maqroll Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 (edited) It doesn't have to be about statistics, or trophies or awards or length of service or degree of talent (but it all helps). It can also be intangible things that you think are important to a player's legacy at Aston Villa Football Club. My list in no particular order: Paul McGrath Gareth Barry Ian Taylor Jack Grealish Dean Saunders Gabriel Agbonlahor Emi Martinez Dwight Yorke Mark Bosnich Olaf Mellberg A lot of others right on the bubble, but I had to make some hard choices. I have 10 more who could be on the second team.. Edited January 16 by maqroll 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLVillan Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 Martinez, McGrath, Laursen, Townsend, Yorke, Mings, Mellberg, Petrov, Grealish, Friedel 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdman Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 McGrath, Young, Barry, Yorke, Grealish, McGinn, Martinez, Mings, Bosnich, Watkins (Wanted Benteke in there!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_sun_never_sets Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 From 1998 when me memory starts : Laursen, Benteke (for single handedly keeping us up for a while / some fantastic goals), Angel (for global exposure), Martinez (ditto but more so), Barry, Grealish (for keeping us up and the £100M), Milner, Yorke, Ashley Young, McGinn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Jas10 Posted January 16 Popular Post Share Posted January 16 Gabby? Most important? 1 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jas10 Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 It’s difficult…. by important I’m assuming those that had major and lasting contributions and left a positive legacy… rather than anyone who was only at the club a short while or who had too many ups and downs… Would prioritise the players that had the biggest part to play in our successes but… players that kept us in the league will be mentioned too… kind of sad, because we had a long and depressing decline and period of struggle… Gonna depend on how long we have been following the club and watching our players… ‘96 League Cup win was a, the first, highlight for me and the players that played a big part back then and continued to for a while should be mentioned… and I’ll leave those better placed and more knowledgable on previous players (like McGrath, Saunders, Atkinson) to go into detail on them… Some of those players were definitely important and a big part of our history, even if they left and not on good terms either… some left a bitter taste like Bosnich and Yorke but they have to be stated as amongst our most important PL players. Southgate and Ehiogu are often overlooked too… strong and reliable defenders. Staunton was admired… Townsend was a good captain. Ian Taylor has to be there… one of the main ones… We’ve had reliable, loyal and dedicated servants like Alan Wright and Mark Delaney… not sure to put them down as “most important though”… So… that’s the Brian Little era touched on… The John Gregory one was largely positive too… and included some of the above players… Dublin was a big player for us, Merson… what a talent… I loved Carbone but he wasn’t really with us for long enough… Angel… I think it was a bit short lived and he had his struggles… fan favourite yes, most important? Debatable… There’s the MON era… Ashley Young was outstanding… Carew…? Mellberg and Laursen… wow. Gareth Barry for sure… Petrov was a good captain and grew into that role… Milner not with us long enough imo… Then come the dark days Can’t ignore Benteke… what a monster, what a talent… I think Grealish is debatable too… Mings and McGinn… they brought us back to the PL and kept us in it… with the latter two still part of our journey… but, amongst the most important, specifically in the PL? Hmm… Martinez, sure… our best ever GK and one of our greatest ever signings… But maybe we need to give our current players a bit more time before putting them in that list… a lot more to achieve yet too… hopefully we’ll look back on them at least in the same way, maybe even better… players like Pau, Konsa, Luiz, Kamara, Ollie… and hopefully more… hopefully we can have some major success and some trophies… and always remember them fondly… Unai our best, most important PL manager??? I think I’ll leave it there 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post rjw63 Posted January 16 Popular Post Share Posted January 16 Why always the premier league era? Why? WHYYYYYYYYY? 3 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted January 16 Author Share Posted January 16 All right, I've changed it to all time. I figured most people on here were too young, weren't born yet or otherwise couldn't follow English football prior to the early 90's. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLVillan Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 1 hour ago, maqroll said: All right, I've changed it to all time. I figured most people on here were too young, weren't born yet or otherwise couldn't follow English football prior to the early 90's. Well seeing as you've changed it to all time, and I'd done my list for Premier League, Im old enough to have a pre-premier league top ten.... so here goes: Rimmer, Mortimer, Little, Withe, Cowans, McInally, Gray, Platt, Spink, McGrath (yes he's on both my lists because his time with us spanned both ), And just to clarify, these are my views on most important (ie seen as indispensable at some stage of their Villa careers), not necessarily my favorites. