It's Beattie or bust for O'Leary
Aston Villa manager David O’Leary will abandon the search to bolster his threadbare strikeforce until the summer if he fails to win the race for Southampton’s Jame Beattie next month.
Beattie has to decide whether to move to either Villa or Everton after both clubs lodged £6m (€8.5m) bids with the Saints.
O’Leary had a similar offer turned down last summer for the player who is understood to be keen to make the move to Villa despite Everton offering the lure of a bigger financial package and possible European football.
But O’Leary, whose side take on Blackburn tomorrow, will wait until the close season to strengthen up front if Beattie opts to move to Goodison Park.
That will place a massive workload on Juan Pablo Angel and Carlton Cole for a sizeable chunk of the remainder of the season as Darius Vassell is still many weeks away from a return after his broken foot.
O’Leary said: “I’ve got to be diplomatic because I’m up on an FA charge on January 18 as regards the player I’m getting linked with.
“The chairman (Doug Ellis) is taking care of the bid and if I am told anything positive I’ll be delighted to make an announcement.
“I haven’t spoken to the player or anyone connected with the player about the situation – but I do know we need players.
“But there are no contingency plans if things don’t work out because, although the window is open, you just don’t buy for the sake of it.
“If we don’t get the player I want, then in terms of bringing in a forward, I don’t think it will be happening in January.
“In general terms I would hope to bring someone in but as regards another striking option I don’t think there is someone out there.”
In the immediate term O’Leary would dearly love for Angel and Cole to start hitting the target and enable Villa to translate promising performances into a tangible reward after four successive defeats.
On loan Chelsea striker Cole has not found the net since the 4-2 win over Newcastle on August 28 while Angel has failed to score in the last eight games.
O’Leary said: “I’d kill for a goal from anywhere. The strikers would kill for a goal because it would boost their confidence.
“We are playing lovely stuff. Things will turn for us. Maybe we will play poorly and win. We’ve got to keep it going and the players are not down.
“If you were losing and playing poorly, there would be a lack of confidence but there is still a great bubbly confidence over the way we’ve performed in the last three games – but we’ve got to turn that into wins and goals.
“With Juan and Carlton, you are always talking to them, showing things on the video, suggesting things that maybe they can improve a little bit and they take it on board.
“We’ve got a young lad in Cole who at times you’d like to take out of the firing line. With our numbers, he’s got to play.
“Darius Vassell is our other senior striker and he is out until February at least and hasn’t started any training yet.
“As for Juan, there is no bigger critic of Juan than himself – and he knows that he can play better.”
With one of the smallest squads in the Premiership, it is the tiredness factor, and no leeway to rotate players, that is taking its toll on Villa.
O’Leary said: “I always knew we’d have these problems with fatigue, the amount of games we play, injuries and suspensions.
“I always felt if we could keep them all altogether then I could keep us up there. We were lucky last season with few injuries but not so much this time.”
