10  Tony Dorigo
Position Left-back
Clubs Leeds United, Derby

A controversial inclusion for a man who represented England at U21, B and senior level, but Melbourne-born Dorigo leaned on his British passport to boost his Premier League career before Australia’s recent rise in football.

Before the Premier League formed in 1992, the flying left full-back had already accumulated a staggeringly impressive career in England’s top flight, including well over 100 games apiece for Aston Villa, Chelsea and then Leeds – where he won the final version of the old First Division. He makes this list for his continued Premier League career at Leeds for a further five years, before a short stint at Derby after playing in the 1990 World Cup.

9 Stan Lazaridis
Position Left winger
Clubs West Ham, Birmingham

Anyone who has seen the square shouldered Perth-born left winger with his head down, bolting down the flank like an old fashioned English wide player from the ’50s could tell he was perfect for their game. Lazaridis was spotted during West Ham’s tour of Australia in 1995 when coach Harry Redknapp was impressed with his dribbling and pace. ‘Laza’ spent four seasons in east London, before his career really took off in the Midlands at Birmingham, where he was instrumental in the Blues’ promotion back to the Premier League in 2003. On Birmingham’s return to the big time, despite several major signings, he kept his place on the left flank. Adored by Hammers and Brum fans during his time at their clubs.

8 Robbie Slater
Position Left winger
Clubs Blackburn, West Ham, Southampton

Robbie, you’ve made our Top 10 Premier League Aussies list. You’re number eight, which isn’t a bad effort, is it?
That’s pretty good. If you were doing the best Aussie players to grace the French league I would have come first!

When you were a youngster growing up, how much was playing EPL football an aspiration for you?
It was the EPL that completely drove me. Growing up the English top flight was what I watched and Liverpool were the team that I got up to watch. It was always a dream and as a kid it felt like a pretty unattainable one. However, that’s where I ended up.

When you signed for Blackburn in 1994, did you actually believe you could fulfil big-spending owner Jack Warner’s dream of winning the title?
I didn’t think it was that unlikely. They came close the year before. They were second behind a very dominant Manchester United side. I actually nearly signed for Aston Villa to play with Bozza [Mark Bosnich]. I had nearly agreed terms with Villa before getting the call from Blackburn. I went straight up the motorway and signed for Blackburn as being a Liverpool fan I wanted to play under Kenny Dalglish. We just signed Chris Sutton too to play alongside Alan Shearer, so I felt we were on the cusp of something at Blackburn, but that United side was going to be hard to stop.

How do you look back on that title winning season now?
It was brilliant. I would have liked to have played more games, but being involved and playing in crucial games in the title race was great. It was a good squad, which didn’t suffer too many injuries. If I wasn’t starting, I was always on the bench, so I travelled everywhere with the squad.

You became the first Australian to win the EPL. Did the significance of that cross your mind at the time or since?
All the journalists from Australia at the time for example were talking to me about it so that bought it to the fore for me. It is still great to be the first Australian to do it.

How did the move to West Ham come about, and how do you remember your time in east London at Upton Park?
A place where I had a lot of injuries. The West Ham manager Harry Redknapp was once interviewed about why I was again injured again and he simply said: “Robbie has broken his tie-up”. A tie-up was something we used to keep our socks up! I had a really troublesome hamstring while I was there.

How difficult was it to maintain an international career all the way over in Australia when playing in the Premier League in those days? What did your coaches say about all that travelling?
It was a vastly different landscape to today where we have qualified for two World Cups and have more respect. But when I was playing it caused me no end of grief. When I was at West Ham I flew to Sweden for a few Australia games in the middle of the season and Harry was really not happy. Plus I came back injured which did not go down well! My coach at Southampton, Dave Jones, had a similar view. When we missed out on the World Cup in 1997, he could not understand why I was then bothered about the Confederations Cup!

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7 Lucas Neill
Position Right-back, Centre-back
Clubs Blackburn, West Ham, Everton

In an EPL career spanning almost ten years and three clubs, you might expect Lucas to be held higher in esteem on this list. But while Neill was a useful servant at each club, staying within the league’s mid- to lower table dwellers meant full blown glory was never likely.

Signed by Blackburn in 2001, the Socceroo captain enjoyed six solid years at Rovers before a major crossroads in his Premier League career – should be join heavyweights Liverpool or relegation-threatened West Ham? He chose the newly cashed-up Hammers and was a vital part of their survival. He was later made club captain in east London, before ending his Premier League career at Everton after making a move on a free transfer. Whether it was money or first-team football that appealed, that Liverpool snub is his eternal EPL “What if?”.

6 Brett Emerton
Position Right midfield, Central midfield
Club Blackburn

Emerton could have joined the Premier League at the age of 16 after he had trialled at Leeds United with future Socceroos team-mate Harry Kewell, but despite arriving late, his longevity places him high on the list.