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Delphinho123 Posted January 16 Popular Post Share Posted January 16 (edited) Tyrone Mings won’t get mentioned in here by everyone but he should. I still remember when we brought him in and the effect he had on our team at the time. He completely transformed us as a defensive unit - was the best defender in that division by a mile. He added aggression and leadership to what was an average team. The month before he joined we were playing a back 4 of Chester, Bree, El Mohamady and Taylor/Hutton (if memory serves), or something along those lines. Now, if I’m an opposition striker, I’m licking my lips at that. I’m in no way worried. Individually, each player has ability - Chester in particular - but there is a good chance I can outmuscle each of them, I can beat them in the air, I can outrun them and I’m not too worried about their physicality. Throw Mings into the equation. All of a sudden, there is a player in there I can’t outrun, I can’t outjump, I can’t outmuscle and if I do go round him, there is a fair chance he might stamp on my head. It’s a totally different thought process for an opposition striker. I dunno, for whatever reason I’ll always remember him as such a transformative signing. It’s like the club has just been on an upwards trajectory the moment he walked through the door. There are a lot of other factors, of course, but this just sticks out as so tangible and meaningful. Anyway, back to the lists. Just wanted to give Ty a shout out. As good as McGrath or Laursen? Probably not. Almost definitely not, but I can attribute a lot of the enjoyment I’ve had in the last 5/6 years to the Mings signing. That’s why he makes my list. Edited January 16 by Delphinho123 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post nick76 Posted January 16 Popular Post Share Posted January 16 Salifou, Unsworth, Keinan Davis, Balaban, De Bilde, Micah Richards, Beye, Lescott, Djemba twins, Enckelman Solid list… 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delphinho123 Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 1 hour ago, nick76 said: Salifou, Unsworth, Keinan Davis, Balaban, De Bilde, Micah Richards, Beye, Lescott, Djemba twins, Enckelman Solid list… Bizarre inclusion. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 If important and not on skill then Trezeguet should be high on the list. Them goals vs Palace and Arsenal were huge in our history. If we went down we would be in huge trouble especially all thesr new FFP sanctions We also wouldnt have hired Unai just 2 years later 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 14 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said: Bizarre inclusion. Not really 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewiek2 Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 From my time watching Villa... Cowans Withe Platt Gray Little McGrath Yorke Benteke Martinez Mortimer (Sir Dennis not Paul) 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeroy Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 Starting watching Villa in early 90s so: McGrath (world class) Yorke (left badly but was absolutely top drawer and the best player in a very good team) Southgate (again I hate the cock nose but he was a very important part of a solid defence that helped win us a trophy, Ehiogu also needs a shout) Taylor (not the most talented but was the engine of our last trophy winning team) Bosnich (amazing goalkeeper) Laursen (key defender of successful O'Neill era who we never properly replaced) Barry (for being Mr Consistent for 12 years) Benteke (part of a horrible team but was our only quality player during those dark years, almost certainly his goals alone kept us up for 3 years although I sometimes wish we'd been relegated earlier) Grealish (got us promoted, kept us up, and got us a £100m transfer record fee, I didn't like the way he left but it almost certainly helped us massively) Martinez (world class goalkeeper and needs to be in just for what he's achieved alone on the global stage) I was thinking about including Luiz, Watkins, Mings, maybe even McGinn or Konsa but they just miss out. Could see Luiz, Watkins and maybe Kamara making a later list though if we go on to achieve great things with them. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HKP90 Posted January 16 VT Supporter Share Posted January 16 4 hours ago, Leeroy said: Starting watching Villa in early 90s so: McGrath (world class) Yorke (left badly but was absolutely top drawer and the best player in a very good team) Southgate (again I hate the cock nose but he was a very important part of a solid defence that helped win us a trophy, Ehiogu also needs a shout) Taylor (not the most talented but was the engine of our last trophy winning team) Bosnich (amazing goalkeeper) Laursen (key defender of successful O'Neill era who we never properly replaced) Barry (for being Mr Consistent for 12 years) Benteke (part of a horrible team but was our only quality player during those dark years, almost certainly his goals alone kept us up for 3 years although I sometimes wish we'd been relegated earlier) Grealish (got us promoted, kept us up, and got us a £100m transfer record fee, I didn't like the way he left but it almost certainly helped us massively) Martinez (world class goalkeeper and needs to be in just for what he's achieved alone on the global stage) I was thinking about including Luiz, Watkins, Mings, maybe even McGinn or Konsa but they just miss out. Could see Luiz, Watkins and maybe Kamara making a later list though if we go on to achieve great things with them. Solid list. Honourable mentions for Ugo, Boateng, and Dean Saunders perhaps. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talldarkandransome Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 Jesus, I wouldn't even put Gabby gobby in a top 50 list. In my lifetime the most important players would be the ones that won the League and European Cup. With only league cups since then and nothing for 27 years (if memory serves). The gate is open for the new generation to step up and earn it 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChesterDad Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 17 hours ago, maqroll said: It doesn't have to be about statistics, or trophies or awards or length of service or degree of talent (but it all helps). It can also be intangible things that you think are important to a player's legacy at Aston Villa Football Club. My list in no particular order: Paul McGrath Gareth Barry Ian Taylor Jack Grealish Dean Saunders Gabriel Agbonlahor Emi Martinez Dwight Yorke Mark Bosnich Olaf Mellberg A lot of others right on the bubble, but I had to make some hard choices. I have 10 more who could be on the second team.. Would not put Gobby in my top 50 - awful footballer, with an even worse attitude. He is the only person who thought he was any good. IMO 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follyfoot Posted January 16 VT Supporter Share Posted January 16 9 hours ago, stewiek2 said: From my time watching Villa... Cowans Withe Platt Gray Little McGrath Yorke Benteke Martinez Mortimer (Sir Dennis not Paul) That’s some talented list Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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