Froggy: Alpay is a time bomb.

Byline: Steve Froggatt

ALPAY has got too big for his boots at Aston Villa - and David O'Leary should let him rot away and train in exile until his contract runs out.

That is all he deserves. After last week's clash with David Beckham he must never be allowed to kick a ball for the club again.

Alpay is a walking time bomb that has dragged Villa's good name through the dirt this week.

If you talk to anyone who's played with Alpay over the last year they say his problems really began when he came back from the World Cup in Japan last year.

He reached his pinnacle in the Far East and was named in the best team of the tournament but, since then, his career has gone downhill faster than Franz Klammer.

But even if you take the Beckham incident out of the equation, Alpay has been a liability for some time now.

I base this not just on what happened during last weekend's ugly confrontation, but over his whole attitude towards Aston Villa Football Club throughout the last couple of seasons.

Players who have seen him at close quarters since think the trouble started because, on his return from Japan, he thought he was a better player than he really was.

Graham Taylor had to deal with the Turkish maverick last season and failed to bring Alpay back to planet Earth.

Penny

New Villa boss O'Leary has also tried and failed to sort him out. There has to be a common denominator!

Let's face it - Villa aren't going to get a penny for him and nobody on these shores will touch him with a barge pole anyway, so he should be cold-shouldered now.

To think O'Leary named Alpay as captain for one of the pre-season games - that's come back to haunt him, hasn't it?

O'Leary has, however, done the right thing and kept Alpay well away from the spotlight leading up to the Blues derby.

There is no possible way that he could play even though I'm sure a lot of fans on both sides would have liked to let him know what they think of him. His reaction towards Beckham was nothing short of scandalous.

The England skipper did not win the penalty by diving - it was Gerrard who was tripped. So running up to Beckham head to head when he missed was terrible.

He has since claimed that Beckham had butted him. Well, we've all seen the video footage and if that's a head-butt then I live on the Moon.

His reaction at the half-time whistle was crazy, too. What did he think he was going to achieve?

For a man with a popularity crisis at Villa Park, any normal person would think that he would try to be the perfect ambassador for Turkey.

Instead, he could easily have inflamed the crowd and incited a riot.

His Turkish compatriot, Tugay, was the perfect example.

The Blackburn player acted with dignity and walked away from the half-time melee and was very sporting afterwards in defeat.

So why not Alpay? Only he knows the answer to this question and all of the smokescreens that he has thrown up blaming Beckham make him look even worse.

Alpay still refuses to make a public apology, the arrogance of which I find staggering. Even if he does now, over a week after the incident it won't wash.

John Gregory this week advised Alpay to apologise, but all advice has gone unheeded.

Mercenary

So when he does eventually leave, it will be good riddance to a player who has acted like a mercenary and lost Aston Villa an awful lot of money!

Having seen a few websites this week I think there is a feeling that Alpay has done this on purpose to escape Villa and force the club to give him a free transfer. This I find hard to believe, but his actions certainly weren't those of a sane human being and one trying to win over his own fans back home who have taunted him so far this season because of his shocking club form.

CAPTION(S):

LIABILITY... Alpay has had a bad attitude for the last couple of seasons