Posted this over at Toontastic so thought I may as well do the same over here. 

Fancied starting a topic that I thought would be a quite interesting one to talk over, especially with a lot of you folk being older than me and having more of an insight if you will.

Being only 5 at Italia '90 don't really remember seeing Gazza at that point so I only really got to see post-cruciate Gazza for England, however I do remember being about 7 or 8 and my cousin bringing round a video of Italia '90 and to this day Gazza's performance against Holland in particular was one of the greatest I've ever seen. He was running rings around the likes of Gullit with ease, in particular the one Cruyff turn he done on Koeman has to go down as one of the greatest things I can honestly say I've ever witnessed on a football field.

If not Gazza it would have to be Shearer pre '97, in particular watching him at Euro '96, the best striker in the world at the time. That was of course until a certain Ronaldo went to Barcelona. Really was something at the time looking back, I know me and Alex have discussed this before, but although we got great service out of Shearer I still feel we were robbed of the player we signed for 9 of those years, which was a real shame.

Would also be interesting obviously due to generation gaps etc what the general consensus actually is about this, me granda says Tom Finney is the greatest player he's ever saw play for England, me mam and dad both say Bryan Robson.

Top contributions from the both of you there. 

Used to think Peter Shilton was f****** immense when I was a nipper. Heartbroken at that deflected freekick, f****** Paul Parker.

If becjham didn't have Coruch on the end of his crosses there would be no goals

I'd have to probably say Gazza at Italia '90 although that may be based on some of the hype, but if it was the best I'd seen actually live then it would be Keegan who I watched many years ago at Wembley in a home international against Northern Ireland.  We won 4-1 and I missed 3 of our goals for different reasons, I did see Keegan score but missed one from Terry Mac, I think.

I go back to 1966, and I'd say Gazza. He had the capacity to lift the performance of the whole side.

But a short while from now, I'll probably be saying Rooney. He hasn't really turned it on in an England shirt yet, but he's an immense all-round talent. He has it in him to be one of the best two or three players in the world.

me

I can remember Italia 1990...however my memories are very vague. I can remember seeing the likes of Lineker, Beardsley, Platt, Pearce et al but no enough to stick my neck out and say "x is the best". Really I'm better going from Euro 96 onwards. There are a few candidates from the more sucessful 96 team...Shearer, Gazza...etc and some from whats followed - Gerrard, Owen, etc. I'm going to have to go for someone who did it over a longer period than that month. I feel funny saying this - not only because of who he plays for but also because their are no extraordinary moments that can I recollect, especially from major tournaments, such as what Gazza did vs Scotland.

Paul Scholes. 

Maybe no as spectacular as some but I honestly think he is and was a wonderful player. From 97 or so until the world cup in Japorea I think he was Englands best player. I remember the period around Euro 2000...when Keegan was in charge, he was absolutely awesome for England for a while. Strange picking someone from probably the worst England team that I can vividly remember but there you go. Scored a hattrick in one game I think, and he got the goals that beat Scotland in that playoff. Remember watching a game in the Euro2000 when I noticed a big MCFC flag in the crowd. Said "Ooh look, theres a City flag", someone else - who obviously knew nowt, had a penny drop somewhere and claimed that the only reason I was knocking one out over Scholes mad was cos he played for City...soon shut up when I pointed out that wasn't entirely accurate.

f****** travesty that he got bumped aside for the vastly inferior Lampard

Also, Micah Richards. 

Do tell more....

Can't ever remember Hoddle being superb for England tbh

a guy called Alan Shearer

u know him?

Gazza in 1990. Without a doubt. He could do the lot man - pass over a hell of a range, beat a man with skill and then stay ahead of him using his turn of pace, get stuck in (even if he was reckless at times), cover every blade of grass and he also had that innate knack of influencing games with a bit of magic when other 'flair' players might have gone missing. World class (and that's the proper usage of that phrase).