Who makes Albion's best-ever XI? Astle or Regis? Cunningham or Johnston? Williams or Statham? Vote now!
03.07.26, 14:10 Updated 08.07.26, 19:31 5 Minute Read
Steve Tudgay
It’s time to open up a debate about Albion’s best-ever XI. Now when we say ‘best-ever’ we don’t actually mean ever, ever.
We’re going to narrow it down because there’s a very strong chance no-one is still alive from the time the club won their only top division championship in 1919/20. Instead we'll use our 1968 FA Cup winners as the benchmark. So the rule is you can pick any players from '68 team to the present day to make up your ideal XI.
The final selection is entirely in your hands. Which of our legendary goalscorers do you choose, Jeff Astle, Bomber Brown, Cyrille Regis or Super Bob Taylor? Which brick-wall central defenders ... Johnny Kaye, Ally Robertson or John Wile? Who gets into your perfect Albion team from the last 58 years?
How to vote
Voting categories
We’d like you to try and pick a balanced team in 4-4-2 or 4-3-3, even 3-5-2 if you fancy. And we’ve given you some obvious contenders for each positional category below.
Some players were considered but didn’t quite make the list of candidates, such as David Button as goalkeeper, Neil Parsley and Graham Harbey as full back options, Stacy North in central defence and gap-year Greg Krychowiak at the heart of a mis-functioning midfield. Paul Williams also only just missed the final cut in the striker section!
Joking aside, we will tally up all the votes and reveal the official Fans’ Best (since 1968) XI in a special feature on Full Throstle at the end of September.
And of course, no team operates without a manager. Pepe Mel and Eric Ramsay were considered and discarded as options within a nano-second - so our list is as follows.
Let the debate begin!
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Steve Tudgay Steve Tudgay was a journalist for the Birmingham Evening Mail during the early 90s when West Brom were managed by Bobby Gould and Ossie Ardiles. You may remember him - he was the one banned by Gould! Since then he has worked in television for ITV Sport, Sky Sports and Premier League Productions.