After three seasons at Feyernoord in the Dutch Eredivisie, Emmo joined Blackburn Rovers in the Premier League in July 2003, scoring on his EPL debut in a 5-1 drubbing of Wolves. His debut season ended with 40 appearances and two goals under his belt, despite not progressing in the UEFA Cup and barely escaping relegation.

Since then Emerton has gone on to make over 250 appearances in his seven years at Blackburn. And he is not done yet.

5 Mark Viduka
Position Striker
Clubs Leeds, Middlesbrough, Newcastle

Viduka often divided opinion during his Premier League career, but history will be kind to Dukes after a very healthy haul of just short of 100 goals in the league.

It was at his first Premier League club Leeds where Dukes really exploded onto the scene, including four goals against Liverpool in a single game, as the Aussie marksman regularly netted over 20 goals a season.

In the wake of Leeds’ financial meltdown and eventual relegation, Dukes stayed in the North with Middlesbrough. His career at Boro started slowly, mainly due to injury problems, but when up-and-running he resumed his strong goal per games ratio at the start of the 2005 season. His final Premier League foray was at  Newcastle, where injuries again curtailed his impact as the Toon were relegated.

Dukes was made for Premier League success – strong, great with his feet and free-scoring. The burly front man relished the physical nature of the league and excelled in tough duels with aggressive centre-backs.

4 Harry Kewell
Position Left winger, Striker
Clubs Leeds, Liverpool

Many will be surprised to see Harry outside of our top three as when he burst onto the scene with Leeds in the late ’90s, the electric left winger was one of the most exciting young players in world football. A failure to fulfil that huge potential and more time on the physio’s bench than the pitch has seen his standing slip.

Kewell made his debut for Leeds as a 17-year-old and in 2000 won the PFA Young Player of the Year award with transfer offers coming in from all over Europe to join the heavyweights of the continent. During this time Harry’s technical skills and general ability changed the perception of the Australian footballer in the Premier League and Europe.

The winger probably stayed at the sinking ship that was Leeds too long, before sealing
a dream move for himself to Liverpool on a free transfer, despite the likes of Manchester United, Barcelona and AC Milan all showing interest.

A general perception of his time at Liverpool is that it was a failure but that’s not true. Kewell started well and notched 11 goals in 49 appearances.

A seemingly endless unlucky run of injuries halted his Reds’ career for the next five years, before leaving for Turkey in 2008. A limp hobble out of the league maybe, but never forget Kewell was one of the competition’s greatest stars at his peak.

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3 Mark Schwarzer
Position Goalkeeper
Clubs Middlesbrough, Fulham

With 430 and counting, Mark Schwarzer has made more Premier League appearances than any non-British player. That is a quite startling fact as longevity in such a tough physical league, even with modern fitness developments in recent years, makes Schwarz’s achievements all the more incredible. 

Despite the marathon Premier League career he has enjoyed, Schwarzer falters where many other Australians have: his lack of accolades. Life at modest outfits Middlesbrough and now Fulham are the cause.

After signing for Boro from Bradford City in 1998, the ever-green stopper proceeded to stay between the Boro sticks for over a decade, making in excess of 350 appearances.
One of his crowning personal moments in Middlesbrough colours came in the final game of the 2004-05 season when Boro hosted Manchester City needing a point to secure UEFA Cup football next season. If City won, they would assume that Euro spot. With the scores locked at 1-1, a stoppage-time penalty to City looked to have doomed Boro. Robbie Fowler stepped up, but was denied by Schwarzer who made the save to seal the place for Boro. Socceroo fans know that feeling well!

His consistent form has been maintained at Fulham, who he joined in 2008, although Arsenal have frequently courted his services for their title push. If only.

2 Tim Cahill
Position Midfielder, Striker
Club Everton

Approaching 200 appearances for a Premier League side where Cahill’s goals, which have come at an incredible rate of nearly one every three games as a midfielder, makes Timmy a worthy runner-up on our list.

You could make a strong case for goal-shy Everton not even being in Premier League at the moment if it was not for Cahill’s continued contribution to The Toffeemen.

Cahill arrived at Everton from Millwall in the summer of 2004 for a paltry £1.5m ($2.4m), making him one of the league’s best value-for-money signings ever.

In his first season at Goodison, Cahill managed to finish as top scorer with eleven goals. Despite being among the relegation favourites at the start of the season, Everton finished the season in fourth place, earning qualification for the UEFA Champions League.

Since then Everton have rotated various strikers with vacillating spells of form, but their leaping Aussie marksman has kept the goals rolling when no-one else at the club looked like getting a shot on target. Cahill can also boast a nomination for the Ballon d’Or in 2006 – a list made by Europe’s top 50 players.

