Paul Lambert decided to include only one of his Celtic teammates while naming his Dream Team but two former Rangers players.
Paul Lambert played alongside some tremendous teammates during his career. On a recent BBC Sportsound radio show he talked listeners through what he saw as his best XI team from the players he played with. But why has he included a Rangers keeper?
Naturally Henrik Larsson was in the team, Paul couldn’t leave him out:
"“Henrik’s finishing was absolutely deadly. He was brilliant to play with and really top class”"
We’re 100% with you there Paul, but who else could have been selected from those Celtic years? Paul signed in 1997 and played through to 2005 with Celtic. His 193 appearances offer plenty of players to consider for his select XI.
Paul selected the team below. He admits there were some tough choices being made. Questioned about Lubo Moravcik he reckoned it was such a close call but he’d have Lubo on the bench if he was allowed one!
- Stefan Klos
- Julio Cesar
- Matthias Sammer
- Jurgen Kohler
- Jorg Heinrich
- Gary McAllister
- Paul Sousa
- Stefan Reuter
- Henrik Larsson
- Andreas Möller
- Karl-Heinz Reidle
Some terrific players in there, and Klos and McAllister too!
In fairness, despite their Rangers links both were great players. Klos in particular probably stopped Paul celebrating more wins over Rangers than he should have had. So it’s no surprise to see his respect for the keeper he relied on when playing together at Borussia Dortmund.
Any Celtic players for the list need to have been better than those above. Paul’s had a wide selection of Celtic teammates to choose from. Some of those such as John Kennedy could have gone on to greater things in a Celtic shirt had events worked out better, others definitely wouldn’t have been in contention for selection. Paul’s time at Celtic included the signing of Rafael Scheidt for example. And he’s already earmarked Lubo for the bench.
Most famously he could have chosen from the Seville XI in 2003. All of that team were great players, but we must remember Paul has listed some real stars too. Maybe there’s a couple of players who could have been included or at least in very close contention for a place from the Seville team he captained.
Chris Sutton was a great finisher and had an excellent partnership alongside Henrik. As a pairing that might work better in his selection.
Would Alan Thompson prove more deadly than others with his range of goals and great set up play?
You can hear Paul talk through his selection on the BBC.