Spain the best ever?

Well the Euros are over and Spain's final triumph was majestic and magnificent. The tournament was certainly a vast improvment on the tedium of World Cup 2010 and was a showcase for great football. So are Spain the greatest international side of all time? For me perhaps the biggest moment in defence of that argument was five minutes from the end of the final they had clearly already won and on comes Juan Mata for his only appearance in the Euros. Now Juan Mata is a bloody good footballer. A seriously amazing footballer in fact who would get into any international team one would think...except spain have six midfielders better and therefore a world class player was not required until five minutes from the end of a final they'd already won and they were essentially giving him a runout. And just to prove it further...he scored! Their depth is truly astounding.

I always find the argument of whether a team is the best ever utterly pointless yet I can't quite resist it. I mean when you consider that different eras mean completely different football in terms of pace, fitness etc and these teams don't get to play each other. You can't compare Brazil 1970 with this Spain team. I mean you literally can't but even analysing it is relatively pointless. But as I say I do enjoy the debate so I would hedge for Spain on the grounds of their ability to keep the ball and their ability to score the kind of team goals that other teams can only dream of. That's what defines greatness for me, the ability to do something different. I always rate Thierry Henry as the most remarkable player I've ever seen (I include Messi in that) because of his ability to do anything, almost anything.