#60. Thomas Gravesen (2000-05, 2007-08)

132 appearances, 11 goals

From the beginning of his Everton career, Gravesen set out to get noticed, playing like he should have an exclamation mark grafted onto his surname. The excitable Dane even saw red in one of his first outings, a “friendly” against Blackburn Rovers in 2000, for some appalling tackling.

Gravesen had two stints at Everton, but his first was his best. Often starved of a partner to exchange skilful midfield repartee with, he was forced to roam on his own – a goggle-eyed, shaven-headed hunter-gatherer. Why is he on this list? Gravesen polarises opinion like Marmite, Spam and country music, but Tommy drove a workman-like Everton towards fourth spot and turned Real Madrid’s head before he could finish the job.

Despite looking like he should be stroking a cat whilst plotting James Bond’s downfall from a hollowed-out volcano, he was hugely talented.

Often starved of a partner to pass and exchange skillful touches with, he was forced to roam on his own, and when the mood took him he would often head down blind alleys and cul de sacs, submerged in his own skills with his head down. When he came to he would often find himself near the corner flag.

If Everton are a Bill Kenwright production then Gravesen was the star of the pantomime, a player who grimaced and gesticulated when he played, and with his shaven head and bulging eyes he looked every part a Mad Dog of a midfielder. His theatrics were often greeted with an “Oh Tommy, Tommy…” bellow from the stands, and the songs of the fans were echoed back with his larger than life skills.

His amazing chipped pass to Lee Carsley against Arsenal and his goal from the edge of the area against Crystal Palace were both world class in their execution. Tommy did come back for a muted second coming and waved goodbye to Goodison by dispatching a penalty against Fiorentina. He retired from football last season.

I’ll never forget Thomas Gravesen, charging around the midfield like a rebel without a cause, but in some ways his Mad Dog persona perpetuated a huge myth about the Dane. Simply because he looked like a hard man midfielder people began to claim that he was. If I had a pound for every time Tommy was given the moniker “tough tackling” I would have a fortune to parallel a dodgy Russian oil oligarch.

If Gravesen goes off into the sunset and his career dwindles and meanders to an end I hope he isn’t remembered as a hard man midfielder. In truth he couldn’t tackle very well at all – and much of the confusion must surely rest on the shoulders of his midfield lookalike Lee “Harry Hill” Carsley.

In reality Gravesen was very over excitable, but that always translated itself into mad mazy runs, and charging after the ball like a blue arsed fly and not the hard-man ultra violence he was accused of.

The bare truth is that Gravesen simply wasn’t the glass chewing, no-prisoners enforcer that many thought he was – this utter misreading of the basic tenets of his game wasn’t just among fans and pundits – Real Madrid tried to play him as a defensive midfielder and essentially failed.