Martin O’Neill – Help On The Way

Martin O’Neill has promised his young squad ‘I’m doing everything I can to bring in players who can help you.’

He told the official site: ‘It’s at times like this when you know you should be resting four or five of these players and they’re having to plough through this. Eventually, if they can come through it, this will have stood them in good stead. I’m going to try to improve the squad if at all possible. We need some players in because the younger lads are having to do too much really.’

O’Neill inherited a very young squad and unlike Manchester United all those years back who had a freak amount of great young talent, Villa don’t have much in the way of experienced senior pro’s to help the ‘kids’ through. Now some injuries have kicked in he has found himself using youngsters like 19-year-old Isaiah Osbourne who are really players for the future.

O’Neill continued, ‘They’re having to grow up maybe three times as quickly as they would do normally. Its should eventually stand them in good stead, but it’s something we have to address and we need some players to help them. First of all I want players capable of sending us up the league and capable of doing the job for quite some time. That might not be as easy as we think, but we’re definitely looking to try to strengthen.’

‘But I think we’ve always been keen to do something because I’ve known for some months that the squad needs strengthening.’