I don't think I could limit it to 3, but my favourite players from when I've been watching the tigers includes: Garreth Roberts - played his whole career for his hometown club, and captained us to 2 promotions; Jobson Garry Parker Tony Norman Alex Dyer (for the reasons someone else posted) Askew Payton Ash Deano JJ Rosenior ...I could go on all day
Unfortunately I didn't see those three players. As I said in my post I've been watching City since 1998, and being 5 years old I didn't fully understand the game until around Brian Little's time. All of my suggestions have to have played since then. As we were mainly in the lower leagues I haven't seen a lot of pure talent. Bullard, whatever you think of him now, was our hero that month and was single-handedly winning us games, his talent was simply a level above every other player on the pitch.