11 months ago
156 It’s not very often you hear Gary Neville praising players from all of Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool.
However, when naming his top 10 centre-backs of all time in the Premier League, he did exactly that.
Neville was talking on the ‘Stick to Football’ podcast in an episode that included Jaap Stam as a guest – who was then a shoe-in for the list.
But Neville also named two Arsenal centre-backs from the Arsene Wenger era, as well as two PL winners from recent Man City and Liverpool sides.
Neville said: “The best centre-backs in Premier League history. I am going Vincent Kompany, John Terry, Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Jaap Stam, Steve Bruce, Gary Pallister, Tony Adams, Sol Campbell and Virgil van Dijk.
“There’s 10 off the top of my head.”
And despite what Vincent Kompany may protest, I don’t necessarily think that was in any particular order.
However, as a right-back in his day, Neville would have been pleased to play alongside any of those names, many which he did.
And perhaps it is most interesting to now imagine who will be the next 10 centre-backs on that list.
Gary Neville names centre-backs from Arsenal, Liverpool, United and City in best of all time list
An obvious place to start is William Saliba.
A stalwart of the Mikel Arteta era, Saliba will now hope to lift trophies with Arsenal to cement his reputation as one of the world’s best.
Perhaps Ibrahima Konate is the next candidate for Liverpool, but he still has a ton of progress to make in order to reach Van Dijk’s heights.
Moreover, Lisandro Martinez is probably in the same boat, a very promising player for Erik ten Hag’s United, but one who needs better stability around him to succeed.
It’s certainly an interesting debate, and it would be interesting to hear who Gary Neville would name himself looking to the future from Arsenal, Liverpool and United.
Perhaps it’s a little easier to choose from Manchester City’s back line, one already primed for the future under Pep Guardiola.
Josko Gvardiol could easily go on to be a Premier League great.
And with three Premier League medals already to his name, it’s pretty remarkable to think Ruben Dias is still only 26-years-old.
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