To borrow a phrase we hear before kick-off at the Amex: “It’s the stuff of dreams!” It certainly is for Albion fans.

Leo Ulloa and Peter Ward step forward to take kick-off.

Matt Upson lines up alongside classy Mark Lawrenson at the back.

Brian Horton wins the ball in midfield and then plays a shrewd pass to Vicente, who weaves his magic.

Jimmy Case insists he is the man to take free-kicks from 25 yards out while David Lopez tries to understand his Scouse accent.

Alan Mullery or Gus Poyet jokingly describe the team’s striking options as “Two Bob” – that is Bobby Zamora and Bobby Smith.

And Will Buckley consistently produces 90 minutes of magic every week knowing he is competing for a place with Elliott Bennett and the mercurial Steve Penney.

Or perhaps your all-time Albion XI would be different.

Perhaps you would start with Zamora in attack. Or Michael Robinson. Or Glenn Murray. Or Gordon Smith.

Maybe Grease is the word. And Fozzy. Yes, Gary Stevens and Steve Foster in defence would be strong contenders.

  • Your all-time Albion team in 2005 was Moseley; Crumplin, Foster, Lawrenson, Stevens; Penney, Horton, Case, O'Sullivan; Ward, Zamora. (Manager: Mullery).

Gerry Ryan is perhaps the most under-rated star name of the top-flight team of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Does he feature?

The options are not quite endless. But they are impressive.

Back in the summer of 2005 we asked you to pick your all-time Albion XI.

Now, ten years later, we are asking for the same – in the knowledge that things have moved on.

For one thing, you now have a lot more players from whom to choose.

In 2005, the boys who took the Seagulls to the old first division fared well in our polls.

Eight players from that era made the XI and you voted in Alan Mullery as manager ahead of Micky Adams.

Zamora, who played for the club in all three divisions below the top flight, was one of your chosen frontmen.

Steve Penney, who joined Albion six months after relegation in 1983, got the vote on the right wing and John Crumplin was at right-back.

The most convincing winner in our position-by-position polls was left winger Peter O’Sullivan, who scooped 81% of the votes that week.

By contrast Crumplin squeezed in with 21% of the votes for right-back.

The versatile Stevens was second in the voting for right-back and only narrowly missed out at centre-back which explained why many readers opted to vote him at left-back, the last of the defensive berths to be decided.

As many said at the time, he was just too good to leave out.

But that was 2005. Since then we have seen five seasons in the Championship, a title triumph in League One and, of course, the move to the Amex.

Just look at the players who have passed this way.

Vicente, Wayne Bridge, Ulloa, Tomasz Kuszczak, Upson, Glenn Murray, Elliott Bennett, Liam Bridcutt, Bruno, David Lopez, Paul McShane, Gordon Greer, Elliott Bennett – the list goes on and on. And there is another big reason why the line-up might change – the new generation of fans.

Any team’s fanbase and any newspaper’s readership will change over the course of a decade. But Albion’s following has changed and grown more than most with the move from Withdean.

One thing that has not changed is that the period between 1979 and 1983 remains the club’s only stint in the top division.

The Wembley double bill with Manchester United in 1983 remains their only major final.

But the club have recorded the joint-sixth and the joint-eighth best finishing positions in their history in recent years.

In the interests of consistency, we have stuck with the 4-4-2 formation we used in 2005.

As the weeks go by we will ask you to select your players positions by position. We will do the two centre-backs together but we will ask you to name a deeper midfielder and a more creative sidekick in separate polls.

You will also have the chance to name a main striker and someone to work off him.

Your votes will produce a clear picture of your all-time XI by the time the new season gets under way.

We will ask you to make decisions based on what the players did for the Seagulls rather than elsewhere.

That would count against, for example, Joe Corrigan, Willie Young, Frank Stapleton, Lee Hendrie, Stefan Iovan, Robbie Savage and possibly Frank Worthington and Dean Saunders too.

But it would still make Vicente, Lawrenson, Case and Upson among others strong contenders, even though they are better known to the wider footballing audience for what they did with other clubs.

There will be various ways in which to vote. We will start with the goalkeepers on Monday. So get your thinking caps on.

And start dreaming...