Bradford City have held secret talks with Aston Villa's Stan Collymore to discuss a move to Valley Parade.

And chairman Geoffrey Richmond is hopeful of further discussions being held next week.

The City chief travelled to the Midlands with boss Paul Jewell to meet Collymore after being given Villa's permission to talk to him.

The 29-year-old has been in exile at Villa for 12 months. Jewell is keen to bring him to Bradford to bolster an attack which has the poorest scoring record in the Premiership with just 19 goals.

Collymore had lengthy discussions with Jewell about City's season and Richmond says the meeting went "extremely well".

The City chairman said: "It was very much a preliminary meeting between myself, Paul, Stan and his professional advisers.

"Paul did speak football with Stan for a couple of hours but personal terms were only discussed in principal rather than in detail.

"It was more a case of seeing if there was a meeting of minds and we both felt it went very well indeed.

"We found Stan to be very courteous, thoughtful and a pleasure to meet with. We are hoping for a further meeting early next week."

City are hoping that Collymore will be available on a free transfer after Villa boss John Gregory made it clear he was not part of his plans.

Villa have not yet indicated if they want a fee for a player they paid Liver-pool £7 million for in 1997.

Collymore's career has been dogged by controversy with public fall-outs at Liverpool, Nottingham Forest and Villa.

This has led to City and Leicester - who have also been linked with the striker - being warned to steer clear of Collymore.

But Richmond said: "If we were only interested in signing choirboys there would be players who are regulars in the first team who would not be at Bradford City!"

Collymore has won three England caps and figured in transfers totalling £18.5 million.

Leicester have also been given permission to speak to Collymore, who had a three-month loan spell with Fulham earlier this season, but it is believed no talks have taken place.

Since being frozen out at Villa Park, Collymore has undergone stress counselling.

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