Players who have no particular reason to love us - but do

[Rory]

Hi folks,

Hope you appreciate the punchy title.

This was inspired by the top goals this century thread, specifically the post about old players coming back to wave hello.

Of course there are Villa fans who love us (Taylor, Albrighton, Gardner.....) and those who achieved great things with us (Saint Brian, Peter McParland, the '80-'82 squads).

But there are also players out there who had no connection with Villa - until they played for us. Whether for two seasons or ten, some former players fell in love with our club.

Let's celebrate them. Any you can think of, any that mean the most to you, any that evoke specific memories & experiences. And just because one may already have been done, doesn't mean you can't name them and tell us why.

I'll start with an obvious one from recent years: Big John Carew. The day of his hat-trick against Newcastle was my 18th birthday, and I was in the Lower Holte. Even over the noise of the crowd, we could hear him celebrating his third, it meant so much to him.

[wittonwarrior]

Tony Morley is No 1 in this category - total Villa   The other player who I believe is as much Villa at Tony would be Shaun Teale  - note both of them from West Lancashire

[Dick Edwards]

Paul McGrath appears to love us as much as we love him. Considering who he played for before Villa, he talks far more affectionately about Villa than he does them.

[ldavfc4eva]

Paul Merson loves us.

He loves Arsenal too but has said many times how much he loved his time here and how big a club we were and are.

[sid1964]

Gary Neville - loves us, probably because his team always beat us when he played for them

[Villan For Life]

Paul Merson loves us.

He loves Arsenal too but has said many times how much he loved his time here and how big a club we were and are.

Merse said he cried when he left the Villa.

Olof Melberg and Martin Laursen love us too.

[SoccerHQ]

Kevin Phillips? He always speaks well of us in the media.

Was only here 12 months and more associated with Sunderland. After leaving us he of course played for a few lesser teams in this area.

Guess he must get plenty of good messages from us after that SHA winner in 2005. Important win that considering that was our first actual win over them since their promotion.

[Deano's Mullet]

Dean Saunders and Andy Townsend - always always praising us. Deano even said we were bigger than Chelsea historically which naturally the narrow minded and short memory media ripped the piss out of.

[Rory]

Paul Merson loves us.

He loves Arsenal too but has said many times how much he loved his time here and how big a club we were and are.

Merse said he cried when he left the Villa.

Olof Melberg and Martin Laursen love us too.

Merse was definitely one I had in mind.

[Rory]

Kevin Phillips? He always speaks well of us in the media.

Was only here 12 months and more associated with Sunderland. After leaving us he of course played for a few lesser teams in this area.

Guess he must get plenty of good messages from us after that SHA winner in 2005. Important win that considering that was our first actual win over them since their promotion.

Phillips was only with us 12 months?! It felt longer. Not much longer, but longer.

[OzVilla]

Garry Birtles always seemed to have a semi on for us whenever he was on commentary for some strange reason. Brian "we've done em" Cough also had a well known soft spot for us too so maybe it came from that.

[CT Villan]

Gianluca Pagliuca springs to mind...probably one of the most unlikely.

[ColinMac]

Declan Rice, twice I have seen him play at VP and twice he has made a point of coming and clapping  the Holte End at full time.

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

Juan Pablo Angel

[Deano's Mullet]

I remember vividly a league game on Sky in 1996 where we beat Spurs 2-1 and Martin Tyler commentated on the Villa Park noise and said something like "it reminds us what a truly big club Aston Villa are." I don't think he's probably said anything as complimentary in recent years and obviously club size appears to be judged differently now but that's how it was in the old days.