Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood has praised midfielder Fabian Delph for showing 'loyalty' to his club's cause after he rejected a lucrative move to Manchester City.
Delph held talks with City after they triggered a release clause in the contract he signed with his club last January, but the England star has opted to turn his back on a move to link up with Manuel Pellegrini's men in favour of staying with Villa.
"We are looking to build something here and we're looking to keep our best players," Sherwood told the Villa website.
"Fabian is certainly one of those. It's just an example of the measure of the guy really that he decided to stay, the loyalty he's shown to the fans, the football club and the chairman. And I'm delighted to have him here next season.
"He had an opportunity to join Man City and he weighed up his options and decided to stay with us, which we're obviously all delighted about.
"Fabian is a leader. I could go as much as to say that if Fabian wasn't with us last season we wouldn't be in the Premier League now.
"He's someone I had the ear of. He was very instrumental in what I wanted to do. He knew exactly what I wanted from the team and he drove them on.
"It can't always come from the manager, the instructions, sometimes someone on the pitch needs to translate that information and Fabian certainly did that."
The concern for Sherwood and Villa may be that with other clubs now fully aware of the release clause in Delph's contract, fresh offers for the services of the 25-year-old could be made ahead of the new season.