After catching up with Andy Cole last week, I started to remember some of the great strikers I used to admire during the 90s.

Though I am a huge Andy Cole fan now, there were times before the Treble season that I wasn’t quite convinced by Andy Cole. He just seemed like a nearly-there player in so many ways:

• He had skill – but not on the same level as top strikers at the time like Ronaldo (the fat one), Alessandro Del Piero, Roberto Baggio, Dennis Bergkamp, etc.
• He was a good finisher – but one would still get the feeling that he wasn’t quite as clinical as the likes of the 90’s master finishers like Filipo Inzaghi, Alan Shearer, Gabriel Batistuta, Romario or Michael Owen.
• He was a strong guy – but not as destructively powerful as players like Shearer, Christian Vieri, Les Ferdinand, Oliver Bierhoff, etc.
• He was pretty useful in the air – but he wasn’t tall enough to do real damage like Niall Quinn, Duncan Ferguson, Teddy Sheringham or any of the strong guys mentioned above.

So as a United fan, I was often frustrated by him during the 90’s, especially when I looked at players like Ronaldo creating all sorts of magic in Inter Milan and Batistuta banging in goals from anywhere and everywhere. It was an era where magical attacking players where very much in abundance.

I always wished United would sign Gabriel Batistuta. With the chances United's midfield were creating then, they would've been unstoppable.

But during the Treble season, all my doubts over the value of Cole to the United squad were firmly put to rest. It was exactly because he had a bit of everything, and an intelligent footballing brain to use those qualities to the benefit of the team, that made him such a perfect fit to the passing, constantly-moving game United played during that period.

By the time he left United in 2000, I was devastated. I had high hopes for Ruud Van Nistlerooy, but I could already tell he was more of an out-and-out goalscorer, and not a team player like Cole.

From then on, I think the Golden Era of strikers was over. United were one of the first, and most unsucessful, high-profile clubs to deploy the five-man midfield to stifle opponents (especially in Europe). The strike pairing became almost obsolete (something which Andy Cole asserted when we spoke to him last week), and strikers started to become glorified battering rams.

• Alex Ferguson started to ditch his fluid 4-4-2 formation with two mobile, crafty strikers who could drop deep, in preference for a 4-5-1 where Ruud Van Nistlerooy was the focal point of all attacks. It was the beginning of the end for the class of 98/99. I could almost shed a tear talking about it.
• Jose Mourinho had much more success in applying this tactic, using Didier Drogba as a battering ram and allowing crafty attacking midfielders like Arjen Robben and Joe Cole, and goalscoring midfielders like Frank Lampard, to prosper behind him.
• Greece then confirmed that turnaround when they were crowned European champions in 2004 playing with a roughly similar philosophy, but with more emphasis on defence due to their lack of quality. Sorry Greece fans, but your boys don’t play samba football.
• Italy won the last World Cup with the lumbering Luca Toni (or his long lost twin brother Vincenzo Iaquinta) up front while playing some stifling, yet classy, defensive football.
• There were of course, exceptions to the rule. Arsenal continued playing attractive, free-flowing football throughout the new millenium, but apart from the awesome Invincibles team between 2001-2004, their period of dominance was relatively short – even though they continued playing some of the most eye-catching football ever seen in the English game. Who brought an end to Arsenal’s brief stranglehold of the English game? Jose Mourinho’s “defensive” Chelsea.

Even though things are changing now, especially with the way Manchester United and Barcelona won the last two European titles and Spain the European Championship with attacking football, the glory days of strikers still feel a bit distant.

Last of the super strikers - only attacking midfielders and wingers are now in contention for "best player in the world" accolades.

These days, all the talk about the best players in the world revolve around attacking midfielders – Ronaldo, Leo Messi, Kaka, Franck Ribery, Steven Gerrard, Xavi, Iniesta, etc. Fernando Torres is arguably the only striker who would fit in that bunch.

IANYWAY, I was just wondering – do you remember some great strikers from that era? I know I’ve named quite a few, but I’m sure I’ve missed some out, so:

Who’s your favourite striker from the 90s, and why?