O’Neill bemoans transfer market

MARTIN O’NEILL has admitted it may be “difficult” to secure the quality of player needed to take Aston Villa to the next level.

O’Neill is expected to complete the signing of Chelsea midfielder Steve Sidwell in the next few days for a fee in the region of £5million (€6.3m).

O’Neill has a number of other targets in the pipeline, including Blackburn winger David Bentley who has been linked with a £15m (€19m) switch to Villa.

He is aware of the need to bolster what was the smallest squad in the Premier League last season.

O’Neill has already lost Olof Mellberg, Patrik Berger and Thomas Sorensen, while Scott Carson’s season-long loan from Liverpool ended.

And midfielder Gareth Barry is certain to leave once Liverpool match O’Neill’s £18m (€22m) valuation of his captain.

El-Hadji Diouf, Darren Bent, Jimmy Bullard, Tom Huddlestone, James Milner, Aaron Lennon and Pascal Chimbonda are all possible targets along with Sporting Braga right-back Joao Pereira and Crystal Palace’s Republic of Ireland teenager Sean Scannell.

But O’Neill is aware competition is fierce as Villa look to improve on last season’s sixth placing.

The former Celtic boss said: “It takes a bit of time. We’ve targets in mind of course and want to do business as promptly as we possibly can.

“But the people we want to try to improve this club are players you can almost automatically assume are key players at other football clubs.

“These are people it might be difficult to prise out of their current clubs. We need to improve our squad and I know that. But improving the squad gets harder as you progress.

“We’ve just finished sixth in the Premier League and I think the supporters will agree that we have progressed over the last two years. But to improve on what we now have means bringing in even more quality — and the competition for quality players can be fierce.”

O’Neill does have the full backing of club owner Randy Lerner in his efforts to strengthen his squad.