Gregory coup as Schmeichel signs for Villa

Two years after departing the Premiership stage as a European Cup winner with Manchester United, and a decade since he burst on to the Old Trafford scene from Denmark, Peter Schmeichel stunned English football yesterday by returning to join Aston Villa.

"The great Schmeichel", as Sir Alex Ferguson described him, has signed a one-year contract with Villa with an option to extend it for a further 12 months. He will not play in tomorrow's Intertoto Cup match against Slaven Belupo in Croatia, but his calendar already has a big red ring around 26 August, when United visit Villa Park.

A 37-year-old free-transfer recruit from Sporting Lisbon would normally do little to placate the burgeoning band of disillusioned Villa supporters. Many had viewed Wednesday's transfer to West Ham of David James, a current England goalkeeper, as damning proof, like the sale of Gareth Southgate to Middlesbrough 24 hours earlier, of a terminal lack of ambition on the part of the chairman, Doug Ellis.

Schmeichel, however, is no ordinary veteran custodian. He played in the Champions' League last season, was outstanding in Euro 2000 and kept a clean sheet in his 129th (and last) international as recently as April. He has charisma, class and, according to a vindicated-looking Villa manager, John Gregory, an enduring appetite for the fray.

Gregory, who stressed that the Dane would be No 1 keeper ahead of the highly rated Finn, Peter Enckelman, said: "Peter Schmeichel is a winner through and through and as hungry as ever for success. He has a fantastic reputation in the Premiership from his time with United and is not going to want any stains on that. He is also fit and desperately keen to have one last hurrah in our league."

In a sideswipe at the motives of those who have left Villa over the summer, Gregory added: "We're delighted that Peter has come here for football reasons rather than financial ones. It's evident that people have left our club for the money, but that's life and people do that kind of thing."

When Schmeichel left Manchester, having captained United to the most dramatic of victories over Bayern Munich in Barcelona, he said he wanted to finish his career in a country with a less physically punishing football regime.

He now concedes that the decision was premature. "This summer I had a few options to consider -- about retiring, playing on, possibly doing a TV job," Schmeichel said. "I gave myself two weeks to find out what I wanted to do, and I realised I still wanted to play.

"The only place I could go was back to the Premiership; I still think it's the best league in the world. I won't say I regret going to Lisbon but I have missed the atmosphere, the good play and the physical side."

Schmeichel's affair with England had its roots in coincidence. United were taking a midwinter break in Spain at the same time as his original club, Brondby of Copenhagen, and Ferguson was struck by his combination of presence, personality and technique.

A £505,000 fee secured his services in the first transfer brokered by the later notorious agent, Rune Hauge. Schmeichel went on to amass five championship and three FA Cup winners' medals in an eight-year sojourn which culminated in United winning the treble of the League, FA Cup and European Cup.

His first Portuguese campaign brought Sporting a long-overdue title, though they failed to win a match in the Champions' League. Now, after what Gregory termed a "cloak-and-dagger deal", he will attempt to defy the advancing years like Peter Shilton, Pat Jennings and Dino Zoff before him.

One can almost imagine Ian Wright, so often Schmeichel's bitter adversary, being tempted out of retirement by this bolt from the claret and blue. Villa's defenders will have to be on their toes too, for as Ferguson put it: "When the big Viking raises his voice, the walls shudder."