I HAVE received a bit of heat this week for some comments on Mohamed Salah — so let me talk you through it.
I claimed Salah is NOT world class.
The Liverpool player is a brilliant winger, his goalscoring numbers are incredible and he has achieved some truly amazing things at the club.
But world class? No.
Let me make this clear — this is not a personal attack on Salah. I think he is a top player and a great guy.
I played against him a lot in my career and can appreciate just how good he is.
But trying to be everyone’s friend? That’s not my bag. I will say it how it is.
In general, this is about the term “world class” as a whole — what does it actually mean and when can we use it?
Firstly, it is a very lucid way to describe a footballer.
It’s not like at The Masters when you get your Green Jacket and you are a champion of Augusta forever, regardless of how bad you play afterwards.
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It is something as a player that takes ages to earn and probably half a season to lose, and then the fight to get it back begins again.
Some players — great players — have struggled to earn that title at all during their careers.
Gary Neville is one of the most decorated full-backs of all time, but we all considered Roberto Carlos or Cafu to be a level above.
Yet if I had Neville’s career behind me, would I care if someone said I wasn’t world class? Of course not.
No player is safe from dropping out of this subjective, opinionated category, but there is always a way back.
For instance, someone like Kylian Mbappe I would argue is also currently NOT world class.
An incredible player, won plenty, got his big move to Real Madrid this summer, but his form has not been at the level of previous seasons.
To earn and keep that world class tag, I believe you need to be able to transcend your whole team, transcend the game — not simply by having the most shirt sales, but being able to consistently lift a club to glory by yourself.
Can Mbappe at 25 get back to being world class? Definitely. But for now, he has some work to do.
As for Salah, you can look at his stats — 165 Prem goals in 274 games — and say this and that but ultimately, it is about what he brings to the team and the impact he has season after season, not just in certain games and moments.
I was on the end of loads of drubbings at Watford when Salah was amazing for Liverpool.
But when we prepared to face them, it was not just a case of “stop Salah and you win”.
It was a lot harder when they also had Sadio Mane in the side who, in my opinion, was more effective over that period than Salah.
And if we were basing this purely off numbers and goals, then Bruno Fernandes would be one of the best midfielders in the world, but he is not.
You see where I am coming from?
I can remember Graeme Souness once telling me his theory on whether you were world class, and it was based on whether you could walk into any starting XI in world football.
With that in mind, here are the five players currently in world football who, for me, can be deemed world class — who could stroll into any team on the planet and start:
- Alisson (Liverpool)
- Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
- Rodri (Manchester City)
- Erling Haaland (Manchester City)
- Vinicius Jr (Real Madrid)
Saying all this, it is just my opinion. Someone can turn around and tell me I am wrong and that is absolutely fine.
And if Salah is worrying about what I think, then he is definitely not world class.
