Lineker, Shearer & Richards rank Premier League hard men

Lineker, Shearer & Richards are back once again for their Match of the Day podcast, this time to rank Premier League hard men.

Over the years, we’ve seen plenty of footballers that you wouldn’t want to upset, wind-up or mess around whether that’s on the training ground, in the tunnel or on the pitch especially taking into account.

Tough tacklers and red card specialists are just some of what has been mentioned by the MOTD lot, so why out their reasons and top 10 picks below…

Diego Costa (Richards: 10th, Shearer: 10th)

Richards: He wasn’t a tough cookie. It’s a facade. He shouldn’t be in there. I played against him with Villa and he kept niggling all game.

I pulled him in the tunnel at half-time and said ‘What are you doing? If you want to scrap…’ but he didn’t want it.

It was all an act. Richard Dunne was tougher than him. Sylvain Distin, Kevin Nolan, Joey Barton were tougher than him. I’m not happy he’s on the list.

Shearer: He was more of a pest and a nuisance and he just irritated everyone. I wouldn’t say he was a hard man.

Julian Dicks (Richards: 9th, Shearer: 2nd)

Richards: I watched some tackles. He looked quite horrible.

He probably would have gone further down the list but I didn’t play against him.

Shearer: The tackles he put in were designed to hurt. They were there with intent.

Some of his tackles were horrible.

David Batty (Richards: 8th, Shearer: 7th)

Shearer: He had a scrap with Graeme le Saux in Moscow. It was -10 degrees, we lost 3-0, it was a terrible night.

I always got the impression with Batts he didn’t really love football. You couldn’t accuse him of not giving his all but he was last into training, first away.

He was a great lad, it was great to have him in the team. I was with him at Blackburn and Newcastle. And he won the title at Leeds.

Richards: You’d hear the stories about him being a hard man. Some of his tackles were brutal.

Stuart Pearce (Richards: 7th, Shearer: 6th)

Richards: He gave me my debut. I’d have had him further down the list but he was so good to me. You knew he had it in him. He was quite a nice guy but when he came in and you hadn’t been running…

Lineker: I felt the hard side on occasion. He was a quiet soul but he was tough. A brilliant left-back. He was very dour. I hardly ever saw him laugh or smile.

One time I saw him laugh Forest had a free-kick and I was in the wall which I never enjoyed. He did a long run-up and absolutely blasted it, got me straight in the nuts.

As I’m lying down he came over and looks at the crowd and starts laughing. He starts doing a Micah Richards laugh. The only time I’ve seen him smile.

Patrick Vieira (Richards: 6th, Shearer: 5th)

Richards: He was the nicest horrible man. He was elegant, smiling but as soon as you get on the training ground he was disgusting.

It was always down your shins. I was star struck when I met him. He came to Manchester City. I’m in awe, this is Vieira. I’ve told him ‘I’ve gone from loving you to hating you within a day of meeting you’.

Off the field he was such a nice person but he turned [in training] – two-footed tackles. He had more ability than people give him credit for.

Shearer: What a player. His touch, the range of passing, his energy was unbelievable. He was a huge driving force.

Jaap Stam (Richards: 3rd, Shearer: 9th)

Richards: It was the size of him. It was those eyes.

You wouldn’t want to make eye contact. He was a top player.

Shearer: You got very little from him. He was strong, quick, tough as. He hardly gave anything away.

I’m not sure I’d describe him as a really hard man. He was a good player.

Vinnie Jones (Richards: 2nd, Shearer: 8th)

Shearer: He was definitely a character. At one time he was a brickie or hod carrier.

So to get where he did in football was remarkable and sums him up. But there were some really evil, disgusting challenges.

Does it make you a hard man if you scythe someone down?

Lineker: I thought he’d be lower than that [on Shearer’s list]. He was the quintessential hard man.

He didn’t have a lot else to his game. He was a hard man and had a long throw. He grabbed the odd superstar by the nuts.

Roy Keane (Richards: 5th, Shearer: 3rd)

Richards: Some of these guys are before my time and the reason he slipped down to five is because I was watching Duncan Ferguson videos, and Jaap Stam and Roy Keane walked away from a confrontation.

So I wondered how hard are you really? Roy let me down. Everyone talks about him being a hard man. He’s nice with me [in their roles as Sky Sports pundits].

You guys [Lineker and Shearer] are legends of the game and Roy is in that category. So when you have to work with him, you’ve got respect.

I love working with him. I couldn’t compete with him as a player, with medals, but I can make him uncomfortable on camera.

Shearer: I had my battles with him. That challenge on Alf Inge Haaland… is that hard? All these players on this list would have put in a terrible tackle or two.

Nemanja Vidic (Richards: 4th, Shearer: 4th)

Richards: He kept it simple. He wasn’t great on the ball, he had Rio Ferdinand for that. He did his job.

He did all the hard yards, like John Terry, he’d put his head where the ball was. I had a couple of tunnel bust-ups with him.

I don’t like losing or having a bad game. You had more respect for him. You want to show someone you’re not afraid of that. He was playing for the Reds so you never like Reds.

Shearer: He’d never walk away from a battle or a fight because of where he’s from, how he was brought up. He had that hard look about him. He wouldn’t have shirked anything.

Duncan Ferguson (Richards: 1st, Shearer: 1st)

Richards: From the videos and how big he is… Stam walked away, Keane walked away. He’s got to be number one. He’s got the eyes, you wouldn’t mess with him.

Shearer: I played against him and I played with him. You know when someone has an aura about them. He had a presence when he walked in, the size of him.

He had this reputation and he didn’t disappoint. If looks could kill, he could kill you with a look. I don’t know anyone in the game who doesn’t think that about him.

You could see the fear in defenders’ eyes in the tunnel. To go into battle with him was magnificent. Most defenders were petrified to go near him. He could fight with the best of them, tackle with the best of them. He was unplayable in the air.

What a good player he was. He scored an unbelievable half-volley on the turn against Manchester United at St James’ Park. He was the hardest. He was frightened of nothing or no-one.