Hello! Week three of our *EPIC* voyage.

Here's the skinny, just in case you missed weeks one or two:

We’ve taken the final Don Balon list, which was published in November 2010, and spent the last few months reviewing how the last year has panned out for each of the players included on it.  The 100 is the outcome of our review.

We’ve recorded our observations and opinions - for what they are worth - and asked a number of individuals whose opinion matters to us to provide a view.  We also invited our wonderful twitter followers to offer an angle on how the year has worked out for each of the 100 players and selected the best assessments for publication.  

Each player also receives a mark based on their development over the last twelve months.  Just like an end of term school report, a grade from A to E is awarded.  There’s no great science here, there’s no 7/10 for tackling, 9/10 for stamina etc, just a straight call from us.  We’re not experts on every player; we’ve just taken a good look and made a judgement on how things have gone.

The assessments are designed to provoke debate.  Have we been too harsh on Mario Balotelli?  Too easy on Holger Badstuber?  Talking garbage on Jack Rodwell, or making sense with Davide Santon?  That’s up to you and we really look forward to your comments, tweets and opinions.  Hopefully you’ll want to be involved.

We decided not to hit you with 100 players in one batch; instead IBWM will deliver twenty different names each week for five weeks, this is week two.  You might already know every player listed, but some may be new to you. 

You can access the first and second instalments of The 100, with an explanation of our marking, here:

ENTER THE 100

 

Enjoy, and we love to hear your thoughts so please do leave comments.