Ross McCormack believes he could have finished his career at Fulham and that leaving the club in the summer of 2016 for Aston Villa was the wrong thing to do.

The 32-year-old, who has recently joined Motherwell, left Craven Cottage for Villa Park in a £12million move but struggled during his time at the club and ending up joining Nottingham Forest, Melbourne City and Central Coast Mariners on loan deals.

Having signed from Leeds United in 2014, McCormack went on to captain the Cottagers and scored 42 goals during his time there but moved on when Steve Bruce and Villa came calling.

Fulham went on to finish in the Championship play-off places that year while Villa finished 13th before Slavisa Jokanovic’s side beat Bruce’s in the play-off final the following season.

The move to Villa never quite worked out for McCormack and his relationship with Bruce became strained, but speaking after his latest loan move the striker openly admits that leaving west London was the wrong thing to do and that he was ‘over-eager’ to join the Villa Park outfit.

Speaking to the Daily Record, McCormack said: “Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I was maybe too quick to leave Fulham. I’m not just saying that because they are in the Premier League now and I might have been there and I was club captain.

“It was maybe just a year too soon. I could probably have finished my career there. There were a lots of good people at the club, good friends.

“As a family, we were settled in London. The kids loved their schools. I was probably a bit too eager to move. In the last couple of years at Fulham, we were flirting with relegation.

“Aston Villa were signing this player and that player, and I was thinking this is my chance to get to the Premier League. I was a little bit over-eager to join them.”