Holland resists Villa overtures

Ipswich Town FC midfield player Matt Holland has turned down a move to English Premiership club Aston Villa FC, he said on Thursday.

Fee agreed
Villa had agreed a fee of around €7m with Ipswich, who were relegated to the first division at the end of last season, but Holland's agent Jonathan Barnett told the Republic of Ireland player he did not consider the offer to be right.

'Very impressed'
"[Barnett] was very impressed with the club and their people and we talked about the move over the phone," Holland, who helped Ireland to a 3-0 win over Finland on Wednesday, told the Ipswich website.

'Right decision'
"I also spoke to my wife Paula and she read me the statement from the [Ipswich] chairman [David Sheepshanks]...about why Ipswich had accepted Villa's offer," the 28-year-old added. "I hardly slept at all last night after the Ireland game in Finland, but after speaking to my agent again I was told that he did not consider the offer Villa were making as the right one for me.

'No real decision'
"So I had no real decision to make anyway," Holland continued. "I rang the boss and told him that as far as I was concerned I would be in for training on Friday morning."

UEFA Cup action
Despite being relegated last season, Ipswich entered this season's UEFA Cup via UEFA's Fair Play rankings and beat Luxembourg's FC Avenir Beggen 1-0 in the first leg of the qualifying round last week.