Best v Healy

[nrico2006]

Hmm. Best had possibly the greatest sheer raw talent of any footballer ever. And he achieved a lot with it - English Championship, European Cup, European Footballer of the Year. Though he could've achieved a lot more.

I think he belongs in the same company as Pele, Maradona, di Stefano and Cruyff.

Actually I think Pele tends to got automatic top spot just a little too quickly. He played on two excellent Brazilian teams, two of the greatest international teams of all time - in fact they were able to win the World Cup without him in 1962.

Maradona carried Argentina to their World Cup win in 1986, and to some extent to their very ugly passage to the final in 1990.

On cold facts Maradona was perhaps even more of a flawed genius than Best - twice-banned drug abuser, in fact drug cheat the second time, his most unsporting goal as famous as his most brilliant (in the same game which kind of sums him up) but up there as arguably the most skilful player of all time.

Agreed, Pele was an All Time great player and goalscorer, but he always seems to be number one by default - why??  George Best or Maradona should be 1!

[Solomon Kane]

As a talented club player Best would win hands down. As a Northern Ireland player Healy would win hands down. Best deserves a fair bit of credit for his games in the green shirt, especially after it was reported he played through a death threat. Both will be remembered fondly for many years to come, but the comparison would not be fair as Best will also be remembered for the wrong reasons.   

[pintsofguinness]

Indeed I'd rather someone like Healy on my team than someone like Best.

Holy fcuk pog, will you ever catch a grip
Healy's achievements over the last 18 months have been superb but to even mention him in the same breath as Best is an insult
I would say Healy himself would be embarassed if he saw the poll

yes I'd rather have healy on my team than a unreliable woman beating drunk.

[full back]

yes I'd rather have healy on my team than a unreliable woman beating drunk.

The team isnt like the suffragettes FFS

[Mentalman]

yes I'd rather have healy on my team than a unreliable woman beating drunk.

The team isnt like the suffragettes FFS

Best was better than Healy is on raw ability but I think POG has a couple of points though.

I'm not sure which manager it was recently said he had more affection for the players who had to work hard on their game than those who it came easy too, because it meant so much more to them.

And on the more general point of players as people a quote from "Any Given Sunday" says it all - "When a man looks back on his life he should be proud of all of it, not just the time he spend in pads and cleats."

[full back]

Whi gives a fcuk what was said in a film

Healy is not a better footballer than Best, end of

[Mentalman]

Whi gives a fcuk what was said in a film

Who's whi?

Only kidding

Oh, me for starters. A man should be judged on his life, not just on whether he could dribble a ball. On that front George left a lot to be desired.

[full back]

Agree with you mentalman about judging a man,
but the question was regarding the best footballer

[Mentalman]

Agree with you mentalman about judging a man,
but the question was regarding the best footballer

On that then we agree, first thing I conceeded in my post.

[pintsofguinness]

Oh, me for starters. A man should be judged on his life, not just on whether he could dribble a ball. On that front George left a lot to be desired.

Agree.

And then they go and name an airport after him.   

[full back]

Agree with you mentalman about judging a man,
but the question was regarding the best footballer

On that then we agree, first thing I conceeded in my post.

Yes, everyone knows his reputation off the field, shouldnt take away from the talent he had on it

[Leg End]

look it is this simple their private life or anything else apart from football doesn't come into the equation. this thread is Best v Healy in football not life now catch yourselves on.

Picking a team and you have one space left and u only can choose one of the two......everytime its george best and anyone who says anything different has a huge chip on their shoulder about george best or is a relative of healy's

[MW]

Hmm. Best had possibly the greatest sheer raw talent of any footballer ever. And he achieved a lot with it - English Championship, European Cup, European Footballer of the Year. Though he could've achieved a lot more.

I think he belongs in the same company as Pele, Maradona, di Stefano and Cruyff.

Actually I think Pele tends to got automatic top spot just a little too quickly. He played on two excellent Brazilian teams, two of the greatest international teams of all time - in fact they were able to win the World Cup without him in 1962.

Maradona carried Argentina to their World Cup win in 1986, and to some extent to their very ugly passage to the final in 1990.

On cold facts Maradona was perhaps even more of a flawed genius than Best - twice-banned drug abuser, in fact drug cheat the second time, his most unsporting goal as famous as his most brilliant (in the same game which kind of sums him up) but up there as arguably the most skilful player of all time.

Agreed, Pele was an All Time great player and goalscorer, but he always seems to be number one by default - why??  George Best or Maradona should be 1!

I think Pele gets the 'automatic' number one slot from many people because he's Brazilian. And associated with that, because when you think of Pele, you think of him leading the fabulous Brazilian team of 1970 to World Cup victory - all in glorious techniciolour in their canary yellow. That and a young 17 year old Pele starring in another great Brazilian team in 1958, crying tears of joy as he celebrates a win he helped create with a legendary goal in the final.

Maradona wasn't Brazilian, and had an ugly side. He led his team to World Cup glory in 1986 with his individual brilliance, along the way scoring probably the greatest individual goal of all time. However even that goal, and his genius throughout Mexico 86, are tainted by possibly the most notorious example of cheating in world football history - the 'Hand of God', in the very same game. That's the thing about Maradona, his ugly side was never far away. Whereas Pele's first World Cup ended in glory, Maradona in 1982 left in disgrace having been sent off for violent conduct (having been brutalised by Brazilian players, I may add). He led his pretty ordinary team to the final again in 1990 but while he showed flashes of brilliance, there was the diving, the whinging at the referee and in the end the fact he was a very sore loser in the final. Unlike Pele's last World Cup, Maradona ended his (1994) in disgrace - testing positive as a drug cheat, having used banned stimulants to get himself back to his physical peak. There floowed a long ban: he'd already served an 18 month ban a couple of years earlier having tested positive for cocaine - another indication of his flawed nature, as well as how he wasted some of his talent.

