Duffer was done by then. The tournament really came a year too late for that team - itās big names in Duffer, Robbie, Given, OāShea, Dunne were all past their prime and struggling for injury and form heading into it.
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A grand cliche over the years was how the Irish media would talk about āour one world class playerā.
Fillers of this very prestigious role over the years included:
Liam Brady
Ronnie Whelan
Paul McGrath
Roy Keane
Robbie Keane (much as I love Robbie we were beginning to embellish things a wee bit by calling him world class)
Damien Duff (same)
Then circa 2014 Seamus Coleman became āour one world class playerā, and the cliche well and truly jumped the shark.
Now the cliche has morphed into āour one Premier League playerā.
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Andy Reid wouldnāt have got in an Irish midfield in the mid to late 70ās. We had Brady, Giles, Heighway and Mick Martin
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Thatās tremendous internetting on a Saturday afternoon 
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The Coleman one was gas, linked with United and Bayern, I think Bayern had Philip Lahm at rightback then, before Pep put him in midfield
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Robbieās international goals record puts him in the world class category. Itās actually phenomenal. Playing on an average to poor team in the toughest continent. Looked it up there of all time european goalscorers only Ronaldo, puskas, lewandowski, and gerd muller are ahead of him. And he played for fucking Ireland 
Edit: actually heās the same as gerd muller, albeit muller only played about 5 games for his 68 goals.
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Brady, Keane X 2 and Johnny Giles were our truly were class players.
McGrath could have been one of the goats only for his knees and other issues, based on an argument by farmer Iām having him too as world class
Robbie Keane is 16th on the list of all time premier league goalscorers with 126 - we took him for granted
In 2012?
Iāll go
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Iniesta
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Xavi
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Modric
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Pirlo
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Alonso
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Busquets
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De Rossi
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Silva
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Rakitic
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Fabregas
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Cazorla
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Montolivo
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Perisic
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Marchisio
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Navas
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Krancjar
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Badelj
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Giaccherini
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Croatian Iāve never heard of
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Croatian Iāve never heard of
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Whelan
I always thought Thiago Motta was shite so Iām not including him.
The top four there make up four of the five best midfielders in the world in the last three decades.
+1
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ah jesusā¦ Pirlo is ahead of Modric. ah noā¦ you canāt have Pirlo behind Luka in 2012? Fair enough behind Iniesta and Xavi
Paul McGrath was world class.
Being fucked with injuries and still turning out the performances he did shows how good he was.
He wax a cracking midfielder too,
Niall Quinn and Andy Townsend were linked with AC Milan in 1993. At least according to the Irish media of the time.
The Irish media of the time also reported it was all but certain the final qualifier in Belfast would be moved to Old Trafford and that FIFA had privately arranged (ie. fixed it) that Ireland would be drawn in Boston for the finals.
Seamus was a fine full back at his best and a great professional but world class he wasnāt.
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yeah, Iāll have that. a real likeable fella tooā¦ Iāll stick him in
His goal against Hungary in the 1990 qualification was brilliant. I saw it recently.
Hit it on the volley from outside the box.
And him a centre half by trade.
Iām pretty sure he started out as a midfielder and drifted back to centre half because of injury and mobility issues
I think it took a lot of people time to really cop onto how good Modric was because he was with Spurs. He ran the show against England at Wembley back in 2007. 2012 would have been his peak physically but his brain has more than compensated for any physical decline in the years since then. He may be the greatest midfielder of all time at this stage.
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That might be the best era ever for midfielders
ah stop lad, itās world cup eve and Iām getting giddy now. I absolutely love a major competition. Iād been low key up to now but Iām really looking forward to it.
I used love making lists and doing competitions when I was a kid
For a big tournament Iād write out all the squads, the groups and each fixture and play them off using a deck of cards, 5 cards each drawn, red is a goal, black is not. So you could have mad results. Iād spend hours doing it when it was pissing wet, Iād play off World Cups, Euros, European Cups, Cup winners Cups, and Iād attribute goals to players arbitrarily, player of the tournament the same
Iād never cheat only if Ireland were playing England
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Check out the goal he scores here after about 40 seconds of the clip.
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Best first round finals group for midfielders anyway.
Who would contend from other eras? Zidane, Platini, Matthaus?
Some of those Yugoslavian midfielders that emerged in the late 80s/very early 90s were supreme ball players - Savicevic, Stojkovic, Prosinecki, Boban etc. but you couldnāt have them ranked with the all time greats.
Hagi was great but wouldnāt be in the running in the all time list.
Was Bobby Charlton a midfielder or a forward or a combination of both? My impression was he was more of a midfielder with great attacking instincts.
Diego obviously, you donāt really associate with him with being a midfielder because he was everywhere but nominally thatās what he was at his best.
Strangely enough Brazil is not a country you associate with great midfielders part from maybe Socrates. The last two World Cups they won were won with relative plodders like Mauro Silva, Dunga, Kleberson and Gilberto Silva.
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