O'Leary pleads for new players

David O’Leary has warned that Aston Villa will be unable to repeat their current battle against the odds for a European spot next season unless new blood is added to the squad.

Villa produced an exciting performance to gain a 3-2 home win over Chelsea which pushed them above rivals Birmingham City into sixth place in the Premiership.

But O’Leary knows that he will be left with just 14 players for 2003-2004 with the likes of Dion Dublin and Ronny Johnsen entitled to leave on free transfers in the summer.

And he does not feel that the same levels of achievement with one of the smallest squads in the top flight can be emulated without additions in the summer.

O’Leary said: “In the summer we will have 14 players, including two goalkeepers. There is no getting away from it – bodies need to be brought in here.

“It is the type of bodies that you bring into the club which will decide the kind of ambitions that the club have.

“I know I can’t have an absolute abundance of players but I do know we cannot operate on as small a squad as we have.

“We have to remember that we have been lucky with injuries this season and in general have lost only a couple of players at the same time.

“I don’t want 22 players but we need at least four more to make us a squad of 18, which is still not massive in any way.”

The Villa chief still believes that Chelsea are ideally equipped for Champions League glory despite a miserable Easter which has opened the door to Manchester United in the battle to finish runners-up in the Premiership to Arsenal.

O’Leary said: “I still fancy them for the Champions League. Maybe they have got players who are turned on by the Champions League.

“The Frank Lampards and the John Terrys know what the Premiership is all about but they’ve got a lot of foreign players. Maybe the other players judge themselves on the Champions League."