Throughout his Manchester City career, Richard Dunne played alongside some top-class centre-backs.
The Ireland international signed for the club in 2000 and stayed until 2009, meaning he was there before and after Manchester City's Abu Dhabi owners arrived – and experienced both frugality and lavish spending.
When asked to name the best defenders he ever partnered during his Premier League career, Dunne first heaps praise on his colleagues at Everton, where he started out.
"I played with some really good players," Dunne tells FourFourTwo on behalf of William Hill. "There's a not huge difference in terms of quality and sometimes it's about the relationships that you build up.
"When I was starting out at Everton, Dave Watson was the captain and he was an unbelievable, brilliant player. His leadership was something that really helped me. He used to take me to the gym on on my own and me and him would do sessions one on one. He just educated me and helped me get my career up and running. And then Richard Gough came in, Slaven Bilic came in and so there were loads of top professionals that I got the chance to learn from. I also got to play with Steve Howey after he arrived from Newcastle – obviously another really experienced player and a really good footballer."
At Man City, Dunne played alongside a young Vincent Kompany, considered by many to be one of the greatest players in the club's history. But instead, Dunne selects players present before Abu Dhabi rocked up in 2008.
"Probably my best period at City came alongside Sylvain Distin, who was a really good player," says Dunne. "We sort of complimented each other with him being left-footed and me right. We were both similar in terms of our determination to try and do well and we both trusted each other, to be able to call each other on and off the pitch.
"And that's what I think you look for as well. You need to know, as a centre-half, that if you go for a ball and don't get there, that your partner will be there covering for you. Micah Richards was brilliant, too. He was obviously younger than me and had that extra bit of pace and that bit of power so playing alongside him was was brilliant."
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