O’Leary to stay at Villa despite contract dilemma

DAVID O’LEARY has insisted he will not quit Aston Villa if the issue of his new contract is not resolved in the near future.

The Villa manager was said to be ready to leave the club unless his assistants Roy Aitken and Steve McGregor were also given three-and-a-half year deals.

But O’Leary is adamant he will remain at Villa if there is no short-term solution to the dilemma.

He had already intimated on Friday that contract negotiations would be shelved until the summer if they were not sorted out sooner rather than later.

O’Leary said: “I don’t know where this story has come from and I never threatened to quit over this situation.

“Discussions are ongoing and everyone knows what the current situation is but frankly I am fed up about being asked about my contract, especially as it still has 18 months left to run.”

O’Leary had been optimistic at the start of October he would sign a new deal “within the next seven to 10 days”.

But the sticking point has been O’Leary wanting assistant manager Aitken and sports science boss McGregor being given deals to keep them at Villa until 2008.