Surprised nobody has mentioned JPA yet, one of my favourite Villa players but maybe just because I'm too young to remember any of the great Villa sides (such as they were...)
I actually think he'd do well playing the role Robbie Keane did a couple of years ago. He was always good at dropping off and linking up play. He had a great touch too. It's a shame JPA rarely played in Villa sides where keeping the ball on the deck and keeping the ball were encouraged. It's either been high tempo, or long ball and he often had to play as a target man, which wasn't his game.
Some of the better footballers we had at the club during Pablo's time occasionally struck up some good play with him. Merson, Hendrie, later Solano. I recall a cracking goal he scored against Southampton(?) in Gregory's era. It was Barca-esque. Sadly though Merson didn't last long after Gregory left, Hendrie was of course wildly inconsistent and Solano only stayed a year.
