John Gregory says Aston Villa were ripped off by Brighton over the original signing of Gareth Barry.

"We got absolutely robbed at the time by Brighton," former Villa boss Gregory told the Sunday Mercury. "He was substitute for Brighton youth team once. They didn't even know who he was!

"Suddenly Bryan Jones, the youth development officer at Villa, took him from there and he came to us. We tried to agree compensation and we couldn't.

"When I put him in the first team his valuation went through the roof "Brighton were very shrewd and they knew the longer they left it the more they'd make because Barry was doing so well.

"Also at the start of the season he got called up by Glenn Hoddle to train with the England squad and that put his valuation up even more.

"We'd already paid £100,000 at the time and we ended up paying £1 million for him.

"That sounds cheap now when you see what he's achieved, but it should've been a lot less."