THE shortlists are out – the debate has begun.

Next year will be the 20th anniversary of Wanderers leaving their spiritual home at Burnden Park, and we wanted to mark the occasion by asking our readers to pick an all-time best XI of players to grace the hallowed turf.

Hundreds of readers responded to our request for their own hand-picked teams – many giving reasons for their choices, ranging from the personal to the ultra-statistical.

But whether the choice was made with heart or head, we tasked three Wanderers experts with whittling down the huge number of suggested names into a workable shortlist on which our entire readership could vote.

Simon Marland, Andrew Dean and Paul Holliday debated long and hard over 96 different names to come up with a selection which reflected all eras of the club, quality of player, longevity of career, trophies won and international experience.

The whole thing is subjective – and there have been some famous names who did not make the cut. But don’t worry, we’ll be giving every player who was nominated a mention in our special pull-out, which will be printed in January.

Some readers have raised questions about the categories players were nominated in – for example Peter Thompson, a winger, being included among the midfielders.

We based this on readers’ XIs, in which he featured as a midfield choice in 76 per cent of the teams he was selected in. Freddie Hill and Francis Lee also suffered from a similar identity crisis in our initial poll.

We were also asked why modern-day legends like Stuart Holden, Jay Jay Okocha, Jussi Jaaskelainen and Gary Cahill were not included in our list. The simple answer is, they did not play at Burnden.

Our shortlists are as follows – Managers: Bruce Rioch, Colin Todd, Charles Foweraker, Bill Ridding.

Goalkeepers: Eddie Hopkinson, Dick Pym, Keith Branagan.

Defenders: Paul Jones, Warwick Rimmer, Tommy Banks, Roy Hartle, Jimmy Seddon, Gudni Bergsson, Harry Goslin, Alan Stubbs, Syd Farrimond, Malcolm Barrass.

Midfielders: Peter Reid, Per Frandsen, Peter Thompson, Steve Thompson, Ray Parry, Roy Greaves, Freddie Hill, Ray Westwood, Julian Darby, Dougie Holden.

Strikers: John McGinlay, David Jack, Franny Lee, Nat Lofthouse, Frank Worthington, Neil Whatmore, Andy Walker, Joe Smith, Willie Moir, John Byrom.