Phillips welcomes Villa Baros link

Kevin Phillips has revealed he would thrive on the competition provided by Milan Baros if Aston Villa manage to land the signature of the Liverpool striker.

Phillips has looked razor-sharp in pre-season and carried that form into the Premiership by scoring once and making the other Villa goal for Steve Davis in the 2-2 home draw with Bolton.

Villa manager David O’Leary is loathe to express his desire to sign Baros after being charged by the Premier League last season when revealing his admiration for James Beattie.

But Phillips openly admits he would like to see the Czech international supplement a strike force that presently consists of only himself, Juan Pablo Angel and rookie Luke Moore.

Villa are still in negotiations for the 23-year-old player who Liverpool rate in the £7m bracket.

Phillips said: “At my age (32) nothing strikes fear into me. The arrival of Milan would mean competition but, as you get older, you want more competition to keep you on your toes.

“Being a centre-forward, there is always going to be competition with someone coming through the ranks who is going to push you or there being players out there the club want to sign.

“But, whatever age you are, everyone wants competition and if we can sign someone of Milan Baros’ quality it is a sign that the club are moving forward and that they want to succeed.

“You need four strikers and Milan has got pedigree and his career speaks for itself with what he has done. No-one will be more excited than myself if we sign Milan.”

It is Angel rather than Phillips who should be fearful of losing his place after a lacklustre performance against Sam Allardyce’s side.

Phillips has looked hungry and sharp since his £750,000 arrival from Southampton during the summer and he wants to deliver goal-power help Villa improve on last season’s disappointing mid-table finish in the Premiership.

He said: “Villa finished 10th in the Premiership last season and, for a club of this size and with the quality we’ve got here, we should be finishing higher than that.

“My job is to score goals. You want to play well but ultimately you want to score goals, hopefully winning goals. That’s what I was brought here to do.

“I know that I’m going to be under pressure to score goals straight away but that’s a pressure I enjoy. I got quite a few pre-season but it only really matters when the Premiership starts and it’s good to get the first one.”

Villa manager David O’Leary admitted: “Two years ago I tried to bring Kevin Phillips here but there was only a certain amount of money. I took Gavin McCann and Thomas Sorensen but I wanted to take a third one.

“Over the season, for £750,000, Kevin will be a good professional for this football club. You’ll judge him over a season and he will score a fair amount of goals which is what we need.

“I think he will give you goals. It won’t be David O’Leary making him a better player. I think he is a good professional and I’ve always admired him. I’ve seen the way he has trained over the last five or six weeks.

“I wish we’d had him two years ago. Unfortunately that didn’t materialise. But, even though he is two years older, it’s clear from our pre-season games and against Bolton that he is still a lethal marksman and is as hungry as ever.

“I think the fans will like him. I thought he worked hard, got his goal early on and was very solid.”

O’Leary is keen to bolster the size of his squad for, although he has brought four players in this summer, he has lost Thomas Hitzlsperger, Darius Vassell, Carlton Cole and Stefan Moore of last season’s squad.

He said: “We could do with a few players. I know it would make a hell of a difference to us.

“We have the same numbers. Let’s not go down that road. But to be fair the four that have come in have given us more quality. I’d love to get the numbers up.”

REF’S REPORT

Mike Riley. Enjoyed a competent enough opening day and cannot be blamed for disallowing Kevin Nolan’s headed effort when he was clearly in an on-side position as the decision was the responsibility of his assistant who was not right in line in play.

FUSSY FACTOR

Was happy to allow play to flow where possible and Bolton could have no complaints with the yellow cards handed out to El-Hadji Diouf and Tal Ben Haim. But Ivan Campo was fortunate to escape a caution after a scything challenge on Gavin McCann.