Monday 26 January 2015 15:51, UK
Fabian Delph says repaying the faith shown in him by Aston Villa chairman Randy Lerner was the motivation behind committing his future to the Premier League club.
The first couple of seasons I had quite a few bad injuries, everybody stood by me and the chairman was huge for me.
The England midfielder, who joined the club from Leeds for £6m in August 2009, signed a new four-and-half year contract on Sunday.
“Obviously I’ve been at the club for a long while and I’ve got a lot of love for this club, I’ve got a great relationship with the chairman,” Delph told Sky Sports News HQ.
“I feel like this is my club and I feel that I want to be here. I’m 25 and I was on a free in the summer but it never really played a big part in my mind in what I wanted to do.
“I know what I want to achieve and the ambitions I have, I feel that we can do that here.
Delph spent eight months on the sidelines due to a cruciate ligament injury in 2010 and picked up an ankle injury while on loan at Leeds which saw him miss the second half of the season in 2012.
“The first couple of seasons I had quite a few bad injuries, everybody stood by me and the chairman was huge for me.
“He was always positive and always spoke to me, he always kept my confidence up and said ‘don’t worry, keep going, you’ll come out the other end’, and I managed to do that, so for me to repay him by staying at the club and trying to push on is a big for me.
“I’ve been speaking to Randy for six years, we’ve got a great relationship, like I say he’s got a great belief in me.
“It does go a bit further than player/chairman relationship and I’m delighted to have someone like him in my life, someone so positive.”
