Brad Friedel says contract talks with Aston Villa ran smoothly.

"I was at Blackburn for eight years,'' he explained. "I had a gentlemen help me over this deal but there has been no need for me to have an agent.

"I negotiate my own contracts. I always thought it was better to do it that way because when you came out you had shaken hands rather than one or other party thinking they had got one over on the other one.

"Negotiations (at Villa) were not long, hard or mind-boggling. Very amicable."