In saying all this, I'd say Maradona was a flawed genius, but one I would perhaps rank above even Pele. But I thik these are all reasons for Pele's 'untouchable' status for many at the top of the pile.

As for Best - he deserves to be in the same company (along with as I said the likes of Cruyff and di Stefano). But he suffers from having played for unfashionable Northern Ireland, and never having played at the World Cup or the European Championships. His well-known off the field vices and the fact his career highlights were in his early 20s play a big part. He was probably never seen at his peak - quitting top flight football at 26 and already not quite who he was a few years before. He wasted what should have been his peak years in the NASL and hitting the bottle hard.

[Donagh]

From OWC issue 13

Did anyone else get fed up with the dreadful Kelly chat show on UTV last autumn featuring our former winger, Georgie Best? I watched it for a while, but in the end switched off in disgust and went off to get my beauty sleep. There was George Best, looking dreadfully emaciated; in fact he looked like death warmed up. Beside him was his latest blonde. In front of him was Kelly's invited "celebrity" audience. It was the audience that got up my nose.

It was clear that most of them had never been to a football match in their lives. Of those who had, many had clearly never gone back to an international at Windsor Park once Georgie Porgie had retired. Their purpose in being on the show was to worship at the shrine of Ulster's greatest ever footballer. I would not have been surprised if the audience had all risen up together and bowed their foreheads to the floor before the ex-player, chorusing "We are not worthy!". The whole show was dreadfully embarrassing.

Now I am not one to kick someone when he is down. I am glad that George is obeying his doctor and defying death at long last. I am delighted that he now has a home in Northern Ireland. I am glad that he has found a good woman to put up with him. All of us wayward males can thank God if we have found the woman of our dreams, for often she is more than we deserve. However it annoys me dreadfully when people see the history of the game in Northern Ireland as consisting of George Best and nothing else. He only played thirty-seven times for our team. He should have played more often. He did give us one unforgettable game when he beat Scotland single-handedly in 1967. But in the other games he turned on the brilliance only in fits and starts.

Of course I loved to see George in a green shirt putting the fear of doom into opponents from Bobby Charlton to Johan Cryuff. But my first loyalty is and has always been to the Northern Ireland team. Unlike the folk with short memories who formed the audience on the Kelly show, I recall being shattered too often by the news that Northern Ireland had to into yet another crucial World Cup or European Championship game without their one genius, because George could not make the trip.

Many so called "experts" have said that it is a shame that George, being from Belfast, never played in the World Cup finals. Well the opportunity did present itself. Among the celebrity guests in the audience at the Kelly show was Billy Bingham. Billy mentioned the fact that he had taken a look at George in 1981 in the hope that he might make a comeback in a green jersey in the crucial World Cup qualifying matches of that year. However, Billy had concluded that George was not up to it. On the Kelly show, George agreed at once that Billy was right not to bring him back. If only George had looked after himself! Veteran though he was, he could have gone to the 1982 World Cup finals and graced the world stage in a green jersey. But he missed out and Bingham's Braves had to do the business without him, which they did with remarkable success. But perhaps with a fit George Best they would have bowed out in the semi-final rather than the quarter-final.

Let's face the facts about George Best's international career. In 1972 after he had gone absent without leave, Northern Ireland beat England at Wembley without him. From 1980-86 we qualified for the World Cup finals twice and won the British Championship twice without him or any similar genius. George scored nine times for Northern Ireland, but so did Norman Whiteside. A case could be made that Big Norm's contribution to the team in his day was greater than Bestie's in his. I am not saying that Norman was a better player, only that he achieved more for Northern Ireland.

In fact it is worthwhile comparing Best with Bingham, the man he replaced in the number seven shirt. Bingham played fifty-six times for Northern Ireland. He looked after himself and continued playing international football until the age of thirty-five. As for his achievements as our manager, his record speaks for itself. So don't expect me, or any other dedicated Norn Iron fan, to start worshipping at the shrine of Bestie. Unlike Kelly's so-called "celebrities" we support Northern Ireland with or without a genius in the line-up.

Cunningham Peacock

[MW]

Many so called "experts" have said that it is a shame that George, being from Belfast, never played in the World Cup finals. Well the opportunity did present itself. Among the celebrity guests in the audience at the Kelly show was Billy Bingham. Billy mentioned the fact that he had taken a look at George in 1981 in the hope that he might make a comeback in a green jersey in the crucial World Cup qualifying matches of that year. However, Billy had concluded that George was not up to it. On the Kelly show, George agreed at once that Billy was right not to bring him back. If only George had looked after himself! Veteran though he was, he could have gone to the 1982 World Cup finals and graced the world stage in a green jersey. But he missed out and Bingham's Braves had to do the business without him, which they did with remarkable success. But perhaps with a fit George Best they would have bowed out in the semi-final rather than the quarter-final.

I made this point in a fanzine article before 'Cunningham' wrote this one.

For all that was said about Best's talent being wasted because he didn't play in the World Cup, the fact is, id he'd looked after himself he would have. Not at his prime, but he was 36 when NI played in Espana 82. Without his off-the-field vices, he could have played in this World Cup. (Indeed, he could conceivable also have played in Mexico 86).

Than again, maybe having a Best on the team could have destabilised what was was very much a great team effort.