That iconic leap and finish above Premier League defenders who tower over a standing Cahill has become a trademark that no side seems able to stop.

1 Mark Bosnich
Position Goalkeeper
Clubs Aston Villa, Manchester Utd, Chelsea

Mark Bosnich made just short of 300 Premier League appearances, was the league’s finest stopper at his peak, played for the biggest club in the world and won the EPL title while he was there. It may have been a career cut short, but while it lasted it was the finest we have seen by an Aussie in the EPL. We sat down with Bozza to discuss his Premier League foray and topping our list…

Congratulations Bozza, you’re our greatest EPL Aussie!
That is very humbling. If you go off trophies won it would only be Craig Johnston before the Premier League was formed who has more from England. I’m just a goalkeeper though, so coming number one in your list is a great honour.

The 1992 formation of the Premier League also signaled the kick-start of your career as you moved from Manchester United to Aston Villa. What was it like being part of that new format for English football?
It was huge! I made my debut in the old English First Division, but it was fantastic and exciting when the Premier League was created. It was a new format, live Monday night football, the games were more heavily promoted and Sky TV just did a fantastic job of creating this new era. After the crowd troubles that England had in the ’80s, the Premier League made football sexy again. We had better stadiums, there were more females attending games and everything came together.

You spent seven years at Villa, where you battled relegation one season, then chased the title the following. Has that sort of vast changing fortune for clubs left the current Premier League?
Maybe, but look at Tottenham who were struggling a couple of years back and are now in the Champions League. In that first Premier League season we had a great battle with Norwich and Manchester United for the title. We came second that season, then came tenth the following year.

You were widely considered the best stopper in the Premier League after your stellar 1995-96 season with Villa. Were you conscious of your success and what it meant to your fellow Australians?
Not as much as I began to realise later in my career. I love Australia, but when you are in England you are completely immersed in the English way of life. You do begin to realise the global pull of the Premier League when you see quite how many countries it reaches.

When you moved to Manchester United in 1999, how concerned were you with filling Peter Schmeichel’s gloves as the number one at the world’s biggest club?
I knew Schmeichel was one of the all-time greats, but I was not too worried. I was always confident in my ability, it was more that I had a major injury the season before so I was more worried about getting fit. Following Schmeichel was an honour.

You won the Premier League in that first season, talk us through that feeling…
We won by a record amount too! I started the season well, but then got a hamstring injury. When I came back in I only played in two losing games all year. It is always more difficult to retain your title than winning it first time out and that is what we did that season. The pivotal point of the season was beating Leeds 1-0.

There was one final Premier League swansong for you at Chelsea. Did you realise there that your time in the league was coming to a premature end?
As I was coming off the back of a hernia injury and I spent the first six month getting fit. Ed de Goey was first choice until he got injured and I went in for a spell of 11 games where I played as well as I have anywhere. Then I got another muscular injury near the end of the season. The following season I started having the problems off-the-pitch and everything that surrounded that, which was strange to say the least.

A common misconception about your Premier League career was that it was massively short, however you played in the league for over 10 years…
Yeah, it was cut short in what we can call strange circumstances for now. It was still a wonderful time. Look, I still miss it every day. I wish I was still there now, there is no point denying that. The positive is that I had my best playing time in the league. My time in the Premier League was short in terms of what it could have been, but it was still a great time for me.

That said, you made 269 Premier League appearances, while Schwarzer is still heading towards 500. Should you have made more?
I’m happy for Schwarzy as I grew up with him, so I would be happy if he made 600 appearances. As for me personally, I suppose I could say that my Premier League career was quality rather than quantity!

How do you rate the current standard of Premier League goalkeeping compared with your heyday in the mid-’90s?
If you look at the goalkeepers around during that earlier period – Schmeichel, David Seaman, John Lukic, Tim Flowers – I do not think there is the quality in depth these days. However the top goalkeepers today, like Petr Cech and Edwin van der Sar, are as good as anyone who played in my day. If you look at Joe Hart at Manchester City, he is another great prospect today. But when you look further down at the likes of Heurelho Gomes at Tottenham, I mean, come on! They need someone steady. So the depth was deeper before, but these things go in cycles.

Is the EPL the toughest test of a goalkeeper’s ability in Europe?
Definitely. Mainly because of the tough aerial aspect and the speed of the game. When we played in Europe that aerial threat is reduced as on the continent they rarely challenge in the air as they see that as being a foul. You need to be braver and able to dominate your box in the Premier League.

This article appeared in the May 2011 issue of Australian FourFourTwo magazine. To buy back copies of this issue call 03-8317-8121 with a credit card to hand.

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