All time Villa XI for Villa Park - Defenders

[AVTuco]

Evans, Gibson

[Xela]

McGrath without a doubt

[ferguson1]

Can only think of McGrath as being consistently and genuinely world class with who i’ve watched live.  

[villa4europe]

2 hours ago, sir_gary_cahill said:

That’s the way it is but it shouldn’t be like that, women are as deserving of coverage and publicity as men

But then the quality needs to be higher

There's a discussion to be had for the women's game but purely from a Villa perspective our women's team is not good, it's the lower tier

Blues for example who have a good winning womens team and a shite mens team can put the discussion in a different context, we can't because our women's team have nothing of merit and to my knowledge hasn't existed lond enough to have any "star" player that's done anything like scored hundreds of goals or made 500+ appearances 

[VillaFaninLondon]

Unfortunately McGrath's best years for us were probably just a year or two before my time. The best CBs I've seen at Villa who meet the criteria are Southgate, Ehiogu (RIP) and Mellberg. Mings probably deserves a mention but unfortunately his PL form hasn't been great. Unfortunately Laursen didn't get over 100 appearances due to injuries, otherwise he'd be in there. RB is harder as we haven't had a lot of quality here really. Charles has been mentioned but I don't remember him too well. LB is hard too but would be between Wright and Staunton probably. If I was choosing a back 4 in my lifetime it would probably be Mellberg, Southgate Ehiogu, Staunton, but obviously McGrath will be in for those who saw him in his pomp.

Edited April 26, 2020 by VillaFaninLondon

[John]

Of the defenders that I have seen in action, my four would be John Gidman, Paul McGrath, Allan Evans and Steve Staunton. Others that impressed me were, Charlie Aitken, Chris Nicholl, Gareth Southgate, Colin Gibson, Kenny Swain, Ken McNaught, Gareth Barry and Olof Mellberg. 

Defenders that turned out for us, before even my time, that are well worth a shout in my opinion include Howard Spencer, James Cowan, George Cummings, Tommy Mort, Frank Moss (jnr) and Stan Lynn.

My four "all time" defenders are: Howard Spencer, Paul McGrath, James Cowan and George Cummings.  

Edited April 26, 2020 by John

[sir_gary_cahill]

5 hours ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

Unfortunately McGrath's best years for us were probably just a year or two before my time. The best CBs I've seen at Villa who meet the criteria are Southgate, Ehiogu (RIP) and Mellberg. Mings probably deserves a mention but unfortunately his PL form hasn't been great. Unfortunately Laursen didn't get over 100 appearances due to injuries, otherwise he'd be in there. RB is harder as we haven't had a lot of quality here really. Charles has been mentioned but I don't remember him too well. LB is hard too but would be between Wright and Staunton probably. If I was choosing a back 4 in my lifetime it would probably be Mellberg, Southgate Ehiogu, Staunton, but obviously McGrath will be in for those who saw him in his pomp.

I thought that Mings was great at the start of the season, that defensive trio of Mings and Engels in front of Heaton looked very solid I thought. Hopefully,  we can get back to that

[VillaFaninLondon]

23 hours ago, sir_gary_cahill said:

I thought that Mings was great at the start of the season, that defensive trio of Mings and Engels in front of Heaton looked very solid I thought. Hopefully,  we can get back to that

Yeah, I think that’s true but I think the team as a whole has regressed since the start of the season tbh. Our performances from back to front have progressively got worse and the last two performances before the season was postponed (Southampton and Leicester) reminded me of the Lerner years. Kinda why I haven’t missed football that much.

 

Hopefully the extended break galvanises us and gives us the kick up the backside we need, if the powers that be decide we must finish the season. 

[sir_gary_cahill]

8 minutes ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

Yeah, I think that’s true but I think the team as a whole has regressed since the start of the season tbh. Our performances from back to front have progressively got worse and the last two performances before the season was postponed (Southampton and Leicester) reminded me of the Lerner years. Kinda why I haven’t missed football that much.

 

Hopefully the extended break galvanises us and gives us the kick up the backside we need, if the powers that be decide we must finish the season. 

You haven’t missed football??? I’ve just seen your username! If I lived in London, I’d make damn (apologies mods) sure I’d still go to the Villa matches regardless of what division we were in. Villa is in my blood, it’s all I’ve ever known, I’ve been going since I was 5 years old, I’ll die at Villa Park. In my opinion, we have the infrastructure in place (the training ground, stadium, manager, owners, the playing staff is improving in terms of quality, look at the squad we had at the back end of last season and look at the squad we have now.
 

