“Always I have to be careful for the respect for the players that have played incredible roles, but there’s no doubt he’s one of the greatest for sure,” said Pep Guardiola of Kevin De Bruyne’s impending exit from Manchester City.

De Bruyne’s impact at City since joining from Wolfsburg in 2015 has been huge, with the Belgian scoring 106 goals in 413 appearances, contributing to 187 Premier League goals (scoring or assisting), equalling the assist record for a single season and winning 19 trophies.

While Guardiola was careful about discussing where he stands in the greatest player debate, the City coach praised his “influence in our success in the last decade”.

Which had us asking, who are the most influential midfielders of the Premier League era?

Here is a selection of our writers’ answers and explanations of why they chose them. There probably isn’t a right answer but please let us know who we’ve overlooked (sorry, Paul Scholes) and register your vote in our poll (or submit your own entry).

We’ll publish the results on Sunday.

Yaya Toure

Premier League career: Manchester City 2010-18

Quite simply, Yaya Toure played in a style different to any midfielder the Premier League had seen before. He had the physicality of a centre-back, screening of a No 6, driving ability of a No 8, and shot power of a striker, patch-worked together in one sky blue-clad body.

There was Claude Makelele, who achieved Toure’s defensive coverage but was far more limited in attack, while even Arsenal’s Patrick Vieira lacked the Ivorian’s ability to take games by the scruff of their necks. Mousa Dembele, at his best, probably comes closest.

Here was the player that straddled City’s first post-takeover steps — his goal against Stoke City won the 2011 FA Cup, the club’s first trophy in 35 years — and Pep Guardiola’s dominant sides. David Silva, as wonderful as he was, relied on the industry and guile of his deeper-lying partner.

He is probably the figure who has most influenced the mimetic ideal of a Premier League midfielder, his frame dominating in the most physical league in the world, but his technical ability still allowing him to evade pressure and crash the box. Ask any top-flight manager to draw up the frame and skill set of their ideal midfielder, all rules of creation in their hands, and Toure would be the closest facsimile.

Jacob Whitehead

Frank Lampard

West Ham United 1995-01, Chelsea 2001-14, Manchester City 2014-15

Goals. Lampard scored 177 of them, elevating him to seventh place on the Premier League’s all-time list. To put that into context, he’s surrounded by strikers. The next-highest midfielder — Steven Gerrard — is in 23rd place. Lampard’s assists? 102. Astonishing numbers that highlight Lampard’s incredible attacking output across 22 Premier League seasons, most spent with Chelsea, where he won three Premier League titles after signing from West Ham in 2001.

Lampard’s biggest talent, by his own admission, was his work ethic and dedication. Encouraged by his father, Frank Lampard Snr, he practised relentlessly, striving to be the best that he could be every day at training, and, ultimately, he got his reward.

An elegant passer of the ball, aided by his awareness and football intelligence, Lampard mastered the art of the late run into the penalty area, where he scored goals of every description to establish himself as one of the Premier League greats.

Stuart James

Roy Keane

Nottingham Forest 1990*-93, Manchester United 1993-2005

A force of nature, a supreme competitor. Sir Alex Ferguson once said, “If I was putting Roy Keane out there to represent Manchester United on a one-on-one, we would win the Derby, the Grand National, the Boat Race and anything else.”

Keane was not just part of a dominant team at United in the 1990s and early 2000s, he was the heart and soul.

Keane was United’s on-pitch leader (Michael Steele/EMPICS via Getty Images)

He didn’t play defence-splitting passes like Gerrard, De Bruyne or Paul Scholes. He didn’t have the silky skills of Cesc Fabregas, Luka Modric or Silva. He didn’t score goals like Lampard and he didn’t have the towering presence of Vieira. But he was, in an understated way, an extraordinary footballer — not just a fearsome tackler but a swashbuckling box-to-box midfielder and who evolved into an intelligent and inspirational (if at times impetuous) captain who elevated and at times dragged his team-mates to another level.

