Rugged Aussie defender, who can fill a few holes and be relied upon in a crisis, even if his luck often deserts him
Now West Ham captain, Lucas Neill joined the club (in preference to Liverpool, who were also very interested) from Blackburn in 2007 for £1.5m. And after a shaky start, including suffering an injury on his debut and skippering the side for the first time during a 3-4 home capitulation to Spurs, Neill settled and helped the Hammers avoid the drop.
Six foot tall and tough in the tackle, Neill’s leadership qualities really came to the fore at Blackburn, where he turned out 188 times and prompted Dutch legend Johan Neeskens to claim that he could “play for any of Europe’s top clubs”. And it was another Dutchman, Guus Hiddink, who fully brought out the player's adaptability: although Neill started all the group games as centre-back, the fluidity-favouring Hiddink was happy to use him as right-back, right-wingback or even on the left as Australia advanced to the knock-out stages and were unluckily knocked out by Italy after an injury-time penalty was given for a fairly innocuous challenge in the area – by Neill.
It's all a far cry from the Australian Institute for Sport, where Lucas first began his career, before moving to Millwall in 1995.