Damien Duff

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Nayef - Duff used to run right through mid-fielders and defenders alike and then slot the ball home at the near or far post (i think his goal vs ipswich is my favourite). I liked the way Wilcox played as well weaving in and out of the left side before putting in a good low cross. Too young to recognise a few of the others so the irishman gets it.

Duff's Minder That said, the boy Duff was almost certainly the best left-winger in the world when he was playing for us and in modern times only Shearer and Friedel came close to being the best in their position whilst at Rovers. So Duff for me unless one of the old-timers can come up with a very good case...

IanrallyI have been a Rovers supporter for 48 years and have been privilidged to have seen some great players wearing the blue and white halves. In past polls I have voted for players from the sixties like Douglas, Clayton and England as unlike some of the younger forum members I have been able to see play. However in the vote for the greatest left winger there can only be one man for me. Damien Duff. I am sure I will never see a greater left winger.

Manchester Blue - It has little to do with facilities, fitness regimes etc it's god given talent and Duff has it by the sackful. Sellars was one of my favourite players when I first started coming to Ewood but that can't hide the fact that Duff is just just a class above. As the old guy who used to sit next to me used to say about him, 'Barcelona'. He meant he was too good to be playing at Blackburn, as much as it used to annoy me, deep down I knew it was true.

Al - Up to now I have written the praises of some of the great players of yesteryear, Eckersley, Newton, Douglas, England and Clayton, some successfully and some not, however in spite of having seen all of the nominees for left winger play, all of them memorable and most of them great, I have never seen one that exited me as much as our Duffer. I say 'our' because I still consider him ours even though he now plays for another team. The man has everything, super first touch, speed, ball control, finishing and a football brain that tells him when to pass and when to go it alone. I am not so steeped in nostalgia to not appreciate a current player and my vote will definately go to Damien. Come on you fellow old timers, you know deep down that in 20 years time he will still be talked about because he is simply the best left winger in living memory.

Al - For anyone who never saw him he is probably best likened to a right sided Damien Duff. Maybe a tad better. (Imagine the two of them on opposite wings. Wow!) He had the ability to have the ball under control in an instant and could beat a man on a sixpence. His favourite and probably most devastating move was to take the ball right up to the goalpost on the byeline. The goalkeeper had no choice than to cover his near post and Bryan would look up and pick out a Rovers man with his back pass (all along the ground). The lucky guy had the easiest of tasks to slide the ball home. Although best known as a goal maker he also chipped in with his share of goals too! He was then picked up by England and quickly given the name 'Black Douglas' by the Scottish because of the devastating effect he had on their team every time he played against them. Later in his career he moved to attacking centre midfield where he developed a superb through ball to either Fred Pickering or Andy McEvoy, but that is a different position and a good case could probably be made for his inclusion in there. VOTE DOUGLAS. You know it makes sense.

bob fleming Duffer - magnificent. I used to watch him for the youth team and he and Damian Johnson would terrorise defences. The bloke has it all. His tricks include turning the right full back in an anti-clockwise run with the ball glued to his left foot and also dummying the ball completely whilst running around the bemused full back before he knew where the ball and the player have gone. He was worth the entrance fee alone. Damn that Russian bloke.

speeeeeeeedie - Duff: he has the workrate of Wilcox, the skill of Sellars and better finishing ability than both of them. Quite simply class. Runs all day and terrorises defenders. Everyone who sees him knows how good he is in Chelsea's team, he was just like that for us, but without the supporting cast. Most people wish he would have stayed longer, but 17 million was too hard to pass up.

ainscough99 - duff has absolutly everything, pace, skill,technique and that bit of magic that makes him the great player he is. this lad is going to light up the premier league and the world stage for many more years yet. duffer it is for me!

roversismylife - Duff, originially spotted by Liverpool and later released. Liverpool released him as they didn't think that Duff was 'switched on' and had a lack of knowledge for the game. Duff was proabably one of the best players Rovers have ever had to play in a Blue and White shirt. I was lucky enough to meet him once, the season before we got relegated and as a person he was quiet but pleasant. Nothing surprised Rovers fans during the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, Duff particuarly played well against Germany and Spain in the Far East. World Football knew who Duff was, Rovers managed to negotiate terms with an extended contract that summer. A year later Chelski matched the release clause in Duff's contract. As a fan I can't blame Duff for leaving Rovers, no matter how dissapointed I was at the time. We couldn't provide compared to Chelsea, as a place, money, ambitions and Champions League Football. But considering we got a lot out of Duff, great memories for both the fans and himself a great player and £17M. I wish him the best of luck and hope he achieves what he wants to in his promising career. I just think that most people who watch him will remember Duff playing for Chelsea and not Rovers.

Bryan - But despite all that, I will be going with the herd and voting for Duffer, although I have to say that I think some of the portrails of him in this thread suffer from the usual Short Term Memory Syndrome. The world class tag only applied to the latter days of his Ewood stay. In the several seasons before Souness arrived, Duffer was more often than not an enigmatic, slightly overweight, hunch-shouldered, rather folorn figure out on the left touchline, who would mostly just play the ball back to Stig. He was completely ineffectual in our relegation team and the first season in Div 1. Where was the Dickov-like stampede for his services when we went down? I think Souness's greatest achievement as a manager of players was the reinvention of Duffer. Another factor which slightly taints the Irish wizard for me was his national and global exposure as a diver i.e. a cheat. The penalty he won for Ireland in the World Cup was clearly a dive; but for me the worst one was at the Hawthorns in West Brom's first season up. They were a crap team, but he still felt he needed to dive, and was clearly exposed on TV as doing so. Also his trademark cutting across the defender after coming inside, which won him many free kicks, was usually a tumble at the slightest of contacts. But hey, he was our diver, so that's OK. Please spare me the torrent of abuse for not slavishly worshipping young Damien - I'm still voting for him as the best left winger - but I think he is a tier below the true greats like Shearer, Crompton etc.

blue blood - It has to be Duff. As the others mentioned such as Wilcox and Sellar's were good but Duff is arguably the best left winger in the Prem, and is one of the top players in the Prem, let alone for Blackburn. Pires, Giggs - I'd rather have Duff any day. The arguments for Duff have been put forward so I won't repeat them but just state a couple of things that clinch it for me. Duff playing as a right winger vs Leciester under Hodgeson in the 5-3 victory - as I recall he terrorized them that day. His goal against Ipswich was awesome, most of his goals were pretty spectacular, but that one was a cracker even for him. Nothing special about the finish but the fact that he started when he was half way in the opposition half with the ball about to go out for a throw with several defenders around him. No one in the ground was expecting anything yet 30 seconds later the balls in the back of the net, another super goal from Duff. And that to me is why he's so good, from next to nothing a scrapy incident near the touchline, Duff managed to get a goal for Rovers with his running, skill and a bit of magic. Duff, like all truely class players, had the ability to make something from nothing that bit of magic which made you realise you're watching a football genius.

soupdragon - No competition in my book (nor many others by the look of it). Duff is one of the two genuinely world-class players I've seen at Ewood (Friedel has been superb but not truly world-class). Damien on the other hand is a magician, not only with tremendous ball control and dribbling ability, but with a tremendous awareness of what is going on around him and when to play the simple ball. Still remember his first game (4-2 defeat against Leicester last game of the season) and even I (being the great talent spotter that I am) thought the little shuffler had something special about him.

samtheozzy - I voted for the older players (ie not from the 90s) for the other positions but I simply cannot go past Duff. For me he is clearly our best ever left winger. There are certainly other wingers who have been underrated or performed a great service to the club but honestly, if you put them next to Duff there is little question about who is the better player.