Tottenham goalkeeper Brad Friedel has laughed off claims he had it in for Gerard Houllier at Aston Villa.

Contrary to certain reports, he insists he has never had a problem with Houllier.

"When he became Aston Villa manager I was apparently going to start a revolt!," he told the Daily Mail. "A 39-year-old goalkeeper, can you imagine that? When he came in he had problems at the club with some other players but not with me. We would actually joke about some of the stuff that appeared.

"The only issue I had with Gerard at Liverpool was the fact that I wanted to play. When he opted to pay good money for Sander Westerveld, that was that. I didn't have a problem with it and I will never say one bad word about that club. But I wanted to play first-team football so I needed to move on."