PLAYER PROFILE

Liam Ridgewell

Position: Defence

Height: 5'10

Weight: 10st 3lbs

Date of Birth: 1984-07-21 Bexley, England

Liam Ridgewell

Villa signed defender Liam Ridgewell on a free transfer in 2001 after he came through the youth system at West Ham United.

The young centre-back played regularly for the Villa reserves and youth teams and was a member of the Villa side that won the FA Youth Cup against Everton in May 2002, marking Wayne Rooney out of the game.

He was also on the scoresheet for the England Under-19 side in a 2-2 draw with Yugoslavia in October 2002. The London-born player was loaned out to Bournemouth in November 2002 to gain first team experience and help them with an injury crisis, but he has now returned to Villa and has been awarded a first-team squad number by David O'Leary.

Seen by many as the long term central defender partner for Olof Mellberg, he was rated very highly by former Villa manager Graham Taylor.

In 2003/04 he got the chance to show new boss David O'Leary what he could do, at first in the Carling Cup, but he made his first league appearance in December against Fulham and was given plenty more chances to shine after that.

However, an injury to his knee in the early part of the 2004/05 campaign kept him out until October, after which he struggled to impose himself in David O'Leary's first-team set-up.

He made only 17 appearances, scoring once and receiving a red-card for appearing to head-butt West Brom's Jonathan Greening.

However, he was back in contention in 05/06, as he appeared 34 times for O'Leary's men, a stat which dropped only slightly to 22 when Martin O'Neill took over the club in the 2006/07 season.

His time as a part of O'Neill's regieme lasted only one season though and in August 2007, he became one of the few players to leave Villa and join local rivals Birmingham City.