Roman general is a grand and outstanding person, some say (7)
I believe the answer is:
agrippa
'roman general' is the definition.
(Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, Roman general)
'a grand and outstanding person some say' is the wordplay.
'grand' becomes 'g' (G is short for grand as in a thousand).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'outstanding person' becomes 'ripper' (ripper can mean an excellent person).
'some say' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'ripper' sounds like 'rippa'.
'a'+'g'+'rippa'='AGRIPPA'
'is' is the link.
(Other definitions for agrippa that I've seen before include "General who beat Mark Antony at Actium" , "Marcus --, Roman general, statesman and architect" , "Old general" , "Marcus -, Roman fleet commander who defeated Cleopatra at Actium" , "Roman leader" .)