Hardest Villa Player You Have Seen.

[Brend'Watkins]

I don't remember Cooper as being particularly hard.  I would put him at the top of any list for player with the most poorly timed tackles though.  Cooper would make Paul Scholes look like Downing at his wimpiest.

[serbentoflight]

Sid.

[lennythekad]

I don't remember Cooper as being particularly hard.  I would put him at the top of any list for player with the most poorly timed tackles though.  Cooper would make Paul Scholes look like Downing at his wimpiest.

More or less finished Ian Durrants career for Rangers with one of the worst tackles you've ever seen. Being a dirty bastard and chopping skilful players doesn't make him a hard man, as you  rightly say.

[dave.woodhall]

I don't remember Cooper as being particularly hard.  I would put him at the top of any list for player with the most poorly timed tackles though.  Cooper would make Paul Scholes look like Downing at his wimpiest.

More or less finished Ian Durrants career for Rangers with one of the worst tackles you've ever seen. Being a dirty bastard and chopping skilful players doesn't make him a hard man, as you  rightly say.

That was Neil Simpson. Ask any Scottish player of the time and they'd tell you Cooper was right up there at the top of the hard man list.

[DeKuip]

A bit before my time but my dad always reckons George Cummings is the hardest we've ever had.

[Salsa Party Animal]

Frank Barson is also one of hard man in the older days. But again we won't know as there is probably no video coverage of him in action.

[SteveN]

A bit before my time but my dad always reckons George Cummings is the hardest we've ever had.

As did my dad, Bill Shankley picked Cummings in his best ever XI and apparently he was the one full back that Stanley Matthews couldn't play against. "Dance all you like Stanley but come anywhere near me I'll put you in the stands" was allegedly his opening line to him.

In my time Bruce Rich - hard with a fair bit of nasty about him, and George Curtis - just hard.

[Brend'Watkins]

Looking back at great hard tacklers....Earl Barret, not what I remember as a particularly hard player but his tackle on Cantona in his Leeds days at VP with Cantona attacking the Holte End is the most fulsome tackle I've witnessed, perfectly executed with velocity and accuracy and enough force to win the ball cleanly and leave Cantona shocked, winded and out of sorts for much of the remaining game.

It was just perfect.

 

[usav]

McGrath.

[Big Dick Edwards]

It can be easy to mix up a hard player from a dirty player. The likes of Chopper Harris and Graeme Souness used to be called hard but they were just downright dirty. I remember 70s Villa players like Godfrey, Lochhead and Morgan being particularly hard but the toughest but clean player I've seen at Villa was Shaun Teale. When he tackled you, you knew about it!

[Oscar Arce]

It has to be George Curtis for me by a million miles, he apparently used to tweak the noses of players he thought weren't giving their all in games !
He had his nose broken and split all over his face in the early stages of the 3-0 win at Notts County in the Third Division by Tony Hateley, but despite constant recommendations to leave the field and even be substituted (including by Hateley himself), he totally refused to come off.
He then refused to have his nose operated on until we were mathematically sure of promotion, even though he suffered severe breathing problems.
Can you imagine a player today doing that ?

[Salsa Party Animal]

Imagine a back four with George Curtis, God, Shaun Teale and George Cummings and Frank Barson as defensive midfielder. That would make Arsene Wenger happy

[The Left Side]

Shaun Teale and Allan Evans for me

[Damo70]

I don't remember Cooper as being particularly hard.  I would put him at the top of any list for player with the most poorly timed tackles though.  Cooper would make Paul Scholes look like Downing at his wimpiest.

More or less finished Ian Durrants career for Rangers with one of the worst tackles you've ever seen. Being a dirty bastard and chopping skilful players doesn't make him a hard man, as you  rightly say.

That was Neil Simpson. Ask any Scottish player of the time and they'd tell you Cooper was right up there at the top of the hard man list.

It was definately Simpson who did Durrant. Rangers signed Cooper from us. If they had bought Neil Simpson after that tackle his reception from the Rangers fans would have been worse than Mo Johnston's was.

[LeeB]

McGrath.

Yeah, Macca was the hardest by far.