SAY IT AIN'T SO
"Roy Keane is a great player who was still playing well and maybe he will be there for another two or three years. I can't wait that sort of time and I want to play football.
"If I start to play and do well, then maybe one day I can go back there. But I am not thinking about that now. I want to play well for Villa and maybe I will stay here a long time.
"I would like to play on a regular basis. You do not build up the confidence if you start one game and then have to wait four or five more before you play again. It means you are nervous when you play. Let me play five games and I can show what I can do.
"In my country Villa is a big team who create big news and my ex-team mates Rio Ferdinand and Alan Smith spoke to me about the manager and said he was someone who would help me develop.
"Portsmouth, Benfica, Birmingham and Paris St Germain were all interested and it was not too easy a decision to make.
"But my team-mates said: 'Choose Villa because they have good young players and the manager gives young players a chance and works well with them."
O'Leary said:
"I was tracking him because I have been looking to supplement McCann. I want Eric to play with Gavin, compete with him and, if Gavin is not playing well, I have a player now who can fill that position.
"Eric is a hungry player who want to come and play football and do well and I think he will offer us good value.
"I would say that Rio and Alan definitely contributed towards Eric coming here. I had all this thing thrown at me that I never got on with the players at Leeds but two of my diamonds from there have played a part in clinching this deal.”