Premiership: Ginola awakes from 'nightmare'

David Ginola claimed that his departure from Aston Villa was like "awakening from a nightmare".

The French ace, who has joined Everton on a free transfer initially until the end of the season, is clearly still deeply hurt by his treatment by former Villa boss John Gregory.

"I woke up this morning and thought that I had just had a nightmare," said Ginola

"I'd had three great years at Spurs but at Villa not so much football, which was a shame for me and the fans.

"Now Everton have given me the opportunity to sign and play again, I will be just delighted to be involved in playing football again.

"All I have ever wanted to do was to play football. I'm not bitter about what has happened, I'm an entertainer and all I wanted to do was to play.

"But all I have seen today is people talking about me being too old, a luxury who has cost too much. Nobody said it is good to see David Ginola on the pitch again."

Ginola is still smarting over his run-ins with Gregory.

But Ginola said: "This is a great feeling now because it is a beginning again. And the reality is that I can play in the FA Cup for Everton - I didn't play in the competition for Villa, I hardly played at all!

"Now I want to be able to express myself again. I have not left Graham Taylor on a bad note.

"I would have loved to have worked with him and he said he would be delighted if I was to stay.

"But he only has 14 matches left to build for the future and I wanted to play in as many matches as possible.

"When you reach a certain age, all you want to do is to play in every match and that was not going to be possible. I said it would be better for me to leave now and play more for someone else."