Martin O'Neill has defended his decision to sell Gary Cahill to Bolton Wanderers as Aston Villa manager after he called time on his glittering career.
The defender retired from football earlier this month after a fantastic career which saw him win the Premier League, UEFA Champions League and earn 61 England caps. Cahill was released from Bournemouth in the summer and hadn't found a new club.
Cahill spent four years with Bolton before moving to Stamford Bridge and his success after leaving Villa Park still irritates some Aston Villa fans, who felt O'Neill should have kept the centre-back. However, O'Neill has defended that decision given the poor of options Villa had at the time.
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“Like everything else, I want every signing to be great, O'Neil told Birmingham Live. "It might not necessarily be the case and, in the aftermath, there have been criticisms of not staying with Gary Cahill at the time.
"Gary turned out to have a really great career and well done to him. But he did go to Bolton and it wasn’t as if he went to Real Madrid.
“He spent four years at Bolton before eventually going on to Chelsea, did really well. Gary, I don’t think, would have taken a place (in the team) at that time, still being so young, with Mellberg and Laursen.
"But Gary, in fairness to him, wanted to push on in his career and, if he wasn’t going to play in our team, he wanted to play in someone’s first team so, really, well done to him!”
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