Aston Villa boss Alex McLeish insists they did not sell Luke Young to QPR due to finances.

McLeish would have had no qualms about Villa paying Young's reported £45,000 wages had he remained a first team regular at Villa.

"Luke was great," said McLeish. "He was whole-hearted. He likes things done the right way. He's a good acquisition for QPR. We had agreed that if there was a move back to London then we wouldn't stand in his way.

"I told Luke in the first week that he was one I was definitely going to build the back four around. He was fine with that.

"In his heart of hearts he wanted to move, but he said that if he was in the team - because he wasn't previously - that he would stay.

"I think he moved his family back to London because he wasn't in the plans anymore.

"If the guy had been in the first team it (wages) wasn't a problem.

"It's when you have got players on huge wages who are second or third choice, that's when it starts to hurt."