Top 20 Players Since The Millennium

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Thanks to Steven Goran Erik son for the ideas ill put forward on this blog in the next few weeks and tonights blog is one of them. I have wrote the My Top 20 Stoke Players since the year 2000. Why the year 2000? well I was born in 1992 and I dont remember much of my time as a Stoke fan until 2000. I did go matches on a regular basis before then I just only remember bits and blobs, however I do remember the last game at the beautiful Victoria Ground but ill give you my childhood Stoke stories another day so I wont say much more, but now back to what the blog is about. The Year 2000 was in a way in the middle of one of the worst parts of Stokes rich historical past and lets face it we saw some trash in that patch of history with players like Henrik Risom a former Danish International, Lee Collins a ex-Villa player, Ben Petty another former Villa player, Dave Rowson a player who was described as one of the  Gump Worsley Jersey best bosmans in United Kingdom at the time so a lot of Stokies were hoping for a top player but we all know now how wrong they were; to be honest the list is endle s. Since then we have had a new club crest, 4 new managers in Gudjon Thordarson, Steve Cotterill, Tony Pulis (twice) & a large Dutchman by the name of Johan Boskamp, 2 consortiums have brought the club, Promotion from League 1 & The Championship, More loans than a Bank so its been an interesting ride. Anyways lets start of with Number 2020. Arnar Gunnlaug sonThe bald Icelander midfielder was a quality player on both stints at The Britannia in 2000 and in 2002 twice on loan from fellow Midlanders Leicester City playing a key role in winning the Auto Windscreens Shield & winning promotion from Division 2. Overall he played 22 times scoring 5 but the cla s he showed was pure brilliance. A memory sticks in well was a clash with fellow Promotion hopefuls Brighton & Hove Albion in a crowd of over 21,000 and match been delayed by 15 minutes because of too many people needing to get in. Anyway we won a freekick on the right of the 18 yard box about 25 yards out he curls in a belter Dino Ciccarelli Jersey  of a freekick and crashes into the cro sbar, if hed of scored the goal it would off been one of the best I have seen down The Brit it wastrulya pearler. In the Summer of 2002 he joined SPL team Dundee United and a year later he went back to Iceland and is now joint manager of his hometown and former club IA Akranes with his twin brother Bjarki Gunnlaug son for the 2nd time. If he signed with us permanently and stayed a while I think hed be closer to the Number 10 mark because of his sheer brilliance with the Ball.The Bald Eagle19. Brynjar Gunnar sonGood old Brynjar, another Icelandic international was a 600k signing from Orgryte IS in Sweden at the time he was the record signing. He was a terrific central defender or his usual position of defensive midfielder with great vision and a keen eye for a good pa s; he was a quality above the Stoke squad at the time and deserved to be in a much higher league in which he did so a few years later. He was a model profe sional on and off the pitch but did have a hot temper but that was just the sign of raw pa sion and love for the club, he never complained about the clubs poor performances and just got his head down and the hard work was rewarded as in 2002 where he played a major part in the promotion winning side even though he broke several bones in his feet half way through the season. He played 40 times during the survival season in Division 1 and was one of only a few players to look good into stepping up to the grade, the end of the 03-04 season he moved to Nottingham Forest on a free transfer much to the anger of Stoke fans and when he rejoined the club on loan in 2004 he was returned with a huge section of supporters booing because of the antics during the summer, he didnt impre s much during his loan spell only playing in 3 matches and joined Watford in the Summer 2004. He was a great coup for the Hornets, he fount his form in which he had in his early days at Stoke but a switch of manager and Andrew Cogliano Men Jersey  he was then sold to Reading for a nominal fee and was instrumental in there Championship Title winning squad and also performed well in The Premier League  Julius Honka Jersey and including scoring against Liverpool and Manchester United. He might of treated the club poorly at the end of his stay but he was a quality player during a dark time and deserves to be included in my Top 20Brynjar Strutting His Stuff18. Mikael Han sonAlso known by the Stokies as The Flying Swede. He was ble sed with frightening pace something Stoke fans have not seen before from a Right Back and he was brought from the unknown as it were. A free transfer from Norrkoping in his native homeland; who ever fount this gem deserves a lot of credit. He was here for 3 years but only played 66 games because he had serious problems with injuries and it blighted his career at Stoke and in 2002 he eventually retired from a injury during pre-season. If he didnt have the injury problems Im pretty confident in saying this but he would of played many more games than he did and would of been a great player in at least The Championship maybe even higher thats how good this guy was on his day.Flying Swede17. John EustaceSuper, Super John, Super, Super John, Super, Super John, Super Johnny Eustace that was his song during his stay but It didnt start of like that. He was a Free transfer signing from Coventry City in the Summer of 2003 and lets say his start was a bit slow with many (including myself) called him Johnny Usele s but then something odd happened he started to play  Corey Perry Women Jersey very well and went on a bit of goal scoring run and this was the dawn of a great player and changed his entire season and turned out to be a succe sful season. However the next few years where an absolute nightmare the season after the very fruitful one in which he only played 8 games. During a game against Wigan Athletic he got injured and the injury ruled him out for over 1 & a half years and many thought it was the end of his footballing career. I met him during that spell and we spoke for over 20 minutes and he was truly a top bloke and loved playing for Stoke. In 2006 he joined Hereford United on loan to get match fitne s and was a very succesful loan with no injuries, he was recalled because of injuries to Stokes midfield and held the position until he left the club in January to Watford in a 250k deal. Super John you are legend to us Stokies and wont forget the pa sion and your love for Stoke CitySuper Johnny Eustace16. Paul GallagherI remember the day we signed him, came back from a holiday, went on computer and saw we signed Paul Gallagher from Blackburn Rovers, I was very optimistic in this signing but was just reserving my feelings for a while but my optimism was right scoring 11 goals in 36 games; the best goal came against Southampton from about 30 yards out he just belts the