Liverpool at the weekend, what is world class and have Aston Villa ever had one?

There is a post tomorrow and a post on Saturday to come, but today I'm feeling inspired so the post will not focus on Aston Villa. But I couldn't write a post that didn't contain something to do with Aston Villa, so we'll look at Liverpool for a moment, because that is where we go on Saturday.

And Brendan Rodgers must be happy it's us. Whatever comes out of Liverpool, he must be close to the sack. There are so many good managers available right now that Liverpool have the ability to attract, that you've got to wonder why they've stuck with him so long.

We know why they have, but a Liverpool fan will find it hard to comprehend. That's possibly why they wont go for someone like Ancelotti and probably why Ancelotti won't go to Liverpool. But it is why they might be able to get Jürgen Klopp and he is frankly an unknown quantity.

Yes, he did well at Borussia Dortmund and you can draw comparisons between the two clubs. If you build an 80,000 seater stadium in Liverpool, Liverpool fans will fill it, but will that be enough. Premier League supporters have greater expectations than Bundesliga supporters and I'm not sure Klopp would cope.

I'm convinced he'd have a good start but Liverpool is a different club and I'm not convinced their supporters are going to be willing to wait around another few seasons for something to happen. The sad part about all this is that's exactly why they hired Brendan Rodgers in the first place and why they've kept him for so long.

But if we win on Saturday it really could be his head. Ironically, I think it's going to take a better manager to realise that to get the best out of Benteke you've got to hit it long. And Liverpool fans are not going to like that.

What is a world class player

Rio Ferdinand threw his toys out of the pram when Sir Alex Ferguson didn't name him as one of the world class players that he managed during his time at Manchester United. It made me chuckle, because if you were to ask me to name the world class central defenders of my generation, Ferdinand wouldn't be close to it and you have to be a special individual to think you are world class at something.

But it got me thinking; how do you define a world class player. For me it's simple, for a period of time would this be the best player in the world in this position and I don't just mean a few months, I mean over the duration of their career. An example would be Ronaldo - no question, world class. Another would be Paul Scholes. Incidentally, I'd not have Ryan Giggs, but me and Sir Alex have never seen eye to eye.

And the reason I got to thinking about this was on Twitter this morning I made a reference to Ferdinand and then Ben Kennedy asked if Peter Schmeichel was world class and for a moment I thought he was, but then I'm not so sure.

It made me question and think if he really was the best keeper consistently for a period of time. My head started thinking of Oliver Khan but I wasn't sure. Then I thought, have Aston Villa ever had a world class player?

Question of the day

So, that's a simple one. Have Aston Villa ever had a world class player. If so, name him below and justify it.