Premier League 100: Mohamed Salah among those who miss out on our greatest player countdown

Today The Independent begins counting down through the 100 greatest players ever to grace the Premier League, beginning with the 20 who place 100th-81st.

More than 3,830 footballers in total have plied their trade in England’s top league at one point in their career.

Naturally, then, numerous big names have unfortunately been overlooked in our top 100, with competition for places fierce.

Each of our writers compiled their own list of players, with players earning points depending on their position before the overall ranking was then worked out – meaning everybody included names that ultimately failed to make the cut.

Here, four of our reporters single out the players they felt were especially unlucky to miss out.

Blackburn, Chelsea, Newcastle United, Fulham

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The Irishman spent the vast majority of his career in the Premier League, accruing a total of 465 appearances across an 18-year period. During that time he won two League Cups, two Premier League title and a Europa League runners-up medal.

Moving from Blackburn Rovers to Chelsea for £17m, Duff helped usher in a new era for the club as it adjusted its gaze upwards on the back of Roman Abramovich’s investment. It was under Jose Mourinho – after convincing him of his abilities – that Duff reached his heights as a player and capitalised on the potential he had showcased during his early youth.

Duff’s most notable spell at the club came during the 2004/05 season in which, positioned out on the right, he formed a particularly dangerous wing partnership with Arjen Robben. He scored ten goals, including a crucial strike in a 4–2 win against Barcelona in the Champions League and the winning goal in the League Cup semi-final against United, as the Blues romped their way to the title.

Understated, hard-working and with an insatiable “appetite to kill matches” – as Mourinho once remarked – Duff’s worth has been lost amid the high-profile signings and astronomical riches that have flooded the Premier League over the past decade or so. On longevity alone, the Irishman stands to impress. It’s safe to say they don’t make them like Duff anymore. Sam Lovett

Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Stoke, Fulham

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One half of one of the greatest strike partnerships in the league's history. While Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink bludgeoned the ball into the back of the net, it was Eidur Gudjohnsen, with his silky feet resembling the brush to a canvas, who provided the service.

The Icelandic forward, considering his ingenuity and partner's greediness, had a respectable goal rate too, as he helped lay the foundations for the golden era at Stamford Bridge. One of the most two-footed forwards of his era, which acted as one of his best tricks, he would shift the ball as if it was fired into a pinball machine to evade tackles.

A technician capable of dispatching a chance on the volley both high and low, Gudjohnsen's greatest quality may have been an awareness of when to slow down on the move, leaving bodies discarded after trapping the ball.

Perhaps his finest goal came in a thrilling game against Leeds: a bicycle kick, which would have earned him full marks from the judges for its aesthetics, which sent the ball past Paul Robinson before he could move. A subsequent spell with Barcelona further added to his appreciation, but Gudjohnsen proved himself as one of the most majestic players of his time in the Premier League. Jack Rathborn

Chelsea, Liverpool

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Manchester City may have won the league, but the 2017/18 Premier League season will always be remembered as the Mohamed Salah season. The one where he scored 32 Premier League goals in 36 games. The one where he broke Liverpool’s scoring record for a debut campaign. The one where he won the Premier League golden boot, the PFA Players' Player of the Year, the Football Writers' Player of the Year, the PFA Fans' Player of the Year and three Premier League Player of the Month awards.

His was a season of quite staggering individual brilliance. Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino both shone, but it was Salah who almost single-handedly dragged the team to an entirely new level, completely unrecognisable from the man who had toiled for two seasons at Stamford Bridge.

Should Liverpool hold their nerve at the top of the table this season, no list of the Premier League’s greatest players will be complete without Salah. In just a year-and-a-half at Anfield he has achieved what many players dream of in a lifetime. Luke Brown

Blackburn

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There are better footballers, certainly ones who have won more in the blue and white, but no player in my club’s history gave me as much joy as Tugay did in eight laconic years of laidback brilliance.

Already 30 when he arrived, his legs, that were never really there, had gone entirely. What remained was a player of such effortless talent it was a pleasure to witness. Had he been 25 we’d have had him for five more years. The reality is if he was, we wouldn’t have had him at all.

A 40-yard Hollywood pass here, a 30-yard screamer there, he was capable of running games, ironically, without running at all.

His exit in 2009, in front of a packed Ewood Park decked in uncharacteristic red and white, tells you everything about what Blackburn’s very own Turkish Delight meant. Ben Burrows