Favourite ever non-Liverpool side

[gingerhulk]

Lazio team of early 2000's, when they had, Sven, nesta, crespo, veron. That team brings back such good memories of my childhood.

[corro]

The current Barca side. If only for the fact they have smashed the other cunts in two finals.

The final at Wembley was fucking marvelous watching the gin soaked pisspot looking at his watch with 15 mins to go praying for the game to end.

[TheHowieLama]

Mid 70's Bayern with Der Kaiser, Muller, Breitner etc...

[Newport]

Lazio team of early 2000's, when they had, Sven, nesta, crespo, veron. That team brings back such good memories of my childhood.

 

Nedved ...

[Trumo]

That Lazio squad had some real top class players in it, but they were a bit like the current Man City squad in that - even though they generally picked up good results and won trophies - the feeling persisted that they should be a lot better and more dominant given the quality at their disposal. Odd that Roberto Mancini is prominent with both.

 

The late-90s Juventus were sort of the opposite. They still had a nucleus of top class talent and were well capable of getting the results they needed, but it still looked like the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.

 

The late-80s/early-90s Milan side struck the best balance in that they got results, dominated teams and it never looked like they were either under- or over-achieving.

 

For me, there is no doubt that the period spanned by these teams, which included trophy wins by the likes of Sampdoria, Napoli, Roma, Fiorentina and Parma, provides conclusive proof that Serie A was far and away the best league in the world at that time. 'Gooooooool Laccio!' indeed.

[Pidge]

Redondo-era Real were brilliant.

[stringvest]

early 70s Ajax. Playing a different game to the rest of the world. Three times European Champions. British commentators couldn't understand it. British managers couldn't understand it. The ultimate team in the team game that is football.

[boomer39]

the spurs double winning side of the early 60's... a joy to watch as a 14 year old..

my next fav... any team that beats the dung.....

[Bjornebye]

Celtic 03

Ajax 96

Ac Milan 89

Barca now

Blackburn 95

[RJ Fan club]

Some great side mentioned. Beyond those I'd add these, not necessarily for achievement, but they were exciting to watch with some cracking players.

Denmark 86

Holland 88

Croatia 96

[Rambo]

The Coventry them that won the 87 FA cup. Loved houchens diving header.

[Section_31]

Not the full side, but Milan's front three in Istanbul was pretty much perfect.

[fowler9]

Not the full side, but Milan's front three in Istanbul was pretty much perfect.

 

 

 

I'd say the full side was pretty awesome to be fair

 

 

--------------Dida------------

Cafu----Stam-----Nesta---Maldini

--------------Pirlo---------------

--------Gattuso-----Seedorf------

--------------Kaka--------------

---------Shevchenko--Crespo------

 

 

best back 4 around at the time even if they were all getting on even then, Pirlo has always been class despite a lot only seemingly picking up on that in the Euro's, Seedorf was ace back then and Kaka was in the top couple of players around back then and Shevchenko and Crespo is about as clinical as it gets with Inzaghi on the bench!

 

weak points in Gattuso who whilst alright I always found rather overrated, would've had Ambrosini in the team over him any day and possibly Dida but I think it might have been after that he became a bit shit

[Baldi]

The France side from 82 - 86 , best side never to have won the World Cup. Cheated by Germany in the semis in 82 by a shocking tacking by Schumacher on Batiston. Side had players like Platini, Giresse, Fernandez, Tigana and a young Papin. Stylish and easy on the eye.

[lifetime fan]

Bulgaria 94.

[Carvalho Diablo]

Rossy school, 1978 - 79 season.

[Harry Squatter]

Early 90's Colombia, thought that they would at least get to the semi finals or win the 1994 World Cup but went out early, then Andres Escobar was murdered when he got home. I remember them twatting Argentina 5-0 in a qualifier at the River Plate stadium. Had eccentric characters like Valderrama, Higuita then Asprilla, they just made a change from the usual Argentina and Brazil dominated south American scene.

