Best blues guitarist, Clapton or Green

Clapton... best blues guitar player?
What new sound, emotion, riff, trick, style... (that somebody else had not done before) did he ever contribute to the guitar playing?
He has not advanced electric guitar playing in any way and it is anfair to a lot of great guitar players to even talk about Clapton.
At best, he is mediocre.
Experienced... yes.
The best? He is miles behind.

I hav'nt read every message so if this has been covered ,sorry. As a musician who has played guitar for 30 yrs I have an opinon on this. Firstly the question asked here is valid and innocent enough and I'm not out flame anyone just impart some of my limited wisdom. I believe that it is not possible for the likes of Eric or S.R.V. (one of my favourites) to be Blues guitarists. They are blues imitators! Great ones! and there's plenty of them out there...to reproduce the scales and inflections not matter how well is simply that...reproduction...well that's what music is you say, well yes and no. My question is what is a blues musician? And in the history of blues music lies the answer. Blues music and it's scales were derived from the natural inflections of the speaking patterns of the people of the region it was created unless you are rasied with these speach inflections anything else is imitating no matter how good.
It's a bit like saying your Italian just because you've learned the language. I'm not anal about this, or anything really and dont let this detract from me enjoying and learning from these great musicians but a white boy raised in the UK a true blues guitarist? I wonder what Eric would say. And before I get flamed, I understand the need for genre identification, and blues imitation is still blues..is'nt it???

Their are alot of Albert King impersonators still copying
his style. I personally like Albert Kings style the best,
Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, Bobby Rush are right there on my list also. Though Stevie Ray, IMHO is the most fluid, natural guitar player I have ever heard. I just went
to the SF blues festival a few weeks ago and Buddy guy and
Santana were pretty darn awesome playing side by side.

Neither is close to the "best." I know I have posted here before, but this thread won't seem to go away.

When you start listening to a lot of really good blues players--ones who can elicit emotion from six strings--you will start to realize that Clapton and Green are just imitators. There's little doubt that Clapton is sincere in his various homages to the greats, but a few strums by Lightnin' Hopkins will do more for your soul than anything that Green and/or Clapton can. If you don't believe me, just put on "Goin' Away," turn out the lights, sit back with some whiskey, and you'll hear the truth of the matter.

love 'em both, but for "goose bumps per lick" give me duane allman. i could listen to "goin' down slow" everyday...i have the blues