Nemanja Vidic was voted as the best Premier League centre back ever

The war will always rage on about who is the greatest of all time in the Premier League, but Nemanja Vidic was voted the best defender by fans.

This year the Premier League is celebrating 30 years since the birth of football, or so Sky Sports and the internet would occasionally have you believe.

Obviously that means that everyone is getting involved in naming something great from the past three decades of the league, with even Michael Owen getting involved.

The father of Love Island star Gemma, sorry I couldn't resist, picked out his greatest XI of the era, and it controversially left out Frank Lampard and Wayne Rooney.

Interestingly, the former Liverpool star left out Virgil van Dijk, having previously named the Dutchman the greatest centre back of all time, that's not even a joke, he said that!

And it seems that fans agree with Owen, this time rather than his previous comments, as they voted Vidic as the best defender in the past 30 years, with the Manchester United great beating John Terry, Van Dijk and his own partner Rio Ferdinand to the title.

Ahead of his testimonial tonight, Vincent Kompany is the first winner in our search for the greatest ever Premier League defender.

Quarter-final number two 👇

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) September 11, 2019

Time for the fourth quarter-final to find the greatest defender in Premier League history

Who are you picking? 👇

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) September 11, 2019

Now we move onto the semi-finals in the battle for the Premier League's greatest ever centre-back! 🛡

Vincent Kompany has named Virgil van Dijk as his pick for the award but now he faces him!

Get voting! 👇🗳

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) September 11, 2019

Virgil van Dijk beats Vincent Kompany and is our first finalist! 👀

Who joins him as we look to decide the best ever Premier League centre-back?

Cast your vote now! 🗳👇

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) September 11, 2019

Here we go, it's the final! 🏆

We've had hundreds of thousands of votes and we're down to our final 2⃣...

Who wins the Premier League's greatest ever centre-back award? 🤔

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) September 11, 2019

The vote took place three years ago, when Van Dijk had just helped Liverpool win the Champions League, beating Tottenham Hotspur in the final.

At that point the Dutchman was not yet a Premier League winner, although the Reds had already looked transformed with him at the back.

That league win, the club's first in 30 years, would come less than a year after the vote, with the former Southampton defender at the heart of the victory.

Breaking that duck certainly could have taken Van Dijk ahead of Vidic in many fans' eyes, especially as the result wasn't too crushing in the first place.

Certainly Ferdinand seems to believe that Van Dijk is a better defender than he was, at least that's what a lie detector test recently proved.

However, the former England captain took that test before this week, when Van Dijk proved that he's just as susceptible to bad defending as anyone else.

The Dutchman was heavily criticised for his part in United's opening goal as they defeated their fiercest rivals 2-1, to register their first points of the season.

Then again, if we're judging defenders only on their performances in United vs Liverpool matches than Vidic would be well don the list, after his famous troubles against Fernando Torres.