18 with 2017 views | PinnerPaul |
| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 09:33 - Oct 18 by headhoops |
Given all the comments on Masson is he already in the Forever R's club? Not certain if anyone has a list of its members?
If not he should be. |
'Think' he is but not certain | | | |
| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 18:54 - Oct 18 with 2009 views | qprphil |
| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 13:20 - Oct 16 by easthertsr |
Don Masson was the best passer I've seen |
Has to be up there with the best, it was a while ago so some may not have seen him. It's a shame for those that didn't see him though. | | | |
| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 21:52 - Oct 18 with 1978 views | enfieldargh |
| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 13:20 - Oct 16 by easthertsr |
Don Masson was the best passer I've seen |
yup, Don Masson for me too |  |
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| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 22:00 - Oct 18 with 1976 views | loftboy |
No one going for joey Bartons 50 hard Hollywood passes straight into touch!! |  |
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| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 09:05 - Oct 19 with 1890 views | BostonR |
| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 22:00 - Oct 18 by loftboy |
No one going for joey Bartons 50 hard Hollywood passes straight into touch!! |
Putting Joey Barton in the same sentence (in football terms) as Don Masson should be an imprisonable offence!
This has been a great thread and it's great to hear some glowing testament on just how brilliant Masson was. I cannot think of any current England midfielder that would be fit to lace his boots. Having said that he was Scotish - but you know what I mean. | | | |
| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 09:33 - Oct 20 with 1795 views | loftboy |
| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 09:05 - Oct 19 by BostonR |
Putting Joey Barton in the same sentence (in football terms) as Don Masson should be an imprisonable offence!
This has been a great thread and it's great to hear some glowing testament on just how brilliant Masson was. I cannot think of any current England midfielder that would be fit to lace his boots. Having said that he was Scotish - but you know what I mean. |
Went to school with his nephew, had a scrap with him a couple of weeks before leaving school in 1983 after he threw a brick at me the night before, he didn’t do it again. | |
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| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 09:58 - Oct 20 with 1781 views | paulparker |
in my time going to Rangers then it has to be Wilkins , It does my head in that people call him a crab , utter nonsense he was one of the best midfielders ive ever seen
he made Sir Les , Wilkins had a footballing brain he didn't need pace he knew where the players were running to and then he could play the ball and he could read the game to , when we smashed spurs 4-1 he ran the game , thinking back he really should have gone to the 1990 world cup instead of neil webb or steve McMahon ,
Adel also was brilliant ive never seen a player play so many great balls with the outside of his boot , he should be playing for real Madrid he is that good
a real joy to watch , it boils my p1ss listening to Arry go on and on about di canio and how he loves a maverick, well we had Adel you dopey pr1ck and you never played him
faurlin was good , he made football a simple game by the way he effortlessly passed the football, he had a wonderful left foot and again he had a footballing brain and like Wilkins he was always 10 yards in font of everyone else , such a shame about his injuries as I think he could have played sweeper for us today |  |
| And Bowles is onside, Swinburne has come rushing out of his goal , what can Bowles do here , onto the left foot no, on to the right foot
That’s there that’s two, and that’s Bowles
Brian Moore
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| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 10:13 - Oct 20 with 1771 views | BazzaInTheLoft |
I'm in my early thirties so only have Wilkins in the periphery of my memory, but it feels like he was slagged a lot at the time. | | | |
| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 11:43 - Oct 20 with 1743 views | blacky200 |
| Our best ever passer of the ball? on 10:13 - Oct 20 by BazzaInTheLoft |
I'm in my early thirties so only have Wilkins in the periphery of my memory, but it feels like he was slagged a lot at the time. |
I think Ray got a lot of stick from the usual uninformed tw**s that follow us. He had the crab reputation before he came and was one of the slowest on the pitch (hence why Ian Holloway got known as a headless chicken, running around, getting the ball, then passing it to Ray).I followed them home and away then and didn't miss a game for about 5 years. He was unbelievable (copyright Kammy) then.
His reading of the game was second to none. |  | | |
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