"I don't think there's ever been a more influential football player in the Premier League. Full stop." Gary Neville had Roy Keane at number one before the sentence was finished — which will surprise absolutely nobody — but his reasoning for the rankings around him is where things get genuinely interesting.
Neville was responding to Jamie Carragher's top 10 on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football, a list that put Steven Gerrard first and had Yaya Toure, Rodri, and Cesc Fabregas in the back half. Neville trimmed it to five and came out swinging: "I'm not as biased as Jamie Carragher."
The list — and the logic behind it
Neville's top five, in order: Keane, Patrick Vieira, Paul Scholes, Gerrard, Rodri. Carragher had Gerrard first. That gap — between first and fourth — is the crux of the argument.
His case against Gerrard being higher isn't about quality. It's about position. "The best Liverpool team that I played was when he was a No 10, driving forward," Neville said. The same logic pushed Scholes to third — brilliant in central midfield, yes, but only consistently stationed there in the latter half of his career.
Rodri at five is the most interesting call. Neville was clear-eyed about the limitation: roughly five Premier League seasons, a serious knee injury cutting his peak short. "If he had been in here for 10-12 years, then he'd be challenging for one, two and three." That's a significant compliment. It's also why any Rodri-related markets — whenever he returns — should reflect that his ceiling, on Neville's assessment, is all-time level.
Lampard and De Bruyne both got left out deliberately. Neville framed his list around players who operated in a central two, not attackers wearing a midfield number. "If you're talking about De Bruyne, Lampard and David Silva, you're talking about attacking players." Fair enough — though Lampard's 177 Premier League goals from midfield makes that distinction feel a little clinical.
Tottenham: a harder story to spin
Neville also turned his attention to the relegation battle, and he wasn't gentle about Spurs. After Leeds beat ten-man Manchester United 2-1 at Old Trafford — their first league win there — Neville used the performance as a measuring stick.
"That is a performance I don't think Tottenham are capable of — and that is the scary thing for Tottenham."
Not the six-point gap to Leeds. The performance gap. That's a different problem entirely — one a new manager can't fix in a week.
"You watch Spurs against Sunderland and it is a set of ingredients that don't go together, a concoction of misfits." Roberto De Zerbi lost his first game in charge 1-0 to a Sunderland side in the Championship playoff places but nowhere near a top-flight outfit. West Ham have already climbed out of the bottom three. Nottingham Forest held Aston Villa. Spurs conceded to Sunderland.
Now Cristian Romero — their best defender and captain — is facing reports that suggest he's done for the season after hobbling off at the Stadium of Light. A knee injury, tears in his eyes, a bandage spotted on his right knee walking through London. Tottenham haven't confirmed anything, but De Zerbi called him "crucial for us" and didn't push back on the severity. Brighton visit on Saturday. The odds on Spurs surviving this just shifted again — and not in their favour.