Oliver Kay

* 1992-93 was the first Premier League season

Xabi Alonso

Liverpool 2004-09

As if it wasn’t enough to be so good that Jose Mourinho compared you to a “metronomic” Guardiola. No, Alonso could also do the audacious to sit alongside the elegantly procedural midfield demands.

He scored in a Champions League final, won the FA Cup and shared the limelight with Gerrard in his prime. But the Basque midfielder will also be remembered for one of the Premier League’s most ridiculous goals, against Newcastle United at Anfield in September 2006.

Having won the ball himself just outside the centre circle, he saw opposition ‘keeper Steve Harper off his line and duly put the ball into the net from a staggering 60 yards. It was the second-longest goal in top-flight history but remarkably, he had already gone better.

That year, he had scored from more than 70 yards near the end of an FA Cup win at Luton Town after the goalkeeper had gone up for a set piece. The complete range of passing, a penchant to put his foot in when required and capable of jaw-dropping goals — Alonso had it all.

Greg O’Keeffe

Steven Gerrard

Liverpool 1998-2015

Football has become about specialisms, players whose job description is tightly defined around one super-strength. Very few have possessed the ability to claim they are one of the best across all categories.

Vieira, Toure and Rodri all have a case, but those players were usually part of either the best or second-best team in England. Gerrard did not have that luxury in many seasons, yet he is still the best all-rounder there has been. It is why his spectacularly outsized influence on Liverpool was so captivating.

He had power, guile, range, aggression. He was Roy of the Rovers incarnate, a sheer force of nature who could transform games on his own. It is why Jose Mourinho tried to sign him for three different clubs and why Ferguson thought he was the only player who replicated Keane’s ubiquity on the pitch.

Gerrard stayed loyal to Liverpool (AMA/Corbis via Getty Images)

That ferocious energy and desire to be everything was what Rafa Benitez refined. He added a subtlety to his game while playing just off Fernando Torres, producing sublime killer passes on tap. Late in his career, he was reinvented as a ‘quarterback’, pinging diagonals from deep with machine-like precision.

He could have been placed into any team or style and had he not stayed at his boyhood club and racked up titles elsewhere, the conversation would be a lot shorter.

Jordan Campbell

Cesc Fabregas

Arsenal 2003-11, Chelsea 2014-19

He was so good, he changed the way Arsenal played football.

Arsene Wenger’s early success in north London had been built on the pace and power of Vieira, Emmanuel Petit and Gilberto Silva, but when a scruffy 16-year-old with a dodgy mullet and a baggy shirt arrived from Barcelona, a new era began.

After Viera’s departure, Fabregas was given the keys to the Arsenal midfield and grabbed them with both hands. His passing was slick, his vision sublime, and he quickly became the poster boy for what would come to be known as ‘Wengerball’.

He was unlucky to never win the trophies his quality deserved with Arsenal, but he returned from a spell back at Barcelona to win two Premier League titles in three seasons with Chelsea.

Under Wenger, Mourinho and Antonio Conte, the styles were wildly different, but it’s a testament to how good a player he was that Fabregas’ quality always shone through.

Kaya Kaynak

Patrick Vieira

Arsenal 1996-2005, Man City 2010-11

In the Premier League, there was a time before Wenger and a time after he arrived.

And just as Thierry Henry used Wenger’s Arsenal team as a vehicle to redefine the role of a Premier League forward, so Vieira used it to transform the idea of a midfielder.

There had been outstanding box-to-box operators before him, most notably Bryan Robson at the league’s inception in the early 1990s, then Keane. But Vieira was the complete package.

Vieira was key to Wenger’s Arsenal (John Peters/Manchester United via Getty Images)

He could match any midfielder of his era for technique, skill and intelligence while having the edge on everyone else in athleticism, physical presence, stamina and mobility. He could bend games to his will through sheer force of personality and he did it all while gliding across the pitch with a grace that no supreme, 6ft 4in (193cm) athlete should be able to produce.

Steve Madeley

Kevin De Bruyne

Manchester City 2015-2025

It’s not just the relentlessness of De Bruyne’s output that City will miss, but the imagination and variety — the spark — that he consistently found, so often the man with the creative solution that other talented team-mates just couldn’t see.

