[Albion] The Greatest Player to pull on an Albion shirt (to date)

[Gwylan]

Lawrenson is not just the best player I've seen for the Albion ... by some distance, but he's one of the best defenders I've seen in English football.

He was a skillful enough player to turn out in midfield and not look out of place. He probably could have played up front if we'd wanted: the complete package

 

[albionalex]

Interesting that some people are saying Zamora and not Murray.

 

[amexer]

For the few games he played have to disregard Vicente.
Sum up Lawrenson as only Brighton player who would slot into the Man City team
Hard to compare players in different positions but vote goes to Ward. Left so many CBs on floor and always felt going to watch him as well as Albion.
Still think he would have been good in top league if Forest had not sold Birtles as he arrived.

 

[Official Old Man]

I'm uncommited. Would you say Mo Salah is the best ever Liverpool player, or Ronnie the best Man Utd player (now there's a question), or Kane for Spurs.
Different players leave different memories for supporters of each club. Bruno for his captaincy but then again Horton was as good. So whilst saying Lawrenson was the best of the three player options I'm sure better players have played for us down the years.

 

[Hamilton]

 

[Hamilton]

Incredible that England never capped him.

Ray Wilkins, Emelyn Hughes and Trevor Brooking were always in front of him.

 

[Seagull58]

Lewis Dunk. He's a better footballer than Lawro ever was. Maybe not relative to the other players of their eras, but in the absolute, Dunk is better.

He is absolutely not a more skillful footballer than Lawro so you would have to elaborate on the elements of "better". I have seen Lawro take the ball out of defence and carry it the length of the pitch on several occasions, going past half a dozen opposition players in the process. Dunk, whilst I'm a great admirer, could never do that, neither the technical skill nor the pace.

 

[Hugo Rune]

That's very debatable. Lawrenson had the abliltiy moving forward with ball at feet to shred the opposition in a way that I hoped we would see Dunky develop, but he never has.

Does this happen any more at the top level with players like Bissouma and Kante to stop them and forward players being more defensive with the high press? Who is the equivalent in the game now?

 

[Wardy's twin]

Vicente?
Come off it. The guy had a lovely few cameos for us in the Championship and undoubted quality but our greatest ever player? Wow.

the thread says The Greatest Player to pull on an Albion shirt (to date) which is very open to interpretation but doesn't explicitly say the Albion's greatest player . At their best i would rather watch Vicente than Lawrenson.

 

[Hugo Rune]

For the few games he played have to disregard Vicente.
Sum up Lawrenson as only Brighton player who would slot into the Man City team.

An odd comment in that Citeh are widely regarded to be after Cucu and it would be no surprise to see Biss turn out for them next season, he is good enough.

With reference to Lawro, you’d be hard pushed to find mention of him in any Liverpool all time XI let alone be anywhere near the conversation of best ever player.
This is a good example of how ex-Liverpool players see his legacy:

https://www.planetsport.com/soccer/...verpool-xi-based-on-former-players-selections

The truth is, we’re a lot closer to the top teams than we have ever been in our history. We have two or three players (four including White) who could turn out to be legends for a modern top six side, a side that has scouted the world for talent. Bissouma sets a very high bar in a game almost unrecognisable from the one Lawro looked top drawer in.

 

[darkwolf666]

For its time, where we were, the fantastic nights at The Goldstone, the cup matches, the dreams of something better to come, it has to be Peter Ward - things were so so different then!

 

[chaileyjem]

Nobody has mentioned - yet - a current Albion player who has played for England 35 times, is a PL winner, champions league winner and has played in the Premier League over 250 times.

Has any other Albion player - apart from Lawro - matched that ?

 

[Hamilton]

Nobody has mentioned - yet - a current Albion player who has played for England 35 times, is a PL winner, champions league winner and has played in the Premier League over 250 times.

Has any other Albion player - apart from Lawro - matched that ?

Jimmy ****ing Case!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Nobody has mentioned - yet - a current Albion player who has played for England 35 times, is a PL winner, champions league winner and has played in the Premier League over 250 times.

Has any other Albion player - apart from Lawro - matched that ?

Whatabout the current Albion player who has 42 England caps, 247 EPL appearances, won the EPL, FA cup and two league cups?

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Jimmy ****ing Case!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No England caps....

 

[Wellesley]

I was a kid when Lawrenson played for us, but I remember we even listened to the Republic of Ireland games on the radio when he played. Ward was a hero to me, but again, I was just a kid. Ability wise I would go for Biss or Cucurella, both unbelievable players that I can't choose between.

 

[Super Steve Earle]

I'm going Dunk. Consistently very good over a long period of time. I'm not keen on comparing todays game to the early 80's, but what I think we can say is that there is a much greater concentration of world talent in the league now than then. Therefore, Dunky has played against better players and this tips it for me.

Full disclosure, never saw Lawro, I just have a suspicion that some of the votes going to him is the oldies going on about how they got to see someone nobody else did, (knowing it can't be refuted as there's limited video evidence). It's the same as my suspicion that the Nelson goal people go on about, probably wasn't all that.

Saw Vicente. Well yes obvious grace, balance and quality, but played in a lower league, and featured sporadically, so can't be considered in my mind. Also lack of output. A good mazy run and a nice free kick isn't enough to be considered the greatest in my view

You are wrong and being a bit insulting to older fans. Lawro was a wonderful player, sorry if you didn't see him live. I recall us playing Forest in the old First Division. The most expensive and arguably fastest player in the league, Trevor Francis, broke free to run towards the Brighton goal. Lawro memorably cruised towards Francis like a Rolls Royce in overdrive and stole the ball from behind him. He played defence as the classy footballing centre back alongside the more agricultural Steve Foster. He played midfield, possibly with a broken arm if I remember rightly. For a latter day comparison, his surging runs from defence were like Webster is praised for, only more athletic and graceful with better outcomes. He earned a move to Liverpool as a result and continued to excel during their 80's glory years. He was loved when he was with us (less so when he left and forgot we existed) and I well remember a fan near me yelling, 'Lawro, I could kiss your sweaty socks'. It's hard to relate to players who starred for us before we were watching and I feel the same about Bobby Smith Mark 1 but trust me, Lawro was the genuine article, not a fantasy figure in the memories of older fans trying to get one up on today's fans.

 

[stewart12]

are people calling him "Vincente" for a sick joke or do they actually think he's called that

 

[Robinjakarta]

Unlikely that Mark Lawrenson was any better than Ben White in reality and we all thought White was our 3rd best CB when we sold him.

1. Ben White is good but nowhere near of Lawrenson's ability.
2. No, we didn't all think that. I and others thought he was our best and said so on here.

Agree with most else, though, and yes, this is definitely our greatest ever period.

 

[stewart12]

if the question is "best player to play for Brighton" then it probably is Vicente but we quite obviously didn't see the best for him. In his prime he was one of, if not the best in his position in the world

but by the time he came to us his physical and seeminly his mental state were completely not equipped for regular football. He played under 30 league games in 2 seasons, many as a sub

"Brighton's best ever player" is hard to say for people my age who didn't see Lawro, Case, Ward etc but given that statistically this is the best Albion side ever I don't think it would be outrageous to suggest that one of the current crop is up there- given his longevity I'd like to think that Dunk will be considered up there by the time he retires