I can really and I just did.
You can't really put a player up there on 4 months performance if you want to do that Negri eclipses Mols. Mols was a tragedy a case of what might have been but it was what it was.
Technically I'd put Jelavic up there in terms of ability and performing at the top level. Alfie has been blighted by poor discipline.
I can really and I just did.
For me on a personal level that four months before the injury I saw a guy whose touch, technique and control plus that turn, was and still is unlike anything I've ever seen. One of my biggest regrets is that we never got to see him against the likes of Stubbs and Mjalby before that injury. We'd still be talking about it now.
Do I think he was a better, more natural goalscorer that Jelavic or Negri or Boyd? No I don't.
But in terms of making a chance purely on his own, off of his own back, he and Alfie stand alone.
It's a testimony to Mols that he did come back and there were still some of those vintage 'turns'. But sadly, he never did get to hit the heights before early November 99.
Thing is, ironically, no Mols in Parma away in the 99 qualifier, there would have been no trip to Munich in the group stages thereafter. Mols, with his abilty hold the ball up on his own was the key that night.
As we say often and long, it's all about opinions.