The greatest ever Villan? | Vital Football

The greatest ever Villan?

BBJ

BBJ

Father Of The Forum
I saw this article in today's IRISH INDEPENDENT.
He'd certainly get into the all-time best ever Villa team but might Paul McGrath be our best ever player?

It is one of the great regrets of a lifetime in football that I never got to manage Paul McGrath.
He left St Patrick’s Athletic a couple of years before I took over there and the great man was sadly retired from football by the time I took over the Irish senior team.
But I did spot Paul’s talent before anyone. Yet a bit like the fella who didn’t sign the Beatles, I did nothing about it.
It was just when I was packing it in as a player and starting to dabble in management.
I was doing a bit of both, I was neither one nor the other, neither truly player nor manager. I had joined CYM in Terenure, whose pitches were just down the road from the old Sunday World offices there, on a loose sort of a deal that I’d play and manage a team as well.



https://www.independent.ie/sport/so...paul-mcgrath-in-his-dalkey-days-38748954.html
 
We had a poll on here a few years ago for the best Villa player not including McGrath and McGrath won it. In Super Jack we finally have a player that might eclipse the great Paul McGrath. He'll have to keep up his phenomenal development and remain at the club for his entire career though.
 
TheQ. said:
Billy Walker
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Dad said the old timers all thought Billy Walker was best ever. Players I've seen? Candidates would include (as ever bound to forget a gem or two). Will suggest an all time 11. Rimmer. Swain Macca, Evans , Aitken. Platt, Mortimer,Sid, Macparland,. Withe and Shaw.
 
BodyButter said:
We had a poll on here a few years ago for the best Villa player not including McGrath and McGrath won it. In Super Jack we finally have a player that might eclipse the great Paul McGrath. He'll have to keep up his phenomenal development and remain at the club for his entire career though.
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Completely agree about super Jack.

In my lifetime, there hasn’t been a Cowans, a Little or a Mortimer. There’s been a McGrath who I saw play but was too young to appreciate.

I just wish we were in a better position to keep Jack for longer, he could be the first true great in my lifetime.
 
If Jack was to leave at the end of this season or the next one, I don't think anyone would begrudge him the move, especially if it's to a really top club.

Still, the old romantic in me wants to see Jack finish his (long and successful) career with us. I want him to be that club legend that we tell the grandkids about and they only half believe that such a player could have have existed.
 
sirdennis said:
Sir Dennis for me.

Never ever had a bad game and was a brilliant player and a great leader.
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Yes,Sir Dennis was class. Others include Peter Macparland, Gerry Hitchens,Sid, Evans and Mcnaught,Swain and Gibbo,Withe and Shaw,Platt and Cropley, McGrath and Dugdale, Rimmer and Spinks, Graydon and Morley, Hateley, Lochhead,Gray, little, Leonard. Many wonderful players. Aitken,Wylie, Dixon, Lynn,Dougan. Apologies to all the great Villans who l have overlooked. Dad lived in Aston post world war 2 and the locals,to a man,said Billy Walker was the greatest Villan.
 
Already mentioned above, this guy probably takes some beating;
Billy Walker 1914-1933
Another pre-Second World War player, Walker spent 19 years with the club. With 244 goals to his name, the striker still remains Villa's all-time leading goalscorer despite almost half a century passing since his death in 1964.
The forward captained both Villa and England in the 1920s and even had a stint in goal for both sides. With 12 League and FA Cup hat-tricks to his name, Billy Walker is a man that will never be forgotten by his adoring fans.
 
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