Former England left-back Tony Dorigo has revealed that Aston Villa left him with his first case of football heartbreak by selling him to Chelsea.
Dorigo followed Villa from his home in Australia and when a teenager wrote to the club asking for a trial. Following a spell with Villa, he was successful and was drafted into the club's youth set-up.
The defender quickly impressed, making his first team debut and was eventually handed Aston Villa's Player of the Year award, being marked out for big things.
When Villa were relegated, Dorigo had no thoughts of quitting Villa Park, but he soon discovered the the club were prepared to let him move to Chelsea in order to land David Speedie.
And for Dorigo, that came as a big, big shock; Villa ultimately did not sign Speedie.
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"In a weird sort of way it was probably at Aston Villa [that I had my football heart broken]", he told Leeds United's in-house TV channel.
"Simply because, we did actually get relegated but that didn't break my heart, what broke my heart was that they were willing to sell me to get David Speedie.
"So basically we were really struggling, we couldn't score any goals whatsoever.
"We needed a striker desperately, so Aston Villa wanted to get David Speedie from Chelsea.
"The only way Chelsea were going to let David Speedie come to Villa was if they got me.
"So suddenly the chairman came to me and said 'Tony, I'm really sorry, but jump in the car, we're going down to London to speak to Chelsea'.
"That kind of broke my heart because I thought as their player of the year, only 20, 21, I thought I would be there for the rest of my career.
"But no, you're a commodity, out you go", Dorigo, who won the league title during his time at Leeds, added.
Dorigo spent four years at Chelsea before moving up to Leeds, where he remained until a 1997 switch to Italy with Torino.
The left-back returned to England and finished off his career with spells at Derby County and Stoke City.
