ONE of Wirral’s best-known footballers is set to sell off his ‘secret’ art collection.

Birkenhead-born footballer Peter Davenport played for Nottingham Forest, Manchester United, Middlesbrough and Sunderland during a career which netted both an England cap and a Wembley FA Cup final appearance.

Then followed a well-documented decade as manager at Southport, Bangor City and Colwyn Bay football clubs.

Less well known is that throughout that last three decades Mr Davenport, 49, has been squirrelling away a vast collection of maritime paintings, focusing on those featuring the Liverpool waterfront.

He admitted that few if any of his colleagues had known anything about this secret passion for marine art which had been inspired by paintings owned by his parents.

He said: “I don’t think one of my football colleagues ever knew about the art – it was a subject that never came up.

“One or two may have said ‘nice pictures’ when they visited the house, but that was it.”