He was very good. There are a few things counting against him; he had the bad luck of being from Nesta’s generation and his move to Madrid didn’t work out very well because that club was in its clownery phase. (Leave it to Real Ma-fucking-drid to still win titles during their clown periods, take notes Liverpool, Chelsea and Man Utd!)

Serie A at the time had so many great central defenders that other than Nesta they struggled to stand out individually. Maldini is an exception because he started at LB and moved in so everyone knew how great he was by then.

In 2006 WC Cannavaro really showed how great he was and that probably had to do with Nest being out injured. Not that Cannavaro was good, but he caught some many eyes compared to his previous career.

I agree it’s Unfair to have a Modric on your bench, basically like the striker being allowed to handball!

I agree with your overall sentiment here. But not having fan in inverted commas and you’ll have a million angry comments about it.

Inverted commas leaves quite a lot of room for interpretation; but makes it clear you do not like this particular fan or his actions.