Midfielder: Roy Keane
A man so hard (or just so unhinged) that even Ferguson thought twice about crossing him. A renowned , but also a remarkably talented midfield-enforcer, he was taken under the wing of the great Brian Clough as the future of Nottingham Forest before being sold to Manchester United for a transfer record of £3.75m in 1993 upon Forest’s relegation.
He soon became vital to United’s success, offering the type of protection which allowed the likes of Paul Scholes, David Beckham and Ryan Giggs to flourish at the club. As a captain and inspirational figure, he was impeccable; as a human being he was far less reliable.
Still a reviled figure in Ireland for the way he left the squad during the 2002 world cup, he is perhaps most infamously known for deliberately going out to end the career of Manchester City’s Alfie Haarland during a Premier League game in 2001, an apparent act of revenge. In Keane’s words:
‘I’d waited long enough. I fucking hit him hard. The ball was there (I think). Take that you cunt. And don’t ever stand over me sneering about fake injuries.’
Nice guy.
Midfielder: Billy Bremner
The ultimate hard man, in the ultimate hard team, Bremner was the small, ginger beating heart of the dominating Leeds team of the early 70s. Voted Leed’s greatest ever player and a Scotland cap over 50 times, Bremner was not only a fantastically gifted midfielder but also a brutally hard-man, who would take on opponents using fair means and foul.
Always a wily wee one, he made his mark early in his career, being lifted off the ground for a telling off by Dave Mackay (see below) for a robust tackle after Mackay had recently returned from a broken leg.
A notoriously dirty player in a notoriously dirty team, Bremner was one of a kind; but you wouldn’t have told him that.
Midfielder: Dave Mackay
George Best once commented about Mackay:
‘Mackay was unquestionably the hardest man I ever played against. And certainly the bravest.’
For a man that had been roundly kicked by many of the men on this list, this is praise indeed. The ex-Spurs hardman and lynchpin of Brian Clough‘s title-winning Derby side, Mackay was also a true gentleman and an intelligently astute manager, for Derby and Forest among others. Proof that brawn doesn’t have to come without brains.
Forward: Duncan Ferguson
Fondly remembered as an all-round nutter (I remember him trying to remove the head of Neil Lennon, a man who could handle himself), Big Dunc not only spent time in jail for an assault on a Raith Rovers player in 1994, but he has also been reprimanded for several taxi rank brawls and a fight with a fisherman.
He is perhaps best known outside of football for foiling a burglary attempt on his Liverpool house; one of the burglars, which he reprimanded himself, needed three days in hospital to recover from the battering he received.
Should have probably gone for Scot Gemmill instead.
Forward: Ferenc Puskas
An odd choice you might thing, but consider this; an extraordinarily gifted footballer, he was also a major in the Hungarian army, played during some of the roughest years of football in one of the roughest leagues as the most-skillful player, but was also a dab-hand at street-fighting. That’s right. After a game against Brazil kicked-off post-match (so to speak) he kept attackers from entering the changing room armed with just a boot and a bottle.
That’s an image that will stay with you for a while.
Substitutes
Honourable mentions must go to Willie Woodburn, a Scottish centre-back who was so dirty that he was banned for life by the SFA; Chic Charnely, who is the holder of the British record for professional red cards, and owns a pub in the hard Glasgow area Maryhill; Marco Tardelli, who could remove limbs with the precisness of a machete, and Basile Boli, for the sheer ballsiness of headbutting Stuart Pearce.
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