John Charles played in an era where defenders were lucky if they got booked for GBH. He'd get my vote for both categories Just my opinion - others are equally important & valid.
Bale and Giggs in the top ten but never top...John Charles head and shoulders above the both of them....
Its a difficult one, I have never seen him play, apart from grainy pictures on the TV. Yes from what my father and others say he was class and if there was a vote on it he would probably win. But I think it is very difficult to judge from different eras, yes if he played now he should e class as well. But as you said he used to get clattered and no doubt give it back, people say Bale wouldn't have survived back then, but he would because if he played then that would have been all he knew and Mathews survived, would Charles survive with the pace of todays game., who knows. It is all subjective and for me the best 3 Welsh players I have recollection of would be Charles (only from what I am told), Allchurch (same reason) and Bale. I haven't included Giggs as I it is hard to consider him Welsh as he let Wales down so many times. Just my opinion.
Is Neville Southall better than John Charles, Ryan Giggs or Gareth Bale? Wales's most capped international and a top class goalkeeper, how can you compare players who play in different positions??
They do it every year with player of the year and the Ballon D'or, Now if we were picking an all time 11, Southall would be in there all day, My son Is a keeper and I always show him clips of how good he was.
Southall has to be one of the best keepers in his day. 1 Neville Southall 54 (54, 0) / 2 4800 91% 20 71 1.33 0 / 2 - 54 69 +2 - 2 Paul Jones 37 (36, 1) / 1 3220 61% 8 58 1.62 0 / 2 - 37 40 -15 - 3 Wayne Robert Hennessey 34 (34, 0) / 0 3060 68% 15 33 0.97 0 / 4 - 34 49 = - 4 Dai Davies 24 (24, 0) / 0 2160 75% 9 28 1.17 0 / 3 - 24 34 +9 - 5 Gary Sprake 17 (17, 0) / 2 1477 48% 3 25 1.52 0 / 1 - 17 12 -7 - 6 Jack Kelsey 13 (13, 0) / 0 1170 81% 4 13 1.00 - - 13 16 = - 7 Anthony Millington 12 (11, 1) / 0 1035 47% 3 19 1.65 - - 12 10 -9 - 8 Danny Coyne 7 ( 7, 0) / 0 630 31% 1 9 1.29 0 / 1 - 7 3 -5 - Glyn Myhill 7 ( 7, 0) / 0 630 35% 1 16 2.29 - - 7 6 -9 - 10 Wayne Hennessey
You cant compare players from different eras. It is also difficult to compare a goal keeper to a striker. But for a small nation we have produced a lot of world class players and Neville Southall was seen as the best keeper in the world at the time. John Charles was also named as a world class center half and striker. Besides all this he was a great sportsman the incident where he kicked the ball out of play when he could of scored because the keeper went down injured is well known. And after that game all the away supporters went to his house because they wanted to thank him and he ended up giving them wine. What a superstar he was and from Cwmbwrla at that!
Southall should be in goal for wales today.....Players would have a hard job finding any space to score with the size he has gone....