Best of British: This is my top all-time team

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Big Jock Stein, the first to bring home the European Cup, told his Lisbon Lions to lay down their lives for Celtic, die with their boots on for Scotland - but enjoy every minute of it.

Sir Matt Busby put an arm around each Manchester United shoulder in the Wembley dressing room - Charlton, Best and the rest - and reminded every one of them to beat Eusebio's Benfica in memory of all who had perished in the Munich disaster.

Take three: Souness, Dalglish and Hansen all make Powell¿s team of greats

Sir Alex Ferguson strove to compensate for injuries by juggling his tactics, all the while telling his Reds that only by defeating Bayern Munich and all the odds could they hope to take their place at the high table.

Bob Paisley told Keegan and Co that if he could ride a tank into Rome during the war, then his Liverpool team had 'a bloody duty here to beat these pesky Germans' of Borussia Moenchengladbach.

Joe Fagan wisely kept the good ship Liverpool afloat while Rafa Benitez became - from three down to AC Milan - Anfield's personification of Napoleon's preference for a lucky general. Tony Barton encouraged Aston Villa's unlikely lads to seize a moment which was unlikely to come their way again.

Brian Clough, most memorably of all on the eve of victory over Malmo, answered thus when asked by a local reporter in Munich how his little Nottingham Forest team could presume to win the European Cup: 'Hey, young man, we haven't come all this way to your beautiful city to eat your magnificent sausages and to wash down your delicious sauerkraut with your famous beer. . .only to lose to a plateful of Swedes.'

All of which begs the big question. . . Which team would this brains trust of managers have selected from their ranks of Cup winners to play against the Rest of Europe in a fantasy challenge match? Curiously, the task of choosing the goalkeeper proves just as tricky as aligning a formation to accommodate the finest outfield footballers.

Ray Clemence distinguished himself in three of Liverpool's successes, while Bruce Grobbelaar's wobbly-legged antics during that penalty shoot-out in Roma's backyard are the stuff of Anfield legend.

The last match of Peter Schmeichel's towering career in Manchester ended in that fabled escape to victory in Barcelona, while Alex Stepney's flying defiance of Eusebio's potential match-winner saved Busby's United before victory in extra time.

Yet the gloved palm d'or must go to Peter Shilton. In one of European football's most notable goalkeeping performances, Shilton stopped everything Hamburg could throw at Nottingham Forest, Kevin Keegan's kitchen sink included.

That settled, the challenge is to erect an efficient rearguard without sacrificing too many forwards to die for. The solution is a 3-2-2-3 formation. The trick is identifying the back three. There will be claims for Emlyn Hughes, Tommy Smith, Phil Neal, Jamie Carragher, Bill Foulkes, Gary Neville and Villa's Allan Evans.

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But the balance rests with Alan Hansen's watchful covering and elegant playmaking, Billy McNeill's Braveheart captaincy and the rasping, no-accessany-areas mobility of Kenny Burns. Shield those defenders with the intimidating tackling and ferocious drive of Graeme Souness, coupled with the thrusting power of Steven Gerrard, the hero of Istanbul, and the solid platform is established for a feast of creators and predators so sumptuous that not even Paddy Crerand or Nobby Stiles, Bertie Auld or Willie Wallace, Ryan Giggs or Ian Rush, Trevor Francis or Peter Withe make the guest list.

Salivate, thereafter, over this pairing of attacking midfielders: Bobby Charlton, plunderer of two majestic goals against Benfica, and Kenny Dalglish, his refined talent authenticated by his chip-perfect winner against Bruges in the 1978 Wembley Final. Gorge yourselves, finally on Heaven's front three.

To the right, Jimmy Johnstone, the incorrigible genius on the wing who was dubbed the Flying Flea by a European media captivated by his mesmerising of Inter Milan in Lisbon and who was voted Celtic's greatest ever player.

In the centre: Keegan, the Mighty Mouse and double European Footballer of the Year whose out-running, out - thinking, out-shining of Moenchengladbach's Danish maestro Allan Simonsen in his last appearance for Liverpool gave Paisley his triumphal return to Rome.

To the left, George Best, who crowned his Beatle-esque explosion onto the European scene with one of the goals against Benfica and who remains in his tragic death the greatest of all British footballers.

And had he sent out this team of ours, Brian Clough, Old Big 'Ead himself, would have said what we say now to all our readers: 'Hey, beat that - if you can.'