Aston Villa Football Club News

• Nickname:The Villains
• Founded:1874
• Manager:Alex McLeish

• Ground:Villa Park
• Capacity:42,584

Villa complete Delph signing

04 Aug 2009 - 19:06:34

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Aston Villa have completed the signing of Leeds United's talented teenage midfielder Fabian Delph for an undisclosed fee.

The 19-year-old had also been a target for Manchester City, but has opted to join Villa after the Citizens hesitated over agreeing a fee for the England Under-21 international.

Leeds chairman Ken Bates told Yorkshire Radio: "It's a good deal from the point of view that Fabian had made it clear he wanted to play Premier League football.

"He was keen to go and we felt it was right to let him go, providing we got the right figure. When we got the matter agreed we moved quickly.

"We had accepted an offer from Manchester City on Saturday which they had to go back with to the owner in the Gulf. Then apparently they needed a week to think about it, which surprised us, considering the size of the deal.

"The problem was, that with a week, they might have come back and said 'no' and that wouldn't have been fair to Fabian, wouldn't have been fair to Aston Villa and would have eaten into our season.

"We went back to Villa and it's a good decision for Leeds and the player.

"Martin O'Neill has a good record of bringing through young players. He believes in youth and hopefully Fabian will get his chance sooner rather than later there."