[fowler9]

Real Madrid in the middle of the Galactico era, 03/04 not due to the quality of them (although going forward they could be frightening), all due to signing all the best attackers in the world and plainly not bothering with the defence, I think I watched nearly all their games that season as it was the first one Sky started showing them all after Beckham went there and the games were always mental, their starting line up was something like

 

--------------------Casillas--------------

Salgado----Pavon----------Bravo----Carlos

--------------Beckham---Helguera--------------

Figo-----------------Raul-----------Zidane

--------------------Ronaldo---------------

 

 

the two at Centre back were absolutely appalling particularly Pavon and I remember a game against Sevilla where another lad called Ruben played and got absolutely bummed by Baptista and got dragged off in tears then after the starting line up it was basically Guti and Solari then a bunch of kids from the reserves as they'd pissed off the likes of Mcmanaman, Morientes, Cambiasso and Makelele by not paying them anything like the Galacticos or by simply not playing them enough so ended up using the likes of Nunez, Minambres, Portillo and Borja Fernandez whenever a first teamer wasn't available and none of them were anywhere near ready, the games were always brilliant to watch and you could usually gurantee at least 4 goals

[Baltar]

That Ajax '95 side was special. That season remains my favourite CL season that hasn't involved Liverpool. George Weah was incredible for PSG that season and looked like he might win it for them by himself. They were beaten by AC Milan in the semi's. AC Milan were ridiculous that season. They lost twice to Ajax in the group stages AND had points deducted yet they still managed to make the final! They were outplayed and deservedly beaten by Ajax though. That Ajax team would have given any team in history a proper match, so talented and almost all their players came through their academy.

[Franny DelMucho]

Arsenal Invicibles

Barca - 2006 - Present

Juve - Zidane, Davids etc

Madrid - Zidane, Ronaldo, Hierro etc

Tranmere - Aldo, Irons, Morrisey, Nevin, Muir

[Duff Man]

Arsenal Invicibles

Barca - 2006 - Present

Juve - Zidane, Davids etc

Madrid - Zidane, Ronaldo, Hierro etc

Tranmere - Aldo, Irons, Morrisey, Nevin, Muir

 

The Madrid of 02/03 were a fucking brilliant team to watch with Zidane, Figo, Raul, Ronaldo and Carlos all playing at a ridiculously high level. Especially Zidane and Ronaldo who were probably the best players in the world at that time. I've never particularly liked Real with their 'galacticos' bullshit but in terms of pure entertainment they were untouchable back then.

[fowler9]

obviously nowhere near the level of other sides mentioned in this thread but Blackpool were a joy to watch in their Premier League season

[The Golden Eel]

Croatia circa 96-98

[fowler9]

I think they often get overlooked due to not being in a more watched league and also due to how good Real and Barca's squad are but Bayern's side is pretty damn impressive at the moment

 

-----------------Neuer--------------

Rafinha----Boateng----Badstuber--Lahm

------Schweinsteiger--Martinez-------

Robben-----------Muller----------Ribery

----------------Gomez-----------------

[Trumo]

Not one of the best sides ever for obvious reasons, but I really liked Leicester City under Brian Little. A squad full of journeymen but they were hugely competitive, played some good football, scored loads of goals, and were unfortunate not to be promoted sooner than they were. People like Kevin Poole, David Oldfield, Steve Thompson, Steve Agnew, David Lowe, Lee Philpott and Ian Ormondroyd (Peter Crouch without the good feet, and taller than Filbert Street's east stand) aren't names that jump out when thinking of quality players, but they were all hugely effective. Paul Kitson looked a class above at that level, and Julian Joachim was the most exciting player at the club since Gary Lineker.

 

The team was trying to compete for promotion with clubs that had loads more money to spend such as Derby, Wolves and Newcastle, and could stand toe to toe with them all. Leicester were unlucky to lose to play-off final in 1992 to King Kenny's Blackburn, who won with a Mike Newell (former Leicester player no less) penalty after a blatant dive by David Speedie (future Leicester player no less). The following year they lost to Swindon in the play-off final, coming back to equalise after going 3-0 down, only to lose 4-3. They finally reached the Premier League in 1994 after beating Derby 2-1 in the play-off final thanks to 2 goals by Steve Walsh, a defender playing up front and scoring regularly. He's a club legend without question.

 

Brian Little left for Aston Villa just a few months later and was replaced by Mark McGhee, who couldn't stop the side from being relegated after only 1 season up. He lasted just over a year before he jumped ship to Wolves, and Leicester replaced him with Martin O'Neill. Results and success-wise, it was definitely a wise move, but the quality of play was certainly better under Little.

 

Not as illustrious as pretty much every other side listed on this thread, but I liked them.