Your club’s greatest ever player REVEALED: Arsenal’s mercurial marvel, Aston Villa’s defensive colossus… and the Brentford star still turning out for the Bees as Mail Sport readers have their say
Tens of thousands of Mail Sport readers have voted over the summer to choose the greatest-ever player at every current Premier League club.
Thank you to everyone who participated either through our online poll or by email.
With the 2024-25 top-flight season beginning on Friday, we are revealing all the winners this week.
Here are your selections for Arsenal, Aston Villa, AFC Bournemouth, and Brentford.
Arsenal
1: Thierry Henry 33.7 per cent
2: Dennis Bergkamp 19.6 per cent
3: Tony Adams 16.2 per cent
WINNER: THIERRY HENRY (1997-2007 & 2012)
Games 376, Goals 228
A convincing winner for the Arsenal poll, Henry is not only the record goalscorer in the club’s history, he is widely regarded as the best overseas player ever seen in English football and won the Premier League Golden Boot on four occasions.
Mr Invincible, the leading Arsenal marksman in their historic unbeaten 2003-04 campaign, gave the league its va va voom, his style and grace making him a huge hit with advertisers and bringing a new audience to the game.
He also won the FA Cup twice and helped Arsenal reach the Champions League final in 2006. He scored all types of goals from deft finishes to long-range howitzers and returned for a brief loan in 2012, fittingly scoring the winner against Sunderland in his final game.
Thierry Henry was voted as Arsenal’s greatest-ever player by Mail Sport readers, beating Dennis Bergkamp and Tony Adams
Bergkamp symbolised Arsenal’s revolution into great entertainers under Arsene Wenger
Former tough-tackling captain Adams earned third place on the list of Gunners favourites
‘Thierry is an exceptional player who writes football history,’ said his manager Arsene Wenger who signed the Frenchman as a young winger who had struggled Juventus and helped turn him into a world-class striker.
As Arsenal supporter Carte Blanche posted on MailOnline from Los Angeles, ‘TH14 was simply unstoppable during his Arsenal days and robbed of World Player of the Year.’
There was also strong support among Gunners fans for ‘King’ Dennis Bergkamp who symbolised Arsenal’s evolution from a defensively-minded team into the great entertainers, and Tony Adams, captain in four league championship sides under George Graham and Wenger.
Aston Villa
1: Paul McGrath 28.4 per cent
2: Andy Gray 16.5 per cent
3: Gordon Cowans 10.5 per cent
WINNER: PAUL McGRATH (1989-1996)
Games 327, Goals 11
Paul McGrath was considered washed up when Sir Alex Ferguson let him go at Manchester United, concerned about his ‘unprofessional’ lifestyle.
He didn’t make his Villa debut until shortly before his 30th birthday yet became such a huge favourite over the next seven years, you’ve chosen him as the club’s greatest player of all-time.
McGrath, a Rolls Royce of a defender who was also regarded by Republic of Ireland manager Jack Charlton as his best player, was given his own fitness programme at Villa to rest his arthritic knees from training with the rest of the players.
Over seven years, Paul McGrath became a fan favourite for his Rolls Royce smoothness
Andy Gray earned personal accolades at Villa and lifted the League Cup in 1977
Gordan Cowans was part of Villa’s European Cup-winning side of 1981-82 and won five trophies with the club
Yet come match day he was usually the best player on the pitch. He was a League Cup winner in 1994 beating former club United and again in 1996 when he formed part of a back-three with Gareth Southgate in thrashing Leeds 3-0 at Wembley.
The Holte End would serenade ‘Paul McGrath, My Lord,’ and former manager Ron Atkinson said: ‘Anybody that’s watched Villa for a number of years, he’s the number one.’
As Villa fan Skidmor74 posted on MailOnline: ‘Never out of position, strong as an ox and technically superb. The standout player by quite a way.’
Andy Gray, who was both PFA Player and Young Player of the Year in 1975, was runner-up. Votes for the legendary 1982 European Cup-winning team were split but the most popular choice was Gordon Cowans.
AFC Bournemouth
1: Ted MacDougall 22.6 per cent
2: Steven Fletcher 14.2 per cent
3: Callum Wilson 11.4 per cent
WINNER: TED MacDOUGALL (1969-1972, 1978-1980)
Games 223, Goals 144
It’s highly-unusual that a player is considered a club legend after only three seasons but that shows the impact that Ted MacDougall had at Bournemouth. There has been a stand named after him, both at the old Dean Court and the current Vitality Stadium.
The club were still known as Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic when MacDougall was signed from York for £10,000 in 1969, on wages of £28-a-week. His feats are still talked about more than half-a-century later.
The original SuperMac scored 49 goals in 1970-71 as The Cherries won promotion from Division Four and became a national household name the following season when he hit nine in a single FA Cup tie against Margate, in an 11-0 victory.
Ted MacDougall only had three seasons at Bournemouth after joining in 1969 but he is still talked about today after scoring 126 goals
Steve Fletcher is Bournemouth’s record appearance-holder and currently assistant manager
Callum Wilson is still a favourite among our Cherries voters despite leaving for Newcastle
His diving header against Aston Villa was captured on Match of the Day and still gets regular re-runs. For 5ft10ins, he was exceptional in the air and by 1972, he was too hot for Bournemouth to keep and he joined Manchester United for £200,000 – a huge fee in those days.
MacDougall, who won seven caps for Scotland, did return for a couple of years towards the end of his career – reunited with strike partner Phil Boyer – and still keeps a close eye on the club’s fortunes from home in America. ‘The game is different. I might have a problem with these modern pitches – I’d have no bobbles to blame!’ he quips.
Record-appearance holder Steven Fletcher was runner-up and the club’s recent spell in the Premier League, the best period in the club’s history, was recognised with plenty of support for Callum Wilson.
Brentford
1: Ivan Toney 23.2 per cent
2: David McCulloch 17.9 per cent
3: Kevin O’Connor 17.8 per cent
WINNER: IVAN TONEY (2020-)
Games 141, Goals 72
Ivan Toney is already Brentford’s best according to you supporters – and there may yet be more to come if he remains in west London after the transfer window shuts.
Toney had big shoes to fill when he signed from Peterborough to replace Aston Villa-bound Ollie Watkins but 33 goals in his first season – the most scored in The
Championship at that time – helped his new club win promotion to the top flight for the first time in 74 years.
Brentford fans voted in Ivan Toney as their favourite. He helped Brentford get back in the top flight after a 74-year absence
David McCulloch (left) is appreciated to this day thanks to his goal-scoring in the 1930s
Kevin O’Connor gets a podium spot after staying his whole career at Brentford and playing 501 times for them
Since then, his goals have kept Brentford in the Premier League even though the first half of last season’s campaign was curtailed due to a gambling ban.
For manager Thomas Frank, Toney is more than a goalscoring machine. He is a physical presence up front and a true leader, cajoling and inspiring those around him. Nothing is off-limits for Toney, who scored a famous double at The Etihad in 2022 to down Manchester City 2-1.
His no-look penalties, already well-known to Brentford fans, gained a wider audience with England at the recent Euros.
‘He’s a man for the big occasion. He doesn’t feel the pressure,’ eulogises Frank. ‘Toney, easily,’ was the opinion of MailOnline reader Jimmy Sands of London.
1930s goal machine David McCulloch, the only Brentford player other than Toney to score 20 goals in a top-flight season, narrowly pipped popular long-serving midfielder Kevin O’Connor to second, but a decisive distance behind Toney.
