Former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson has revealed why he turned down a move to Aston Villa during his time at Leeds United.
Robinson began his career at his hometown club and was at Elland Road at the start of their well-documented financial crisis in the mid-2000s.
Robinson eventually, and reluctantly, left for Tottenham after Leeds were relegated from the Premier League in 2004 as the Yorkshire club looked to ease their chronic financial problems.
However, 12 months earlier, after Leeds had narrowly avoided relegation, he almost found himself at Villa, then managed by David O'Leary.
"I think it was well-documented, I think everybody knew the plight of the club at that stage and the firesale that had been going on for the past 12-18 months," said Robinson in an interview with LeedsLive.
"I stayed 'til the very end, it was me, Alan Smith and Mark Viduka and it got to a point of 'you're going lads, you can't stay, you've got to go' type thing.
"I had the opportunity to go the season before when we beat Arsenal away at Highbury and we stayed up that season - they sold me to Aston Villa that summer.
"David O'Leary was the Aston Villa manager and they sold me there, and I didn't want to go. Leeds were still in the Premiership, my club, my hometown club were still in the Premiership and Aston Villa wasn't a destination I wanted to go.
"I'd had talks with Aston Villa and it just didn't feel right, I didn't want to leave Leeds, I wanted to play in the Premier League with Leeds."
Robinson almost signed for Spurs midway through the 2003/04 season, with the plan for him to be loaned back to Leeds for the rest of the campaign.
However, that fell through when Leeds realised they had too many loan players on their books.
"I think it was Professor John McKenzie [former Leeds chairman], he actually sold me again in the January to Tottenham in the winter window," recalled Robinson.
"I was in London, did my medical, agreed my contract and everything, it got to the 11th hour on transfer deadline night as you do and the agreement was that I was going to be loaned back to Leeds for the rest of the season but then Leeds realised they'd got too many loan players so they couldn't do it, so the whole deal collapsed.
"To his credit, Daniel Levy [Tottenham chairman] shook my hand and said 'this is something we'll revisit again in the summer' so I came back to Leeds and we obviously all know what happened, but Daniel was good to his word and came back and got me in the summer."