Alpay has been vilified in England after his confrontation with England skipper David Beckham in Saturday's Euro 2004 clash in Istanbul.

But Villa denied Wednesday that Turkey coach Senol Gunes had threatened to drop him for next month's Euro 2004 play-off against Latvia.

And they said he was being given more time to be with his family.

The controversial Turkish defender was forced to 'make-up' with Beckham by Italian referee Pierluigi Collina after the Euro 2004 qualifier exploded into a free-for-all as the teams returned to the dressing rooms at half-time.

"The referee told us in no uncertain terms what was expected of us. He made us shake hands and then hug each other," he told the Daily Mirror.

"Then he told us we were too hot and needed to calm down. He made us drink a glass of water before we could leave.

"It was a funny incident, not all the nonsense people are saying. What happened in the tunnel was nothing really. I tripped down some stairs and fell over. Something then happened behind me. I felt something brush against my ear or my shoulder and I think the other Turkish players thought that Beckham was involved in something.

"It is now forgotten about. Beckham is a good player. It was a psychological ploy. We wanted to get him to react, but it did not work.

"When Beckham missed the penalty, I went up to him and said: 'God is big, justice has been done. If you had shot 100 times, they would all have missed'.

"At half-time, when we went to the changing rooms, Beckham probably could not stomach what I said and he ran up to me and said something.

"When I was trying to understand what he was telling me, he hit me with his shoulder. I got angry and I was about to walk up to him when our security guards intervened and took me away. Whatever happened after that, there was a brawl between our security guards and the English players.

"England deserved to win the game. We must now concentrate all our efforts on the play-offs to make sure we join them in Portugal next summer."

However, the Mirror said Alpay was now considering employing round-the-clock security to protect him against possible reprisals from England fans angry at his spat with Beckham.

Fans in Birmingham strung up a dummy wearing his Aston Villa shirt from a lampost this week.

Villa might be prepared to let him go for nothing when his contract expires in the summer.