Tuesday 19 May 2015 17:39, UK
Former England and Arsenal goalkeeper David Seaman picks his Ultimate XI from his former Gunners team-mates.
The ex-England shot-stopper, who made 564 appearances for Arsenal, had a tough time calling it - leaving out stars including Martin Keown and Marc Overmars - but ended up going for a 4-3-3 formation...
GOALKEEPER: John Lukic
He was just a great guy to meet. When I was at Leeds, John was more or less first-team goalkeeper, and he took me under his wing. He used to pick me up from home and take me to training, and he coached me a little bit.
RIGHT-BACK: Lee Dixon
He was a great full-back. Not just a defending full-back, but an attacking one. He also had a great penalty in him as well. He was a great organiser – he knew, wherever somebody went and wherever back four went, he knew where he had to be.
CENTRE-BACK: Tony Adams (c)
He was just brilliant. A great man motivator – loved to get on your back, but knew when to do it. He didn’t always do it but knew when you needed a little shove. A great leader and it was great with him in front of me.
CENTRE-BACK: Steve Bould
This was in the days when you could tackle from behind and he used to let defenders know he was there. A big guy, he was great on the near post for flick-on’s. Just a solid player, got on with it.
LEFT-BACK: Nigel Winterburn
Nigel was great going forward – a non-stop athlete. He didn’t look like a footballer, though. You see him and he didn’t have the physique, but he could run all day. He scored some great goals as well. That back four was just so special.
CENTRE MIDFIELD: Emmanuel Petit
He was really good on the pitch – he was a nightmare off it! He was very moody – you’d walk in one day and say ‘morning’ and he’d just walk right past you and blank you, then another day he’d be like ‘yeah, hi, you OK?’. But on the pitch he was just phenomenal. He used to see passes behind him and you’d be like ‘how did he see that?’.
CENTRE MIDFIELD: Patrick Vieira
Those two together (Vieira and Petit) were brilliant. It was so hard to put it as a three because I’ve known so many wingers, but I had to put Patrick in because he was our anchor man. When you see Yaya Toure play, they’re very similar. They look lazy, but they’re not. All of a sudden he had this burst of energy and could score great goals.
CENTRE MIDFIELD: Robert Pires
He was a great player and didn’t get the credit he deserved. He got a really bad injury – did a cruciate – but he came back and was still brilliant.
RIGHT FORWARD: Thierry Henry
What do you say about a guy like him? In training he was brilliant. When Arsene came in, you had to train like you were going to play. I’ve seen Martin, Tony, Sol and Steve kicking lumps out of him, but he just got up and gave them some back. A proper athlete and he could change the game in a flash.
CENTRE FORWARD: Dennis Bergkamp
You just didn’t know what he was going to do next. And I still don’t know if he meant it for that goal at Newcastle or not! When Arsenal signed him it gave us a great lift.
LEFT FORWARD: Ian Wright
A natural, natural finisher and a great competitor as well. He would kick goalies, I’ve seen him elbow goalies and do a lot of nasty stuff, but he was a proper centre forward. He just loved scoring.
This week's show features West Ham striker Carlton Cole, and you can meet him.