Cottagers best ever XI: Who is Fulham's best ever centre back part 1

It is day three of our ultimate international break series as we look through the archives of Fulham and look to name an all-time Premier League XI.

To do that, we are naming three nominees in each position on a daily basis until the Cottagers are next in action on October 10 against Ipswich.

As you may know, and if you do not, the articles are linked, we opted for Edwin van der Sar for Fulham’s best ever goalkeeper, with Steve Finnan yesterday taking the best ever right-back spot.

Now we move onto centre backs.

Of course, we are going to split this into two articles, as we shall go through six possible centre backs, with three nominated and one picked today and the same on Friday.

So, here are the first three nominees and our conclusion to make their way into the all-time Fulham XI.

After spending almost a decade at Newcastle and two seasons with Aston Villa, Hughes arrived at Craven Cottage with an already pretty large reputation in the Premier League.

And, despite arriving aged 27, he would stay in West London for seven years.

Hughes was there during Fulham’s glory days and played in at least 30 matches, including two full 38-game seasons, in his first four seasons at the club.

In total, he played 250 times for the club in all competitions, and he was a key cog in the side that went to the Europa League final in 2010, playing in 17 matches in Europe that season.

Hughes is actually Fulham’s second highest appearance maker in the Premier League, with 196 appearances and he was booked only five times in that period.

The man who played alongside Hughes for much of his time at Fulham, Brede Hangeland is a Fulham great.

He has the most Premier League appearances for Fulham (217) and his 72 Premier League wins are also more than any other Fulham player.

Just like Hughes, Hangeland was in the squad when Fulham went all the way to the final of the Europa League.

The Norwegian also scored as many as eight Premier League goals (12 in all competitions), which included six in the 2010-11 campaign when Fulham finished eighth.

Shortly before the era of Hughes and Hangeland, came Zat Knight, who was undoubtedly a key feature of Fulham’s first seasons in the Premier League in the early 2000s.

Knight played over 30 times in each of the 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons as the club established itself as a club in the top flight.

In total, Knight made 150 Premier League appearances, putting him eighth highest on the club’s list in the top flight.

A genuinely very challenging list to pick from here for one spot.

All three captained Fulham at different points and all three have their own reasons to make this XI.

However, here, there is really only winner even despite the strengths of the trio.

And that winner is undoubtedly Hangeland.

The Norwegian is simply a touch above the other two and as Fulham’s most experienced Premier League player, may well have the armband too.