There were moments of sheer genius — a deft reverse pass to find Leroy Sane in a 7-2 win against Stoke City; a free kick rolled under the wall against Cardiff City, a defence-splitting ball to drag Manchester City back into the game at Newcastle.

There were moments of repeated brilliance — those unstoppable crosses from the right, always struck with whip, venom, and deep into the areas that no opponent wanted to defend. And when all else failed, there was sheer power — searing strikes against Swansea City and Chelsea, a thumping half-volley off the bar at St James’ Park, and a surging, title-winning run into the box against Aston Villa all springing to mind.

On both feet, and with absolutely everything he had, De Bruyne brought a unique mix of brutal efficiency and eye-catching style, a hard-working midfielder with game-breaking talent to boot.

How City will adapt to life without him remains unclear; it’s the same question fans asked when Toure and Silva chose to move on, before a certain Belgian midfielder answered the call.

Leaving with six Premier League titles, five League Cups, two FA Cups and, most importantly, a Champions League to his name, the club have De Bruyne to thank for helping to deliver its finest hours.

Thom Harris

Claude Makelele

Chelsea 2003-08

There are not many football players whose role became so clearly defined that it is named after them.

Makelele arrived at Chelsea in the twilight of his career. Aged 30, Makelele had been converted from an attacking midfielder to a deep-lying, anchoring midfielder that would protect his back line and hoover up any defensive actions that came anywhere near his orbit.

However, it was not just his ability to cover ground and regain possession, but also how much his role transformed the way that Chelsea played on the ball — signalling to the Premier League that a 4-4-2 was becoming increasingly outdated.

Makelele even had a role named after him (Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images)

“If I have a triangle in midfield — Claude Makelele behind and two others just in front — I will always have an advantage against a pure 4-4-2 where the central midfielders are side by side,” said Mourinho as Chelsea manager. “That’s because I will always have an extra man. It starts with Makelele, who is between the lines.”

When ‘The Makelele Role’ becomes an established phrase within the game, you know you have made an impact in the Premier League.

Mark Carey

Paul Ince

Manchester United 1989*-1995, Liverpool 1997-99, Middlesbrough 1999-2002, Wolverhampton Wanderers 2003-04 (Ince played in the top flight for West Ham from 1986-89)

Ince was the start of it all. In the inaugural Premier League season (1992-93), Manchester United won their first title in 26 years. Ince played 41 of the 42 games. He made United win matches.

Next season, same again. United won the second ever Premier League season, with Ince playing 39 of 42 matches and scoring eight goals, most of them alongside new arrival Keane.

In the third Premier League season, United were beaten into second place by Blackburn Rovers and Ince’s relationship with Ferguson had soured, so he was sold to Inter Milan for £7.5million ($9.7m at current rates).

A lot was said about Ince, not least by Ferguson, who called Ince a “big-time Charlie” when the midfielder was playing for Liverpool, a comment Ferguson later regretted.

It’s true, Ince did rate himself, but justifiably so. If you supported the opposition, Ince felt unbeatable. He controlled the midfield and controlled the game, the way great Italian midfielders were able to.

He spent two seasons in Serie A before signing for Liverpool. He was past his best then, but before that, Ince was the Premier League’s stepping stone to get to Keane, Vieira and De Bruyne.

Andrew Hankinson

N’Golo Kante

Leicester City 2015-16, Chelsea 2016-23

Kante took the Makelele role and asked for large fries to go with it. He super-sized what it meant to be a ball-winning midfielder (despite his shorter height and slighter frame) and spearheaded consecutive Premier League titles with different clubs.

He arguably achieved a unique feat in being central to two successive title-winning teams. Eric Cantona did something similar with Leeds United and Manchester United in 1992 and 1993, but only joined the former from February onwards when they were already top of the table.

Kante was central to Leicester’s remarkable title (Getty Images)

It is impossible to envisage Leicester winning the title in 2016 without Kante, who did the jobs of two, even three players with his relentless interceptions and tackles. Then at Chelsea a season later, he repeated the feat, scooping up all the player-of-the-year awards along the way.

