25 years of England greats

We've stuck our necks out and picked what we think is the greatest England team of the last 25 years - from Bobby Robson's reign up to the present day.

How many of Fabio Capello's current crop make it into our best modern-era England XI? You may be surprised. Find out here.

Scratching our chins and peering through our rose-tinted St George's flag spectacles, we remembered the glorious summers of Italia 90 and Euro 96 and duly plumped almost exclusively for players who have now hung up their boots, with just one existing Premier League star making the side.

Now we want your views. Do you agree with our selections? Who would you include or leave out? Give us your suggestions in a good old traditional 4-4-2 formation using the boxes below.

Comments

[bakerboi 10]

id agree mostly although surely u cnt 4get waddle scholes nd of course becks ?

i would cahnge butcher for moore and how can leave out englands top scorer in bobby chalton. maybe banks in goal.

[Ainsley]

Thankyou sportsdesk, my apologies!

Right, 25 years... I must admit, it's difficult to contend with the selections made. People may complain about David Beckham, but who would you replace him with? You need to have a right-back. I'd say the only real omissions are David Platt, David Beckham and Paul Scholes.

[Bless]

Banks, Le Saux, Pierce, Campbell, Neville, Gascoine, Hoddle, Scholes, Beckham, Linekar, Shearer

Subs: Seaman, Adams, Ferdinand, Platt, Gerrard, Owen, Rooney

[Matthew]

The team looked totally unbalanced with Gerrard in and im a Liverpool fan. Its either one or the other and Barry must play, he's so good at what he does its a shame we didnt get him. Hope Capello doesnt bend to player power. The best team doesnt always mean the best individuals as is evident at Real Madrid etc. Good result but they ran out of legs and didnt deserve that scoreline.

[Pete the Heat]

My greatest England Team of the past 40 years

Banks

G Cohen, Ferdinand, Moore, T Cooper

Ball, Gerrard, Brooking, J Cole

Owen Shearer

subs A Cole, Lampard, Greaves, Lineker

[steve]

My selection would be.
Banks,Lawler,T Addams B Moore (Terry)Cooper

Ball Gerrard Scholes Hoddle

Owen Lineker

incidently this choice is based on what they are/were capable of

[john]

The centre backs of butcher & adams show no invention ferdinand should be substiuted for either

[adam]

not biased at all i would quite openly say great things about ronaldo being the best winger in the world along with messi.
kuyt works as hard ask most football pundits.
rooney will come good i am sur but he isnt as good as what every bangs on about

[Dickie Tastic]

Adam it sounds like sour grapes towards Rooney from you a liverpool fan, talk about biased opinion, Rooney is one of the reasons C Ronaldo shines, when rnaldo leaves for madrid next year lets see how he gets on without Super Wayne!

Kuyt vs Rooney (dont make me laugh)

[adam]

rooney is a good player i dont deny that,in terms of club football kuyt works harder than him.
in international games he does work hard but he doesnt score that many goals compared to other world class strikers like torres.
in regards to england players there isnt many who work as hard but that shows how poor we are

[bobby]

orite keep your hair on

[Dickie Tastic]

Adam how can you say Rooney is overrated??? I waych football alot and his overall workrate is matched by no-one, he makes goals scores goals and his record while playing for man u is 1 loss in over 50 games, without Rooney they lost 5 in under 40... He is constantly being sacraficied for the team and can play right wing and virtually any position... Adam name an England player who can offer that versatility to the team??

[adam]

beckham is a good crosser of the ball and good at freekicks.
he has no pace and cant tackle to save his life.
he will be in a best 22 of all time though which just goes to show how poor england are

[John]

I think I can speak for most and include David Beckham as an England great. In years to come David would be in any all time England 11. He may not have been included due to his current form but it has to be said when he was at his best there was no one to touch him.

[Dickie Tastic]

Banks (my grandad swears he was better than shilton)
G Neville Moore Butcher Pearce

Beckham Scholes Gascoigne J Cole

Shearer Lineker

(whoever does not pick gazza is insane, if he didnt blow his career he would have gone on to be one of the greatest, typical enlgish luck that he turned out to have more issues than 10 downing street)

[adam]

rooney wouldnt even make the 3rd eleven when will people realise that he is very overated and never lived up to his hype.
even crouch has a better goal ratio and people think hes a clown.

[james green]

get carragher back, replace backham with walcot and play owen and heskey up front they do the real damage

[Mike]

Why did someone say George Best! He played for Northern Ireland.

[henz]

england X1 Second team

Seaman
Le saux
Terry
Ferdinand
Parker
Waddle
Gerrard
Scholes
Beckham
Sheringham
Rooney

[Orange Sportsdesk]

Message to Ainsley. We've kept this to the last 25 years as we felt it was too difficult to compare players from radically different eras. Obviously the players you mention would be serious contenders for an all-time XI. Regards, Sportsdesk

how can u leave out paul scholes

[margaret]

gerrard gerrard gerrard top 3 surely

[alan jones]

Peter Reid should be in the top players list. Atrue warrior.

[paul curtis]

glenn hoddle great player however one midfield player that should be in the team who is so underated but in my eyes is what the current england team are missing is the one and only paul scholes the man is up there with gazza for legendary status.