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Tens of thousands of Mail Sport readers voted over the summer to name the greatest player of all time at each club in the current Premier League.
Thank you to everyone who participated through our online survey or by email.
The 2024/25 top-flight season kicks off on Friday 16th August and we’ll be revealing all the winners this week.
Here are your picks for SOUTHAMPTON, TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR, WEST HAM UNITED AND WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS
Tottenham Hotspur’s best player ever has been voted for by thousands of fans
A West Ham legend has been overwhelmingly voted the club’s greatest player of all time.
SOUTHAMPTON
1: Matt Le Tissier 49.4%
2: Mick Channon 23.3%
3: Terry Paine 8.0%
WINNER: MATT LE TISSIER (1986-2002) Games 543, Goals 212
Le God, as he was known by Southampton fans, was the quintessential one-club man, turning down opportunities to join bigger clubs to spend his entire career on the south coast.
It probably boasts the best highlight video of any Premier League player, scoring a variety of spectacular goals, from blistering dribbles and ferocious volleys to the most delicate curling shots.
Largely due to his individual brilliance, Southampton were able to remain in the top flight throughout his career and his skills earned him the admiration of teammates from teenager Alan Shearer to Wayne Bridge.
He also understood the significance of the occasion. His winner against Arsenal in 2001 was the last goal scored at The Dell, Southampton’s home for more than a century.
Commentator Jon Champion said: “Who better to say goodbye to than one of the greatest players to ever wear the red and white jersey?”
In fact, you’ve decided he’s the best, although Mick Channon, star of the team that won the FA Cup in 1976, also won plenty of support by finishing second.
Terry Paine, who played a total of 816 games for the Saints, finished third, leaving Kevin Keegan in fourth place, the position he also occupied in the Newcastle vote.
Tottenham Hotspur
1: Jimmy Greaves 37.1%
2: Glenn Hoddle 19.4%
3: Harry Kane 13.4%
WINNER: JIMMY GREAVES (1961-70) Matches 379, Goals 266
Although Harry Kane managed to surpass Jimmy Greaves’ goalscoring record at Tottenham before leaving for Bayern Munich, Spurs fans have decided that the number one spot on their all-time list still belongs to Greavsie.
Signed by AC Milan in 1961 to join a Tottenham Hotspur ‘Glory Glory’ side that had just won the Double, Greaves managed to make a huge impact.
He won the FA Cup in 1962 and 1967 and helped Spurs make history in 1963 by becoming the first English club to win a European trophy. Needless to say, he scored twice in the 5-1 Cup Winners’ Cup final win over Atletico Madrid.
Greaves was a goalscoring machine, eluding defenders in tight spaces and a testament to his ability to curl the ball into the net from virtually any angle.
Although injury cost him a place in the England squad for the 1966 World Cup final, his status at White Hart Lane never diminished.
“The greatest goalscorer there ever was or ever will be,” former teammate Cliff Jones said after Greaves’ death in 2021.
He later became known to a younger generation for the way he overcame alcoholism to become a television star on the show Saint and Greavsie with his partner Ian St John.
But Spurs fans remember him first and foremost as a lethal striker. WMcBtF wrote in Mail Sport from Exeter: “Jimmy Greaves, by far. How much would he be worth today?”
Glenn Hoddle, who played in midfield like a quarterback in the 1980s with his range of passing, was a worthy second to Greaves, and Kane a solid third despite not winning a major trophy with his boyhood team.
West Ham United
1: Bobby Moore 44.0%
2: Paolo di Canio 14.7%
3: Mark Noble 12.0%
WINNER: BOBBY MOORE (1958-74) Games 646, Goals 27
As the only Englishman to lift the World Cup as captain, Bobby Moore’s status as a national treasure was assured long before his untimely death from cancer in 1993.
But West Ham fans also remember him as their winning captain at Wembley, leading them to the FA Cup in 1964 and the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1965 beneath the famous Twin Towers.
Immaculate on and off the pitch, Moore introduced a new style of defending to English football, encouraged by his West Ham teammate Malcolm Allison, to build up play and stop the opposition.
His presence helped the Claret-and-Blues enjoy the best period in their history, with cup victories and two League Cup semi-finals and an unbroken run in the First Division including a sixth-place finish the year before his move to Fulham.
His former team-mate Harry Redknapp said of him: “What a man. The most upright, honest guy you could ever meet. He won the World Cup and even his rivals adored him.”
Mail Sport reader Antony from Watford put it simply: “Mooro as a player is head and shoulders above the rest.”
West Ham have enjoyed a resurgence during the Premier League years with Italian maverick Di Canio voted second on the all-time list and Eastender Mark Noble third after spending his entire career with his hometown club.
WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS
1: Billy Wright 42.6%
2: Steve Bull 33.3%
3: Derek Dougan 5.8%
WINNER: BILLY WRIGHT (1939-59) Matches 541, Goals 16
More than three-quarters of Wolves voters went for one of two legends, divided by time and position but both universally loved and respected at Molineux.
Eventually, former England captain Billy Wright (the first player to win a hundred caps for his country) was selected in place of goal-machine Steve Bull, helping Wright to be part of the most golden period in Wolves’ history while Bull had to score his goals in the lower divisions.
Wright overcame his fear of being too small to be a central defender and led Wolves to three league championships and the FA Cup in 1949.
He was voted Footballer of the Year in 1952 and was awarded the CBE after retiring.
His marriage to Joy Beverley, part of the acclaimed musical group The Beverley Sisters, made him part of the first truly “celebrity couple” recognized wherever they went.
A statue of Wright greets visitors to today’s Molineux. As Wolves and England team-mate Bert Williams said: “You don’t get 100 caps unless you’re exceptional.”
“Bully” came second in the poll in recognition of the record 306 goals he scored for Wolves. Charismatic 1970s striker Derek Dougan pipped Premier League midfielder Ruben Neves to third place.
