'Felt right' - Aston Villa hero reveals secret Liverpool transfer meeting before leaving

Former goalkeeping favourite Brad Friedel has detailed a secret transfer meeting he had on the eve of leaving Aston Villa in 2011. The American, now 50, was offered a new one-year contract at Villa but, instead, opted to join Tottenham.

Friedel, who's now a football agent, also explained how he was so close to rejoining Liverpool in the summer of 2011, while West Bromwich Albion were also keen to take him. Speaking to our colleagues at the Liverpool Echo, Friedel revealed: "The Liverpool move was incredibly close. I'd spoken with Damien Comolli (director of football) a number of times, and Kenny (Dalglish).

"I was really close to doing it but the big one was I always signed contracts to play. Tottenham was offering me the chance to play and be the number one for at least a year.

"I was going into Liverpool as the out and out number two because (Pepe) Reina was still at the club. There were talks of doing things in the academy with Liverpool, because I was 40 at the time. But I had the same at Tottenham which had been discussed prior to going there.

"It was more money at Liverpool but that wasn't the deciding factor on the decision. It was very close. I had the decision between West Brom, staying at Aston Villa, Tottenham and Liverpool. At 40 years of age. You couldn’t ask for a better scenario.

"At Villa everything had gone well, but there was so much change there and they had only offered a one-year contract. I thought there was too much change going on but I loved my time there.

"It just felt right to leave and I was extremely close to going back to Liverpool. It went down to virtually the last day when I had to decide. I had both contracts in front of me and I had to decide on one of them. I actually surprised