After the news broke that the popular concept of the Football Masters is returning to our TV screens, people quickly fled to social media to speculate which famous football stars would be starring in the tournament.
Although, as it stands it’s only the ex-players of Liverpool, Manchester United, Rangers and Celtic confirmed for the tournament, it did get me thinking what would be the best Aston Villa starting line-up if we entered a team.
I took to Twitter to get some suggestions and came up with my ultimate Aston Villa Football Masters Squad.
The Rules
First of all, there are a few rules regarding who can and can’t play in the tournament. For example, every player has to be over 35 years-old, and all selected players have to be retired from professional football. There should be nine players in each squad. (Six starters and three substitutes).
The Formation
After some careful consideration, I decided to go with a 2-2-1 to provide a stable defence, giving licence for our midfield and attackers to advance forward.
Villa Masters | The Starting Six
Mark Bosnich
Everyone knows that every decent six a side team needs a quality goalkeeper and there’s not many better than the Australian shot stopper!
The 50 year-old spent 7 years at Villa notching up over 170 appearances. Bosnich was a key part of the team that won the League Cup for Villa in 1994, saving three penalties in the semi-final penalty shootout to cement Villa’s place in the final, he also picked up a winners medal in the same competition two years later.
Martin Laursen
Next we move on to the defence and the perfect candidate here would be Martin Laursen.
The Danish international became a cult hero for Villa in his five 5 years at the club. The giant defender is a daunting figure for a striker to come up against and at just 44 years old he could definitely cause some attackers some trouble.
Olof Mellberg
Another cult hero for Aston Villa, the Swedish Giant takes his rightful place in the team. The 44 year-old spent seven years at the club and embodied what it meant to be to be an Aston Villa player both on and off the pitch.
This is shown no more than when he publicly announced his feelings towards the noisy neighbours in Small Heath.
Gareth Barry
One of the younger members, but not inexperienced, Barry has made the most Premier League appearances than any other English player in the competition’s history.
Despite Barry finishing his career at local rivals West Brom he is still looked on in a positive light by most fans for the 365 appearances he made in almost a decade.
Definitely a strong addition to our squad and can be used as an anchor-man to help his defence if we’re under attack.
Stiliyan Petrov
Petrov was one of my earliest footballing heroes which meant as soon as I saw his name suggested I knew I had to choose him!
The Bulgarian’s career was cruelly cut short meaning we never got to see as much as we should have from Petrov, but I believe he would make up for his lost time by rolling back the years in this tournament.
John Carew
And finally to finish the team off we’re going for the big man up front.
The Norwegian made 113 appearances for Villa in which he managed to score 37 goals in just over four years. When I was younger I’d run around the garden pretending to be Carew so once again this was a bit of a no brainier for me.
The Subs
Steve Staunton
The defender spent just over a decade across two spells at Aston Villa which saw him don the shirt a combined total of 281 times. Staunton could prove to be an exciting prospect off of the bench.
Lee Hendrie
Truth be told had James Milner been retired he would have took this spot but the boyhood Villa fan is a worthy replacement having made 251 appearances for Villa across a 13 year tenure.
Juan Pablo Angel
The last player in the squad surprisingly wasn’t picked by any of the Villa fans I saw but is definitely a worthy part of the squad. The Colombian magician scored 44 times for the Villa. Gabby Agbonglahor may feel slightly hard done by being left out of the squad but Juan Pablo Angel just pips him in my opinion.
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