Ok, so I bought a t-shirt in Tesco's yesterday of their England All Star team. I have a couple of questions. I've named their team below, but I'm not sure who their right back was? They've put them in the England shirts that they all used to wear, so it would have been the right back when Keegan was in the team, around Spain 82, and he's black. I'm thinking Viv Anderson, but I'm not at all sure. Was he really that good? Or are they just going pc as there's no other black player in their team? Anyway, here's their team below:

Shilton
Anderson? Moore Butcher Pearce
Beckham Charlton Gazza
Hurst Lineker Keegan

D'oh! Can't remember who the other striker was. Oh well. So, my second question is what would be your England All Star XI? I was thinking yesterday, and mine is below. I'm going 4-4-2......

GK - Gordon Banks Made possibly the greatest save ever. Part of England's World Cup winning team. Surely we'd have made the semis of the 70WC is he'd been in goal?
RB - Gary Neville Don't like him as a person, but no doubt he was a good right back for England. Almost 90 caps - says it all.
CB - Bobby Moore Don't think I really need to explain that one.
CB - Tony Adams Thought about Rio. Adams just gets the nod as I think he was less prone to losses of concentration, and was a good leader.
LB - Ashley Cole Again, another one that I don't really like as a person (what is it about full backs?), but no doubting that he's a good player. Pearce was close for his free kicks and pens, but I think Cashley would give more in open play going forwards, and Pearce wouldn't take many free kicks and pens due to my other choices.
RM - David Beckham Over 100 caps. Loves playing for England, and his set piece deliveries and crossing make him the only choice for this position, and the main reason that Pearce misses out. Plenty of running to help win the ball back too.
CM - Bryan Robson Gives you so much. Plenty of running, a battler, plus the ability to pick up crucial goals. And he'd give the physio something to do too.
CM - Bobby Charlton Highest ever England goal scorer. Nuff said.
LM - Paul Gascoigne I'd love to have put John Barnes in here, but although he's my favourite ever player, his form for England rarely matched that for Liverpool, so I can't justify it. I can't think of a really good left winger that England have had, and I wanted to fit Gazza in, so he gets the nod. I realise that he's not a left winger, but if Capello can play without one, so can I. Gazza would be lethal cutting inside from the left, and it's another reason why Ashley Cole is in, to provide that width when he does.
ST - Alan Shearer There are others who are higher up the goalscoring list than him, but 30 goals in 63 games is an excellent record, and my recollection is that he didn't really get going until Euro 96, by which time he probably had pushing 20 caps with maybe 5 goals (complete guesswork there)? From then on, he never let England down.
ST - Gary Lineker 2nd highest ever goal scorer for England. Not great all round play (possibly a weakness with both my strikers), but a real predator with a knack for being in the right place at the right time.

So there it is. What do you think, and what would yours be?

That's who I thought initially, but I remember him playing in Italia 90. I think Spain 82 might be too early for him? Maybe those who are slightly older than me (Eakes, Big JP ) will know.....

I think it is meant to be Viv. As far as i know, Keegan only played one world cup in 1982 (we didn't qualify in 78, and I don't think he was involved in 86). It's definitely the same time as him going by the shirt this guy is wearing. However, I've checked on Google, and although Viv Anderson was in the 82 squad, he didn't actually play any games during the tournament.

On my t-shirt, it's the same line up but 4-4-2. And they have their names next to them...

Shilts
Vic Moore Butcher Psycho
Becks Charlton Gazza King Kev
Gary Hurst

I just said I remembered watching him play for his club. True thast I can't remember seeing him play for England though - I did watch all the qualifiers for Euro 88, as well as evey game we played in the tournament as well. What was his last game?

My All star England XI :

Shilton

Rob Jones Sol Campbell Bobby Moore Stuart Pearce

David Beckham Bryan Robson Bobby Charlton Gazza

Alan Shearer Gary Linekar

Subs: (are we allowed?)
John Barnes
Gordon Banks
Tony Adams
Chris Waddle
Glenn Hoddle
Cashley
Rooney ???

Manager: Bobby Robson

Yeah. Slightly odd choice. He definately looked the part at times but was unlucky with injuries as I remember, and never actually became as good as people thought he might.

Raises an interesting question: did anyone else think that a particular player was brilliant when they were a kid but now realises that they weren't actually that good?

I think mine were: Alan Pardew, Junior Bent (should have been obvious at the time really), Mark Hately (realise that he wasn't awful, but I genuinely thought he was one of the best players ever in the world ever ever ever). For some reason, my favourite goalkeeper was always Mike Hooper. Go figure that one out. Probaby a few other names might come to mind at some point.

Think Fowler at his best was better than Rush at his. Despite the fact he was a genuine goalscorer like Rush, he could still score from outside the box and he had brilliant imaginatipon when doing so.

Ha ha, I deliberately put in Jones as I knew it would throw up a bit of controversy! You all took the bait! He was a good player for 3 years the vanished. What about Gary Stevens? Phil Neal? I'm not choosing Parker that's for sure.

Being a Liverpool fan, Fowler definately has had a dissapointing end to our career, in my opinion better than Owen for longer. But my fav player is Barnsey, along with Nathan......'You can be slow or fast but you must get to line'

Steve Nicol (note spelling!!) was a very good player. Think he played both full backs, centre back and right mid at various points of his Liverpool career. A bit of a Mr Versatile. I also think it was him that Michael Thomas played a 1-2 off when running through on goal to score what proved to be the Championship winning game in what still is the ultimate end to a season. It also remains the only time that football made me cry.

Phil, Fowler at his peak was definitely better than Owen. I was checking on Wiki, and Fowler reached 100 goals in 165 games for Liverpool (1 quicker than Rush incidentally). It doesn't give the same stat for Owen, but given he scored 118 goals in 216 appearances, I doubt he was as quick as Fowler. Although I've just been reading in detail, and it mentions Owen scoring his 150th goal for Liverpool. His season best was 28 goals, which he did two seasons running. Overall, Owen definitely had more pace and did more work in the channels. Fowler was a typical predator, only came alive in the final 3rd, but definitely the better finisher of the two.