Villa's Fab 50 Top Players

[Legion]

16: Des Bremner

[JJ-AV]

Yorkie should have been higher.

[VillaZogmariner]

Yorkie should have been higher.

Really? I'd say top 20 is about right for him to be honest.

He certainly should not have been higher than Sir Brian.

[The Man With A Stick]

He certainly should not have been higher than Sir Brian.

You wait til they reach #8 and wheel Ian Olney out.

[*shellac*]

He certainly should not have been higher than Sir Brian.

You wait til they reach #8 and wheel Ian Olney out.

Didn't know he is that old, 64 this year?

[cheltenhamlion]

Michael Boulding

[Simon Ward]

15. Gareth Southgate.

[PaulTheVillan]

Southgate was class for us. Shame he wanted bigger things then fucked off to Boro. I think Paul Scholes was talking about Southgate in his interview the other day.

[VillaZogmariner]

I liked Southgate - but as long as my arse points downwards he is not in the top 15 players to pull on a Villa shirt. And most fucking definitely he should not be higher of Dwight Yorke, let alone Sir Brian.

[gervilla]

14. Stuart Ritchie

[Legion]

14: Nigel Sims

[Daholteend]

There probably wasn't a Villa supporter born that didn't like "Nige". Great goalkeeper who helped Villa win the FA Cup in 1957 and the first ever League Cup in 1960-1 3-2 on aggregate over Rotheram United.

He won the first supporters award that I can recall and rightly so. He was burly and held his weight quite well iirc until he quit smoking and as a nipper I recall the Holte End kidding him about quitting smoking in his last few seasons whenever he let a goal in.

At the international level I think he was underrated and represented the Football League. I think he could have easily played for England. Having watched both Ron Springett and Nigel Sims I would say that Nige was more reliable but Springett made every ball that came his way look like a fancy save.

I think the fact that Sheffield Wednesday paid QPR 10K for Springett helped him get the caps, whereas Nigel simply, arrived at Villa  after being understudy to Bert Williams at Wolves.

Nigel had an innate sense of positioning and in those days goalkeepers were prey to bullying centre forwards like John Charles. But not our Nige; Safe hands, came off his line when necessary and was strong on crosses from set pieces and gave forwards as good as they gave with change.

In fact most corner takers should have just kicked the ball to Nige because Nige was going to get it anyway.

Others may not agree but I think his weight gain in his last few seasons seemed to be an issue and ultimately he left Villa for Peterborough United. In his heyday Nigel was  imho one of the greatest goalkeepers over the last 50 years which undoubtedly is why he is ranked in the Top 20. Top Bloke, great goalie.

[Simon Ward]

Misread no.14 at first and thought they had come up with Steve Sims! Doh!

[The Left Side]

Misread no.14 at first and thought they had come up with Steve Sims! Doh!

Me too, sounds like the kind of keeper we need today.

[Matt Collins]

I thought of steve sims too. I was a little surprised!