By Graham Hill
FORMER Villa striker Stan Collymore believes Ross McCormack was paid £3millon to leave the club.
Villa announced on Monday that they had reached an agreement with Scottish striker McCormack to go.
McCormack still had another year left on his Villa Park contract and was due a big pay rise as a result of last week’s promotion to the Premier League.
That could have put his wages into the £70,000 a week bracket for the next 12 months,
That clearly did not sit well with fans or boss Dean Smith who is trying to move the club forwards after a turbulent few years.
McCormack played just 24 times in three years for Villa and was most recently loaned out to Motherwell.
And news of his exit was greeted with delight by fans who have no time for a player who never fitted in at Villa Park.
But Collymore, posting on his Twitter account, tried to break down the settlement.
Collymore wrote: “In layman’s terms, he was paid up to go.
“Less than the sum of the remainder of his contract, more than Villa would want to pay.
“But the club have £ now so decided to pay him off. Estimate? I’d calculate £3m or thereabouts.
“Calculation based on estimated earnings in last year (rumoured £70k a week now back in Prem) plus remaining signing on fee (a large sum paid every 6 months or year, could be a couple of million a year easily over contract) and various bonuses.”
Villa’s billionaire owners have moved quickly to sort out a situation that was always going to be lingering in the background when the full focus should be on Premier League football. And it looks as though they have decided to put their hands in their pockets now rather than have any bad blood in the dressing room.
Villa Roar 