Max Woosnam isn't a name you read very often, but he was quite an all round talent.
He played for City, captained the England football team, won a gold medal at the olympic games and was a Wimbledon champion at tennis, played cricket for England, shot a 147 at snooker, and was a scratch golfer as well.
In 1973, the club held a survey of fans to select our gratest ever player. It was held to celebrate the fact we had finally paid off William McAlpine, builders of Maine Road, after 50 years, and Bert Trautman won it by an absolute landslide.
I never saw Max Woosnam or Bert Trautman play for us, but they were undoubted talents, and my father always said Bert Trautman was the greatest player he had watched, and he had seen City from the early 30's, so he had watched Bell and Lee as well as many others
I don't think it's really fair for us to say which player was the greatest in this day and age. Pitches were mudheaps years ago, often frozen in winter, and tackles were far more robust years ago than they are now. If the rules were applied then as they are now, every player would have recieved a yellow card, and half the team a red card.
It's who is best in their era that counts, and in modern times, I will say David Silva, but It's intriguing to think how much better would Mike Summerbee have been if he had played on modern pitches without the infamous tackle from behind which was par for the course when he was playing, and how much worse would David Silva have been if he was being sythed down by Chopper Harris or his ilk everytime he recieved the ball?
We'll never know.