O'Leary left to work with squad

Aston Villa manager David O’Leary has been told by chairman Doug Ellis he will have no money to spend in the January transfer window.

O’Leary must also wait until mid-January to find out if he will be able to sign Chelsea centre-back Robert Huth on loan to bolster a back four decimated by injuries.

Eight players were brought to the clubs in the summer – including loan signing such as James Milner and Eirik Bakke, and Milan Baros from Liverpool for £6m (€8.9m) – and O’Leary used up his entire budget for the campaign.

Ellis confirmed: “Yes, it’s true that there is no money to spend in the transfer window. The manager knows this. He has been told.

“The factual figures are that in the summer we spent £10.5m (€15.5m) on Milan Baros and Wilfred Bouma. Then we brought in Stuart Taylor and Kevin Phillips.

“In this day and age, you just can’t quote the amount you pay over to the other club. You have to include their contract and what we paid out came to £16.9m (€24.9m) net. That also takes into consideration the fact Nolberto Solano and Darius Vassell left the club.

“It was always made clear that there would be money to spend in the summer and nothing in January. That was the entire budget. Any possible signings next month would be loans only.”

O’Leary is believed to be keen to sign Huth as three centre-backs – Olof Mellberg, Martin Laursen and Gary Cahill – are all currently injured.

But Huth’s advisor Manfred Schulte admitted it would be unlikely for Huth to be allowed to move by Chelsea until after the third round of the FA Cup.

He said: “I don’t know exactly when I will try and meet with Jose Mourinho and discuss what he thinks about a loan move for Robert Huth.

“At the end of the day, it is Chelsea who will make the decision. There are a lot of matches coming up and after the FA Cup maybe we can see what is happening.”