O'Neill hoping for reinforcements

12 April 2012

Martin O'Neill admits Aston Villa are beginning to crack beneath their over-reliance on youth - and he is ready to open Randy Lerner's chequebook to solve the problem.

Villa have dropped off alarmingly since the heady days of early November when O'Neill had inspired the club to a brief spell in third place in the Barclays Premiership. They now sit in 12th following a winless run of nine games which could be extended when champions Chelsea visit Villa Park on Tuesday night.

"I want to strengthen the squad if it's at all possible. We need some new players coming in," he said.

Injury has forced O'Neill to use academy products such as Craig Gardner and Isaiah Osbourne earlier than planned, and the former Celtic boss knows only a January spending spree will relieve the pressure on their young shoulders.

"The younger lads are having to do too much in the sense of having to grow up three times more quickly than they would do normally," O'Neill said.

"It will eventually stand them in good stead but it's something that we have to address. We need some players to help them. I'm looking for players who are capable of lifting us up the league as quickly as possible and who are capable of doing a job for quite some time.

"That might not be quite as easy as we think - but we'll definitely be looking to strengthen."

Villa's poor form has simply made O'Neill's quest for reinforcements that bit more pressing.

"Regardless of the results over the last couple of weeks - obviously if we had a few more points there would be less anxiety about it - we would have done something in January," he said.

"I've known for some time that the squad needs strengthening. I'm not the only Premiership manager in that position. We need to improve the team. That's the most important thing."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in