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Topics: Football, Roy Keane, Vinnie Jones
Chris Nee
Former Premier League defender Neil Ruddock knew a tough nut when he saw one but didn't believe Roy Keane or Vinnie Jones were among the hardest footballers of all time.
Liverpool have had plenty of hatchet men in their time and Ruddock picked the hardest of them at the top of a ranking list for FourFourTwo.
Keane is nowhere to be seen in the top 25 and Ruddock had a message for the former Manchester United skipper.
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"Roy Keane wouldn’t make my top 50," said the 57-year-old Londoner.
Hollywood star and former Wimbledon man Jones makes the top ten, tucking in at number seven between Duncan Ferguson and Steve McMahon, who was named as the hardest by the Welsh international after he clobbered the Liverpool midfielder in the 1988 FA Cup final.
Ruddock's top five reveal him as a purist when it comes to listing football hardmen.
Noel Blake, Terry Hurlock, Mick Harford and Billy Whitehurst were legendary bruisers but notorious ex-midfielder Jimmy Case, who played for Liverpool between 1973 and 1981, is untouchable in Ruddock's eyes.
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"No one messed with Jimmy. He wouldn’t go out and deliberately smash someone, but he was old school," said Ruddock.
"If anyone took liberties with one of his Southampton team-mates, particularly the younger ones like me, they were going to get Jimmy-ed.
"I remember him two-footing Graeme Sharp under the chin at Goodison Park – they went in for a slide tackle on the floor, and Jimmy missed everything but got him. He was only 5ft 9in, a wiry Scouser, but he was tough as teak."
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Ruddock's rager ranking also includes ex-Reds Graeme Souness, Julian Dicks and Tommy Smith, as well as a ferocious Leeds United corps comprising Dave Mackay, Ron 'Chopper' Harris and Norman 'Bite Yer Legs' Hunter.
Bryan Robson and Mark Hughes make the cut to represent Manchester United while John Hartson and Pat van den Hauwe join Jones in the Welsh corner.
Punk-loving England legend Stuart 'Psycho' Pearce ranks two places higher than Brian 'Killer' Kilcline, Coventry City's heavy metal fanatic.
"He could head the ball further than most players could kick it," Ruddock said of the Sky Blues' FA Cup-winning captain.