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Sorry for the title, I think I’m having a breakdown, far too much good news going about!

Martin O’Neill says he doesn’t know how much money he has to spend in January, but whatever the sum, he wants to buy players as cheaply as possible!

The Villa boss said of Randy Lerner, ‘He is very supportive. I have not sat down with him and asked how much money there is. I think that he is very supportive and wants to do well for the football club. Again I get back to it, I think he feels that he wants everyone working around the place… earning money and deserving to do so. He is supportive… That’s my view.’

On the funding he added when asked how much he has to spend: ‘I genuinely don’t know. I would rather get players for as little as I could pay for them. Let’s say that there was some player who I really thought could do the job and the selling club were prepared to let him go but for a price greater than I wanted to pay, then I’d have a decision to make. If I felt a player at that time who I’d paid over the odds for, would do it for me over a period of time – then I’d do it.’

‘An example of that is Dean Ashton, the centre forward at West Ham who’s broken his ankle. I remember John O’Hare telling me when Dean was at Crewe that I should take him up to Celtic. Anyway he went to Norwich and they paid the money, and then West Ham paid £7m for him when even the manager said he thought it was a bit over the odds. But is it over the odds if he’s back fit and knocking on the door for England? So it all becomes irrelevant if the player does it for you.’