Soccer: Hendrie and Villa disagree on contract

Lee Hendrie has admitted that he is still no closer to signing a new contract for Aston Villa and claimed: "We are a long way apart."

Hendrie has admitted that he would love to stay with Villa, with whom he has been associated since the age of 14, for the remainder of his career.

But the one-time England midfielder, who is back to his best form, has had the latest contract offer from Villa rejected by his advisors.

He still has nearly two years to run of his current deal but the likes of Leeds and Liverpool are understood to be monitoring the situation and in the summer he was linked with both Rangers and Celtic.

Villa manager John Gregory had been adamant that Hendrie would sign a new contract before the first leg of the Uefa Cup clash with NK Varteks 10 days ago and regards the player as a potential future club captain.

But there is still clearly plenty of matters to be thrashed out before Hendrie agrees to put pen to paper.

Hendrie admitted: "Everyone knows how I feel about this club and I have said before that I would love to stay here for life.

"Things have been going really well from the end of last season and carried on this season.

"I am really enjoying my football and it was a big boost when the gaffer said recently that I could be a future captain.

"There is no-one else I would really want to play for. This is the club I have always supported.

"But I have to admit that at the moment we are a long way apart on a new deal. This has been going on for such a long time and I just want to get it sorted."