The Lerner years were great from 2006-2010 and then MON left and it was all downhill from then on. The star players left and Lerner seemed to lose interest (?). We’ve had nigh on a decade of mismanagement at all levels, it’s been a tough decade but there is reason for optimism now I think

[VillaFaninLondon]

1 hour ago, sir_gary_cahill said:

You haven’t missed football??? I’ve just seen your username! If I lived in London, I’d make damn (apologies mods) sure I’d still go to the Villa matches regardless of what division we were in. Villa is in my blood, it’s all I’ve ever known, I’ve been going since I was 5 years old, I’ll die at Villa Park. In my opinion, we have the infrastructure in place (the training ground, stadium, manager, owners, the playing staff is improving in terms of quality, look at the squad we had at the back end of last season and look at the squad we have now.
 

The Lerner years were great from 2006-2010 and then MON left and it was all downhill from then on. The star players left and Lerner seemed to lose interest (?). We’ve had nigh on a decade of mismanagement at all levels, it’s been a tough decade but there is reason for optimism now I think

I get what you’re saying and I do love football in general (I miss playing a lot), but I only really follow football for my love of Villa. I don’t give a **** what’s going on at other clubs. And unfortunately the last few weeks had been unbearable, and we were heading straight back to the Championship after such optimism at the start of the season and how we weren’t ‘doing a Fulham’ (personally I hated those comparisons and believe we were right to invest what we did, I’m just disappointed most of the signings haven’t performed to the required standard). 
 

Don’t agree 2006-10 was ‘great’, they were good years but we didn’t win a trophy or finish any higher than 6th, and overloaded the wage bill which put us in the position we were in in subsequent years. 
 

I agree we appear to have good owners who have invested heavily this season, they have backed the manager massively and must be disappointed to be 19th and playing so poorly at this stage of the season, we obviously have a better squad than last season but we’re a division higher and there are still a lot of positions where we need to upgrade, I don’t agree about the manager and I think he’s failed to make the step up to PL management adequately.

[Robbie09]

Gidman, McGrath, Evans, Staunton

[John]

I mentioned to John Lerwill, that we were doing this yesterday. John has written several books on Villa and was also the club's historian. I asked him what his selections would would be. He gave me: Howard Spencer, Paul McGrath, James Cowan and Jimmy Crabtree. 

[rjw63]

Don't forget Gibson/Talbot/Tate

[LancsVillan]

How does the list not include Kenny Swain at RB? or Stan Lynn

I would have Chris Nicholl at CB in the list at least. Hopefully we aren't only going to select players from 80s onwards it is all time, even if we weren't fortunate to see them  

[OutByEaster?]

On 28/04/2020 at 12:59, LancsVillan said:

Hopefully we aren't only going to select players from 80s onwards it is all time, even if we weren't fortunate to see them  

I'm not picking 'em, just collating them!

 

[OutByEaster?]

List updated - we've got something of a glut at centre back and three of those are going to have to go - any volunteers?

Also, I'm not quite sure what to do with James Cowan - an undoubted Villa great, he played at half back which is somewhere between centreback and defensive midfield - I've included him as a centre back. 

If I've got any of the positions wrong, please let me know.

 

 

[John]

John Lerwill has been in touch with me again. He considers Frank Moss (snr), Tommy Mort, Tommy Smart, Allan Evans and Steve Staunton, are also worthy of consideration. Of which all other than Frank Moss & Tommy Smart are already listed. 

Edited May 1, 2020 by John

[thabucks]

No Bouma ? Obviously goes without saying God at CB and I’d have Mellberg alongside and then Delaney at RB...

[Five Ken McNaughts]

Staunton is a decent shout at left-back but, for longevity alone, I don't think you can overlook Charlie Aitken (1959-1976). He starts off playing with the likes of McParland, Dixon, Sims et al. from the '57 FA Cup final side. Fast forward 650-odd games and he is still there, playing alongside people like Mortimer and Cowans, on their way to the '82 European Cup. For one player to bridge the years between those two Villa eras is mind-boggling. 

[Villarocker]

Aitken, Evans, McGrath, Gidman

Edited May 2, 2020 by Villarocker