Players in red took up too many spots in ESPN’s projection for the first Premier League Hall of Fame inductees. Chelsea should at least have had Frank Lampard, if not John Terry, in the initial five.
ESPN, the mother ship to all sports media, recently put out their top five players to be inducted into their Premier League Hall of Fame. They came to this quintet by having their voters rank their top 10 Premier League players, and then tallied the votes. Thierry Henry, Alan Shearer, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, and Steven Gerrard are the five the writers and editors spewed up.
Let’s look at it objectively. Thierry Henry, Alan Shearer, and Ryan Giggs are first ballot no-brainers. Or, at the very least, they are hard to argue against. Alan Shearer is the highest scoring player in Premier League history, and Giggs has the most assists by a huge margin (thanks to years of domination by Manchester United). Thierry Henry at his best during the Arsenal years was magical, must see, and definitely put a lot of eyes on the league at the time.
Now to the next two. Paul Scholes was extremely talented, but he is not a first ballot, top-five Hall of Famer. Sure, he won 10+ Premier League titles, but his individual accomplishments don’t quite add up like Frank Lampard’s.
Similarly, Steven Gerrard is very good. I would go as far as to say he was the second best midfielder in league history. But he was only nominated because of the team he plays for.
Steven Gerrard does not belong above Frank Lampard on any list unless that list is titled “Greatest Slips in Premier League History.”
Again, Gerrard is an outstanding player, but ESPN’s top five list is based on Premier League accomplishments: Gerrard never won the Premier League, and scored fewer Premier League goals and had fewer assists than Lampard.
It’s laughable to have a list of the Premier League’s greatest and not have the player who has the second-most assists and fourth-most goals. And that’s before we even remind you that Lampard is the only midfielder in the top 10 for goals scored.
Now let’s take a look at why there isn’t a single player from the defensive side of the ball.
If they dropped Scholes and Gerrard and added Lampard and Rio Ferdinand, it would be hard to argue. But I am sure I would find a way to make an argument against John Terry not being included.
Who comes up with a ridiculous number like five inductees, when six or seven would be a more suitable number given the number of years the league has been around. It would also permit a more worthy representation of players: take two forwards, two midfielders, two defenders and a goalkeeper as an initial induction. That way you can cover a large variety of players in the first class.
It’s tempting to say this is the latest form of a campaign against Chelsea. But even if you’re not a Chelsea fan, it’s easy to believe there is a bias in favor of those in red.
Liverpool and Manchester United are two teams with history, to say the least. But just because Sir Alex Ferguson dominated the entire league, every player on that team shouldn’t be inducted into the hall of fame. Besides, why isn’t Roy Keane’s name being mentioned? He was the main reason for the treble in 1999. He allowed those talented players ahead of him to excel.
The Premier League should do itself a favor and consider expanding the induction class. It also may want to start looking at stats and the effect a player has on a squad, even if the player doesn’t have the goals and assists to back him up.
John Terry was possibly the last of a dying defensive breed, and was arguably the greatest Premier League defender. Frank Lampard is undoubtedly the most productive midfielder in Premier League history.
It’s a slap in the face of the Chelsea skipper to be snubbed for the likes of Paul Scholes and Steven Gerrard.