Aston Villa's Best-ever Team

I was asked, a day or two ago, to submit my best "All-time Aston Villa Team". However, I find it near impossible to decide on a genuine all-time 'best team'. The styles of football, and even the nature of football, has changed a great deal, particularly in the last 50 years, so it makes comparison so very, very difficult - nigh impossible in fact, as I said before. Let alone that the earliest Villa match I saw was 70 years ago, so how could I know much about football before about 60 years ago?

As it happened, at the time of the stated invitation I had just completed my 'best team' selections for my website, but selected by 'era' - see here. This link also lists all the main players and their stats (etc) in the Villa's history, and is sortable.

However, having been asked the question about one team that represents the best of all-time, I decided, reluctantly, to have a try. My judgment was based on this information I had found during my research into the club:

•  Jimmy Crabtree (1894-1902) - full-back, wing-half and sometimes forward, was commonly considered the greatest all-round England player before WW2.
• That Billy Walker played at a time (the 1920s) when the standard of football had gone down - the effect of the huge losses of young men in WW1- and hence it would seem he gained a greater reputation than his Villa predecessors because he stood out more in that situation. 
• It would seem that Vaughton, Bache, Clem Stephenson and Wheldon were regarded by a fair number of old-time supporters as being better inside-lefts than Walker. But Walker - apart from being a goal maker, still holds the club's goalscoring record. Hampton comes a close second.
• Joe Bache (1900-1915) - because of his playing longevity, international standing, his overall ball-skills and playmaking and scoring ability - shades selection into the team ahead of John Devey. Unlikely as it may seem to recent supporters, both players must rank ahead of Johnny Dixon, the 1957 cup-winning captain. Dixon was never picked for England.
• It should be remembered also that the pre-1930s centre-half was not a defensive player! Nevertheless, Jimmy Cowan was an outstanding player of his time (1889-1902). Jimmy Gibson (1927-1935) could also play in that role, but he was usually a wing-half. Only the fact that Mortimer was such a superb captain (as well as a fine player) do I select Mortimer ahead of Gibson.

 So (somewhat reluctantly) my one 'best' team (4-4-2 format) would be (see my webpage for years when they played etc):

 

Rimmer, 

Spencer, McGrath, James Cowan, Crabtree, 

Mortimer, Cowans, Bache, McParland, 

Walker and Hampton. 

But it hurts me to leave out the likes of Andy and Archie Hunter, Howard Vaughton, Dennis Hodgetts, John Devey, Fred Wheldon, Jimmy Gibson, Johnny Dixon, Danny Blanchflower and Brian Little, let alone Gerry Hitchens. Therefore, I invite these 11 players to sit on the 'bench', as subs!

UTV!