TWO weeks ago when George Best was at death's door the penultimate TKO column ventured the Irishman as the best footballer the world had produced.

So that set me thinking, who would be my top five players to have hailed from these great British Isles.

No 1 George Best: No it's not an obsession, it is the fact that never has a footballer's sheer skill so intoxicated me as that of the spindly-legged waif from Belfast.

Forget all the subsequent headlines that rival any Hollywood film star for lurid exposure and sensationalism. In his playing pomp Best was sublime.

Boasting the reflexes of a cobra, 'yer man' could snake-hip out of most challenges and was both a potent marksman and provider of chances for a Manchester United team that became the first English club to conquer Europe. Unlike other gifted wizards, Best was also as hard as flint. The best by a country mile.

No 2 Gordon Banks: The Chesterfield-born goalkeeper is the reason why we did not win the World Cup a second time.

A master of his craft, Banks was the world's number one in England's 1966 World Cup triumph.

The talismanic pride of Stoke City, he was still the man in possession of the national gloves four years later in Mexico when his save from Pel was as vibrant as the blue shirt he wore. But his campaign ended to Montezuma's revenge as food poisoning did for him and also for Alf Ramsey's men as they bowed out of the quarter-finals to West Germany. Fearless and peerless.

No 3 Kenny Dalglish: Some say if the Glasgow-born front-man had been blessed with genuine pace he would have been a world-beater. Had that been the case he would have been among the all-time world's best.

All Dalglish's speed was in his thought. He espied a laser-splitting pass several moves before many of his team-mates.

A century of goals in Scotland for Celtic, a feat he surpassed in England as Kevin Keegan's successor at Liverpool. And who else could mark his first season in charge as a player-manager by winning the League and Cup double. Also excelled as title-winning manager of Blackburn Rovers. King Kenny.

No 4 Dave Mackay: Barrel-chested warrior who helped to transport not one but two clubs into the dazzling glare of glory, glory days.

Signed from Hearts, the Scot was at the core of the dynamically fluid Tottenham Hotspur team that dominated the early 1960s - and that despite twice breaking his leg.

Fearsome in the challenge and ultra-competitive his spats against the likes of Billy Bremner, Tommy Smith and Ron Harris were of brimstone ferocity. An image of him neck-scruffing Bremner remains legendary.

Not content with earning his Spurs, Mackay spent the twilight of his career then bringing about the transformation of Brian Clough-led Derby County from backwater to mainstream.

No 5 Wayne Rooney: WHAAAT? He's only just turned 20, has not got a single winners' medal to his name and seemingly attracts more bookings than goals.

The Toxteth-born titan is the most naturally-gifted footballer to be hewn out of Blighty for decades.

Possesses the exquisite touch of Best and Paul Gascoigne, the awareness of Dalglish and Glenn Hoddle and has a canny clinical striking instinct that recalls Denis Law at his best.

Yes, he also has a volcanic streak that needs to be properly channelled.

But if England have no Rooney, then chances of lifting the World Cup in the next decade are severely lessened. Barring calamity, he will be the best of the best.

Updated: 11:33 Tuesday, November 15, 2005