As a middle aged bloke who get’s weird about irrelevant things, I must admit the misuse of the term world class in today’s football bothers me.
I just read someone in another thread here referring to Harry Kewell for Leeds ‘world class’. Now to me world class implies the player would get a spot in a squad where you gather the best in the world.
For instance in my life time I can only think of two Villa players I’d drop in that group. Martinez now and Paul McGrath way back.
Obviously the view of ability is highly subjective, but calling Harry Kewell world class in an era of the talent you saw late 90s is to me a complete misrepresentation of the word. Top class is fine however or even legend, as the term legend is also highly subjective that does not describe the quality of a player. Ian Taylor is for instance an absolute legend.
Pretty sure I could pick 6-7 or even 10 wingers and forwards I’d have in a world squad over Harry Kewell during his time at Leeds.
So how do you define world class?
As an Arsenal supporter, who loves every player in the starting 11 and the bench. I would say we have a lot of potential world class players. Obviously it stems from the fact they are all very young, but no one is there yet. And I also wouldn’t be surprised if we have 3-4 players getting there in a couple of years.