Judge for yourselves
Fred Spiksley | 06/01/1930

T. E. Williams, Erdington, asks "old-timers" how the following present-day team would fare gainst old favourites: 

Thomson (Celtic); Cresswell (Everton), Mort (Aston Villa); Edwards (Leeds United), Griffiths (Everton), Gibson (Aston Villa); Jackson (Huddersfield Town), Hine (Leicester City), Gallacher (Newcastle United), James (Arsenal), and Cook (Portsmouth). 

I will give him three teams, with reserves, of different decades, and leave " old-timers" to answer. I have not drawn on the many good Scottish players other than those who were connected with English clubs: 

1887

Trainer (Preston North End); Nick Ross (Preston North End), Dan Doyle (Everton); Jimmy Forrest (Blackburn Rovers), Dave Russell (Preston North End), N. C. Bailey (Corinthians); Jack Gordon (Preston North End), Jimmy Ross (Preston North End), John Southworth (Blackburn Rovers). W. N. Cobbold (Corinthians), and Dennis Hodgetts (Aston Villa).

Hodgetts               Southworth               Gordon   
Cobbold               J. Ross  

 Bailey         Russell         Forrest

Doyle      N. Ross

Trainer

Reserves: John Goodall (Preston North End), Tinsley Lindley (Nottingham Forest), John Holt (Everton), and Donald Gow (Sunderland)

1897

Foulke (Sheffield United); M'Combie (Sunderland), Crabtree (Aston Villa); Frank Forman (Nottingham Forest), Alec Raisbeck (Liverpool), Needham (Sheffield United); Bassett (Weet Bromwich Albion), Bloomer (Derby County), Bob M'Coll (Newcastle United). Fred Wheldon (Aston Villa), and Bob Templeton (Aston Villa).

Templeton               M'Coll               Bassett      
 Wheldon         Bloomer

Needham         Raisbeck         Forman   

  Crabtree      M'Combie

Foulke

Reserves: G. O. Smith (Corinthians), J. T. Robertson (Everton), Tom Crawshaw (Shefield Wednesday), and Howard Spencer (Aston Villa).

1907

Hardy (Aston Villa); Crompton (Blackburn Rovers), Pennington (West Bromwich Albion); Andy Aitken (Newcastle United), Charles Roberts (ManChester United), P. M'William (Newcastle United); Meredith (Manchester City), Fleming (Swindon), V. Woodward (Tottenham Hotspur), Grenville Morris (Nottingham Forest), and George Wall (Manchester United).

   G. Wall               Woodward               Meredith
Morris         Fleming

P. M'William         Roberts         Aitken     

Pennington      Crompton  

Hardy

Reserves: Andrew Wilson (Sheffield Wednesday), Wedlock (Bristol City), Joe Bache (Aston Villa), and Ben Warren (Derby County and Chelsea).