A World Cup and a Champions League would follow as Kante reimagined himself slightly further up the field. Sadly, injuries stunted his golden era, but at his best, no one in the world was better at what Kante did.

He is also the greatest bargain buy on this list, costing Leicester just £5.6m from French club Caen in 2015

Tim Spiers

David Silva

Manchester City 2010-20

There is an interesting debate to be had between Silva and De Bruyne, purely in terms of their different styles of play. Plenty of City fans will pick Silva as the best player to ever play for the club, and most Spaniards would probably side with Silva due to their different appreciation of what makes a footballer special.

De Bruyne’s game lends itself more to British sensibilities: he is all about powerful running and crash, bang, wallop goals.

Silva was the yin to De Bruyne’s yang. If De Bruyne was the icing on the cake, Silva was the cake.

He made City tick during his entire period at the club, whether it was Roberto Mancini, Manuel Pellegrini or Guardiola in charge. The latter’s game plans are all about controlling the game and Silva’s tempo-setting approach, always knowing how many touches were needed in a given moment, found an obvious home. To sound all hipster for a moment, Silva would be the thinking man’s choice.

Sam Lee

Have your say

(Top image: Getty Images)

Patrick Mahomes’ mother Randi Mahomes opened up on a period during her son’s high school football career, when he almost quit the sport. 

During an Instagram story Q&A on Friday, Randi Mahomes was asked how she kept her son motivated through “challenging times.” 

The mother answered by saying she hadn’t had to do much, because the quarterback had been “so determined for himself,” but she also recounted a time when he almost quit football in high school. 

CHIEFS DYNASTY TIMELINES: HOW LOVABLE LOSERS BECAME AN EVIL EMPIRE

“There were times when he would get a little down, even a moment in high school when he wanted to quit football. Yes, he did,” Randi Mahomes said. “And I encouraged him that sitting out a season of sports and watching the games, it was not going to be fun for him. And so, he stuck to it, fortunately.” 

The intervention by Randi Mahomes may have very well changed the course of sports history, and history at large. 

Mahomes went on to be a two-year starter at quarterback at Whitehorse High School in East Texas, where he also met his wife, Brittany Mahomes. 

HOW JOHNNY MANZIEL WAS ALMOST DRAFTED BY THE CHIEFS, CHANGING THE COURSE OF HISTORY AND HIS LIFE

In his senior year, he passed for 4,619 yards and 50 touchdowns, while also rushing for 948 yards and 15 touchdowns. That performance earned him the MaxPreps Male Athlete of the Year. 

Mahomes went on to be a three-star college recruit, and committed to Texas Tech. There, he won the Sammy Baugh Trophy as a junior after leading the FBS in passing yards and total touchdowns. 

It was enough to convince the Kansas City Chiefs and head coach Andy Reid to execute a trade-up in the 2017 NFL Draft to select Mahomes to be the team’s starting quarterback. 

Since then, all Mahomes has done is turn the Chiefs into a dynasty and win two NFL MVP awards.

And it may have never even happen if his mom hadn’t stopped him from quitting high school football. 

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What’s in a name? Sometimes a lot.

No one, after all, has ever given a nickname to a bunch of guys who hit .225 or a team that finished in the middle of the standings. But do something special and with flair and people start calling you Magic, The Hammer or The Great One.

Hockey was once at the forefront of this naming ritual, with the tradition of stamping memorable monikers on the sport’s most productive scoring lines dating to the 1920s and the New York Ranger threesome of Bun Cook, Frank Boucher and Bill Cook, collectively known as the “A Line” after the subway line that ran under Madison Square Garden.

The names could sometimes get creative, as with the Vancouver Canucks’ “Mattress Line,” which included two twins (Daniel and Henrik Sedin) and a king (center Jason King) and the Buffalo Sabres’ “French Connection” of French-Canadians Gilbert Perreault, Rick Martin and Rene Robert. Or sometimes ridiculous, as with the “Trio Grande Line” of Clark Gilles, Bryan Trottier and Mike Bossy, which took the New York Islanders to four straight Stanley Cup titles.

