Norman Hunter bite your leg end of thread
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I grew up with the Keane v Viera era battle and vaguely remember Vinnie Jones. I'm sure many of you would have been part of the dirty Leeds time with Bremner, Souness etc and a will few will remember other players who have not shied out of tackles.
Looking back there's been a dirty basward in every generation except this one. I can't really think at the moment of any football hardman playing now. The closest I can see is Pepe or Ramos but they're nothing compared to generations gone by.
Not saying it's a good or bad thing but the game has changed drastically over the last 20 years and will continue to do so with video reffing.
Norman Hunter bite your leg end of thread
Norman Hunter
Tommy Smith
Ron "Chopper" Harris
I know we tend to look at the "olden days" with rose tinted glasses, but those three would have Roy Keane for breakfast, phsychos the lot of them. With today's laws/refereeing they'd be sent off after about five minutes.
Don Murray.
Alan McInally
Dave Mackay
The game has changed so you can't have that type of player anymore or they'd be sent off every week.
Kyle Walker got booked last night for just being too strong in a 50-50 with the lightweight Lanzini.
Last edited by J R Hartley; 06-05-17 at 05:27.
Gary Medel ?
Another hard man from days gone by was Graeme Souness.
Not only that but he was one hell of a footballer.
Probably the most complete British midfielder of all time. My opinion only.
I always look at in the reverse, anybody can throw themselves into a tackle recklessly. The real hardmen are those getting hit time after time after time and getting up and playing on....Step forward Maradonna (he could lose it now & again mind!) and his country counterpart Messi...Hazard has a hard time of it as well but he like a little role around and sulk too much to be a hardman.
John Fashanu. Dirty bastard, he tried to end giggs career, only to end his own career, by trying to end giggs career
Plenty of hardmen/nutters mentioned but, as with lots of lists, most of the players mentioned so far are from the upper echelons of football. Here are a few that I can recall from a bit lower down the pecking order.
Eric Winstanley
It always seemed that the City never got much change out of Duncan Forbes and David Stringer of Norwich
Walter Bingley
Mark Dennis
I remember it being said in the Press that just saying the names of the Middlesbrough defence of the early 70s was like chewing iron filings- Frank Spraggon, John Craggs, Stuart Boam, Willie Maddren - a formidable lot when they were Div 2 Champions
Eric Skeels
Harry Cripps
Roger Hynd
Ian Ure was a fearsome centre half for Arsenal and, in the 3rd round FA cup tie v Arsenal in 1969, John Toshack got absolutely nowhere against him
I'm sure that there are plenty of others from the lower divisions that posters will recall
Also, Robin Friday, probably more of a psychopath than hard man mind you
Not necessarily a hard man but a huge lump who looked like a Hollywood bad guy.
Micky Droy of Chelsea who is described on Wikipedia as uncompromising.
Dennis wise. That midget could put it about a bit
Seemed to have less injuries back in the day though....or maybe it's just me
Billy Whitehurst got to be up there, the bloke was a total loon.
Trevor Hockey