Aston Villa midfielder Barry Bannan doubts he would have broken into the first team had former manager Martin O’Neill remained at Villa Park.
Under new boss Gerard Houllier, the 20-year-old has emerged as an exciting prospect and was rewarded for some fine performances for the club with his first Scotland cap earlier in the week.
But the 20-year-old has revealed ex-boss O’Neill felt that, at 5ft 5in, he was too small to survive in the Premier League.
Bannan told the Daily Record: “Martin had size issues with me and he kept bringing them up in conversation over the many meetings we had when he was at Villa.
“I’d been at the club since I was 14. My parents had left Lanarkshire and moved to the Midlands to look after me while I tried to become a success. But Martin left me disheartened when what I really needed was his trust.
“The only thing that kept me going during that period of rejection was when I said to myself, ‘some day somebody will show confidence in you’.
“I knew I couldn’t afford to be totally disheartened because then my confidence levels would have dropped and my game would have gone to pieces along with them.
“Gerard likes the passing game for Villa so now I’ve gone from the stage where I was on loan to Blackpool and playing every now and then to the point where I’ve been first pick for Villa for the last three matches in the Premier League.
“And all of that’s been based on what the manager saw of me in training each day. I’m grateful to say he’s taken to me and I’ve experienced a total change in fortune since Gerard arrived at the club.”