Which brings us to the Kings’ current top line of left wing Andrei Kuzmenko, center Anze Kopitar and right wing Adrian Kempe. It has set no records and won no Stanley Cups; in fact, it hasn’t even clinched a playoff berth, although that will happen shortly.

But since coming together a month ago, when general manager Rob Blake acquired Kuzmenko from the Philadelphia Flyers at the trade deadline, the threesome has become one of the hottest trios in the NHL ahead of the Kings’ showdown with the Edmonton Oilers at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday.

After getting six or more goals in a game four times in the first 60 games, the Kings did it four times in the next 13 with Kuzmenko. Scoring overall has risen nearly a goal a game and the team has lost just three times in its last 15 games, putting it on pace to open the Stanley Cup playoffs at home, where they have the best record in the Western Conference.

And that has sparked a question: what should the line be called?

“Hadn’t even thought about it,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said.

“It’s not really on the front burner,” added Glen Murray, the Kings director of player development “I haven’t really thought about it a lot.”

OK, so maybe it’s not a burning question. But there are some candidates just the same.

“AK,” Kopitar said. “That’s what I’m going for.”

That one is solid because it works on two levels, using each players’ initials but also highlighting the fact they all have a strong shot.

Patrick O’Neal, who hosts the “LA Kings Live” pregame and postgame shows on FanDuel West, likes Special K. Simple but elegant.

Then there’s the “AAA Line,” inspired by each player’s first initial and the fact that, like the auto club, the line is dependable and the Kings trust it will get them where they want to go.

The odds that any of those will catch on are long since the prevalence of assigning nicknames to top NHL lines has faded in recent years, robbing the game of some of its fun. With line pairings jumbled and players traded so frequently in modern hockey, it has become difficult for fans and the media to develop an association with particular combinations. At the same time, the rise of data and analytics has shifted the focus from the collective performance of a group of players, such as a line, to the performance of individuals.

Murray, who skated on the Boston Bruins’ imposing “700-pound Line,” a name inspired by the collective weight of the three players, said the absence of nicknames doesn’t necessarily represent progress.

“It’s too bad,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with coming up for a name for a line that’s just been put together.”

Hiller believes nicknames can be useful in developing an identity and esprit de corps for young players, who are typically lacking both. But it’s not really necessary on a line centered by someone such as Kopitar, who is fourth among active players in games played.

“For some young players, maybe,” he said. “I’ve seen it when three young players get together and they have energy and stuff like that. But I’m not sure there’s too much that’s going to get Kopi going in a different direction at this stage of his career.”

In any case, it wasn’t a nickname that turned the Kings’ line around but rather the addition of Kuzmenko on the left side.

“It took a few games to kind of understand how Kuzy plays. But they’re dangerous,” Murray said. “This guy is Uber talented. He can make plays all over the ice and it’s fun to watch. The enthusiasm that Kuzy has for the game, it just oozes out and it goes in Kempe and Kopi.”

Into Blake as well. Rumors ahead of the trade deadline linked the Kings to a number of high-profile targets including Pittsburgh’s Rickard Rakell. Chicago’s Ryan Donato and San José’s Luke Kunin. So when Blake settled on Kuzmenko, who scored 39 goals in his rookie season with Vancouver in 2022-23 then spent the next two seasons shuffling among four teams, the news underwhelmed.

Kuzmenko, however, has overdelivered, collecting four goals and six assists in 15 games. As a result, the trade has proven to be among the most consequential in the Western Conference, reinvigorating a team that saw a season-long five-game losing streak end in Kuzmenko’s debut.

“The way he celebrates his goals, it’s like the last one he’s ever going to score,” Murray said of Kuzmenko. “It gives you a little energy, right? They know they’re going to be a threat.”

The question now is what should they be called?

“The playoffs are coming up,” Murray said. “Having this new line, coming up with a unique name for it, I think it’ll just come one day.

“I love it. It makes it fun, too.”