Former Villa skipper Gareth Southgate brings Middlesbrough to Villa Park insisting he is thrilled to see his old club finally fulfilling its massive potential.

The Boro boss returns to the club he left seven years ago looking to eat into the six-point Barclays Premier League advantage Martin O’Neill’s team enjoy over their visitors from Teeside.

Southgate played with distinction for Villa – and remains a regular choice in their pick of all-time Premier League favourites – from 1995 until he agreed to go to the Riverside Stadium in a £6million deal in 2001.

It was a bitter parting, Southgate being denied a move to Chelsea the summer before because Villa refused to accept their offer for the defender, after he slapped in a transfer request in the wake of their 2000 FA Cup final defeat.

He reluctantly stayed for a further year before he got his move, although his relationship with the Villa fans was soured by his decision to switch to a Boro’ team, which even then could hardly boast higher ambitions than the club he left behind.

The then England regular had become disenchanted with the club’s lack of progress, although he does now acknowledge that Villa’s former chairman Doug Ellis was wise not to start spending beyond Villa’s means.

Now American owner Randy Lerner is bankrolling a vibrant young squad that has been tipped to break into the top four under O’Neill’s management.

Southgate said: “Villa are a fantastic club and it’s a different club to the one I left. Financially they have got huge backing at this moment in time and a manager with a proven record.

“When I was there one of the things I felt strongly about was that Villa were a club that had won the league and the European Cup. We didn’t make enough of that.

“In my time there under Brian Little we finished fourth, fifth and sixth, won the League Cup and got to an FA Cup final, so it was a successful period.

“Obviously there was no Champions League then so fourth was, if anything, seen as a bit of a failure. Now they are probably benefiting from the good housekeeping Doug Ellis did when I was there.

“He very much ran it as a profitable business and they wouldn’t be able to be in the situation to spend money like they are now – but for the way he’d run it in the past.”

Southgate also has a lot of time for Villa boss O’Neill.

He said: “I don’t know him well but I’ve enjoyed the conversations I’ve had with him and I’ve sought his advice on a couple of different things.

“I greatly respect his record as a player and as a manager. I think people forget just how successful he was as a player.

“He’’s a European Cup winner and a Championship winner, so he had a great pedigree as a player and also a great pedigree with all the clubs he’s managed.”

While Boro go into the game on the back of an eight-day break since last weekend’s 1-1 draw with West Ham, Villa have endured a tough week.

On Monday they lost 2-0 at Newcastle but responded on Thursday by overcoming Slavia Prague 1-0 on their opponents home soil in the UEFA Cup.

Southgate knows from Boro’s two-year European odyssey how demanding a three-match week can be on the players but he is not expecting an easy ride at Villa Park.

He said: “They are a bit younger than we were when we did it so we’ve got to expect them to be at their best. If they’re not that will be a bonus for us.

“We expect a tough game, they lost their last league game and with any game in this league we’ll have to be at our best to win it.

“They’ve got good balance to their team, they’ve got a good blend of youth and experience, pace and they are quite a counter-attacking team.

“Their front players are also a threat.”