Aston Villa's Tommy Elphick: One call from Roberto Di Matteo was enough
New signing Tommy Elphick has revealed it took just one phone call from manager Roberto Di Matteo to convince him to join Villa.
The 28-year-old centre-back yesterday became Di Matteo's first signing since taking over at Villa Park, completing a £3million switch from Bournemouth.
Elphick, who has signed a three-year deal, claims it was hearing the manager's vision for the future of the club which convinced him to drop down into the Championship.
He said: "The gaffer sold me his ideas and vision for this club, it didn't take me long to decide that this is where I want to be.
"I can't wait to work under Roberto. The phone conversation we had, I came off the phone and thought 'this is the man I want to play for'."
Elphick played under Di Matteo's former Chelsea team-mate Gus Poyet at Brighton, before joining the Cherries in 2012.
He went on: "They (Di Matteo and Poyet) share a lot of philosophies and thoughts about how they want to play the game.
"It's something that has brought me success and it's the way I like to play football.
"When he told me his ideas, I didn't look back and for me, I was immediately looking forward and thinking about getting this club back to where it should be."
