Premier League - The Greatest: Everton verdict

Eurosport - Sun, 28 Jun 08:30:00 2009

We reveal your comments and the results of the poll to find out who Eurosport-Yahoo! readers think is the greatest ever Everton player.

FOOTBALL Everton legend Dixie Dean - 0

And in a rare moment of synchronised thinking there was almost complete agreement between you and us as goalscoring dynamo Dixie Dean topped the list.

It's east to see why: 383 goals in 433 appearances reveals a quite incredible consistency of strike rate over a dozen years at the club. And quite frankly, any player who loses a testicle in the name of football - as Dean did after a particularly brutal tackle - deserves every award going.

Alan Ball started his Everton career on the back of his man-of-the-match performance in the 1966 World Cup final (no, Geoff Hurst didn't get man of the match despite his hat-trick), and had five superb years with the Toffees while at the height of his powers - including helping them to the title in 1969-70.

While we gave goalkeeping legend Neville Southall the nod over Ball - his length of service just giving him the edge - you voted him into third place, though with only around 100 votes between the pair we're happy to consider it an honourable joint second place for the man who made 750 appearances for the club.

As ever with these lists, plenty of you had your own suggestions for alternative players that we might have included in the shortlist, with Kevin Sheedy a popular mention.

One other worth picking from former generations, however, was 60s legend Alex Young, nicknamed The Golden Vision by none other than the great Danny Blanchflower. A true great.

Eurosport-Yahoo! verdict

1 - Dixie Dean

2 - Neville Southall

3 - Alan Ball

Your verdict:

1 - Dixie Dean - 25% (3,419 votes)

2 - Alan Ball - 21% (2,899 votes)

3 - Neville Southall - 20% (2,767 votes)

Pick of your comments:

Chris L - "Never a fan of Everton but always a great fan of Alan Ball. A true legend on and off the pitch... No primadonna; just a great footballer."

Alan G: "Can't really disagree with the top three although as a boyhood fan of Ball I'd love to think he was the greatest Evertonian of my generation. I was heartbroken to come from school to find that we had sold him to Arsenal to fund the signing of Bob Latchford."

aleksicn93: "Christ, Dixie Dean lost a testicle! My condolences to the man."

Richard K: "Big Neville Southall and Dixie Dean are definite top two but I would put Southall first as he was the best goalkeeper in Europe for nearly 10 years (1981-1990)."

Jvy20 - "Best Everton player I ever saw was Alex Young - been supporting Everton for 50 + years."

J.C. - "Brian Labone. If a captain can still hold his club's fanbase in thrall after all these years, he must have done something good."

Eurosport

Comment 1 - 9 of 9

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  1. Dixie Dean deserved it,His goal scoring record in a­ single season still stands for over 70 years. That­ alone deserved the title of greatest ever.

    From kieran v, on Sun 9 Aug 1:57PM

  2. Well gbrereton I'm not a figment of someone's­ imagination and I don't see how my comments are a­ slur on anyone. Oh and I'm a true Evertonian,­ thanks very much, mate. But it seems like I got my­ facts a tad conflated - it is 38 years ago. And I was­ heartbroken to find Ball had gone. If they didn't­ sell him to fund the Latchford deal which deal did it­ fund? He didn't just go for no reason, did he?

    From ALAN G, on Sat 8 Aug 2:12PM

  3. Pity there wasn't a category for Best­ Entertainer" in the lists First choice for me­ would be my childhood hero (and this shows how old I­ am) would be that wonderful wildest of wild men Dave­ Hickson. What a crowd pleaser!!! And dive??? - He was­ a master. Somebody once said that if he dived in the­ Mersey he'd be given a penalty when he surfaced.

    From KEITH, on Mon 29 Jun 11:01PM

  4. Where was Peter Bearsdley?

    From amyperrett, on Sun 28 Jun 6:22PM

  5. Stu G u r an embarrassment, clearly ur not an Everton­ fan so why come on here? No doubt u support that shower­ from over the park so go back onto one of the RS pages­ and discuss the fact that uv won f**k all for yet­ another season

    From goodisonkev, on Sun 28 Jun 6:07PM
  6. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    who cares its everton!
    SMALL club!

    From Stu G, on Sun 28 Jun 3:01PM

  7. Please, please could you only accept comments from true­ Evertonians and not manufacturer the comments yourself!­ In relation to Alan G's comment about Alan Ball;­ this is a slur on one of the greatest men who played­ the game. For your information, Alan Ball was sold to­ Arsenal in December 1971; big Bob came to Goodison in­ 1974 with Archie Styles & Howard Kendall going in­ the opposite direction. Finally for all the halfwits­ who think William Ralph Dean scored 60 goals in one­ season - he never. He scored 60 league goals; he­ actually scored 100 goals in that season in all­ competitions, including friendlies (England never­ played, what we would call, competitive games in that­ era).

    From gbrereton324, on Sun 28 Jun 1:31PM

  8. surely yahoo must ban this vile, nasty, ignorant moron­ sirstevejones12 and his stupid comments

    From johnriceyrice, on Sun 28 Jun 10:36AM

  9. i am too young for the dixie dean and allan ball years,­ but i know they were amazing footballers. I was around­ for Southall and thought he was a legend straight away.­ think the top 3 are right but i wouldnt like to put­ them in any order. Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

    From Scouse.Brown, on Sun 28 Jun 8:50AM
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