O’Neill eager to land new signings

MARTIN O’NEILL has admitted it is “more important than ever” to bring in new signings now that skipper Gareth Barry’s future lies away from the midlands club.

O’Neill is resigned to losing Barry even though he will demand Liverpool meet his £18million (€22.7m) valuation of the player before the saga comes to an end.

Olof Mellberg, Thomas Sorensen and Patrik Berger have already left since the end of last season plus on loan Liverpool goalkeeper Scott Carson.

But O’Neill is determined Villa will avoid a repeat of last season when they finished a creditable sixth in the Barclays Premier League.

He said: “We’re hoping to try to add to the squad. The players did fantastically last season but we had the smallest squad in the Premier League.

“We wouldn’t want that to happen this season so we’re going to address it. Even if Gareth had decided to stay, we were still going to address it.

“But now it’s even more important to do it than ever.”

O’Neill insists he has been stepping up his plans to bring in new blood during June and that he was not hindered by working as a TV pundit for the Euro 2008 finals.

He said: “I went out and did some games for the BBC. I was working there for two or three days in the week but then coming back and was working here. It was not as if I spent three weeks out in Austria – not that I should have to explain myself.”

O’Neill is also aware his squad have to click back into gear quicker than normal as they will be on Intertoto Cup duty in just over two weeks.

He said: “My normal build-up would be a wee bit more leisurely, getting players into it and building into it. But here we have to try and get into competitive mode very early on.

“Now we’ve got to get ourselves together, get our preparation ready for the Intertoto.”