Martin Laursen: Playng for Villa has been the highlight of my career

May 16 2009 by Mathew Kendrick, Birmingham Mail

It was the January 2008 the beginning of a year that was amazing for me. It was an unbelievably good year for me.

Martin ONeill paid the ultimate tribute to his departing captain by again comparing him to claret and blue legend Paul McGrath.

And the Villa boss admits that Laursen will be almost impossible to replace as the club face up to life without the Scandinavian.

Honestly, weve lost a real leader, a talisman, a quality centre-back and a goalscoring centre-back, said ONeill.

He will be hard to replace. Hes been fantastic.

He shirked nothing, threw his head into things most players wouldnt have bothered. Hes been missed, not just by me but by the fans and in the dressing room.

To me, hes in the Paul McGrath category.

Laursen only had one year left on his contract but the 31-year-old had been in such outstanding form that Villa planned to extend his deal.

Its been a gloomy forecast for a few weeks, added ONeill. After wed beaten West Ham at Christmas time, I would never have believed he would only play one more league game for us.

He missed a game or two, came back for West Brom, said he was fit all week.

But its been despondency ever since, its not like him, hes usually very positive and strong mentally hes had to be to get over the things hes done. Its hard for him take it.

Hes still a young man, he had a year left on his contract after this one and the way he was going up until Christmas, we would have been thinking about extending that again.