Villa can’t afford the best

ASTON VILLA boss David O’Leary has repeated his warning to the club’s fans that he does not have a bottomless pit of money available to reinforce his squad.

Villa looked bereft of confidence and ideas as they lost 3-1 to Sheffield United in the FA Cup third round at Bramall Lane to exit the competition at the first hurdle for the fourth consecutive year.

The Blades thoroughly deserved their victory their first over Villa in the FA Cup since 1901 and it was apparent the Premiership side were in desperate need of reinforcements.

O'Leary admitted they had been second best before revealing the financial restrictions placed on him by chairman Doug Ellis with whom he insisted he has a good relationship.

He said: "I think the myth here has got to be killed. First of all, there is not one bit of problem with myself and the chairman.

"I'll leave him to answers questions on the financial side but he has been totally honest.

"It is up to him to tell you what he told me that we are not going to have the money of the Tottenhams so that when a Defoe comes up, when a Paul Robinson comes up and others we are not going to have that.

"People for some reason might have this belief that we are in with the big boys.

"We can't go with the Newcastles and buy a Boumsong or bid for a Distin. People are linking us with lots of players first of all, we can't afford them.

"The second part is that we haven't got the wages to pay them and we have got to go very prudently.

"I have cleared 16 players out, the wage bill has come down drastically and I would love to change things around. We got to sixth place last year and the chairman got £8m in. He hasn't been putting it in his pocket to deny me. The money has had to go to other places which it is up to him.

"I knew that to take the same squad again without freshening it up in the summer was going to be a hard task, it was going to be a hard season.

"And in this window now I haven't got £8m to go for a Boumsong or a Distin and it is not the chairman denying me that. Maybe in a year's time or something there might be money available. In the short term we need players.

"Maybe we can get a couple of free transfers or a couple of loan players and then buy a few others at a certain level of players just to boost our squad up. Last season we got to sixth and we have to try and achieve that hopefully but we are a top-half team and we have to try and stay in that top half."

O'Leary claimed that despite his side's appalling form he had still expected a result.

He said: "I still think as a Premiership side you should come here and win. It was always going to be tough. I still expected us to come here and win but we didn't deserve to win, we weren't good enough."

Opposite number Neil Warnock was understandably thrilled with his side's victory, courtesy of two late strikes by Andy Liddell after Gareth Barry had put the Villains ahead.

Warnock had embraced the underdog tag despite the Blades' fine cup pedigree. He said: "There is no fear factor with us. The Premiership clubs are all under pressure when they play teams like us."