O'Neill will not be haunted by departures
Martin O’Neill is not concerned about the posse oMartin O’Neill is not concerned about the posse of young talent he has allowed to leave Aston Villa coming back to haunt him in future.
The departure of Luke Moore to West Brom, in a deal which could eventually be worth £3.5m, follows on from the exits of Liam Ridgewell (£2.5m), Gary Cahill (£5m) and Steve Davis (£4m) since last summer.
But O’Neill, whose side visit Reading tomorrow, knows it is only possible to keep so many players happy and contented given their desire to play regular Barclays Premier League football.
The Northern Irishman said: “There has not been a player here in normal circumstances that I would have wished to have pushed out of the door.
“But there are only so many players you can play at any given time and players are going to be unhappy at not being in the side. We have raised £15m from the sale of the four players so time will tell how things pan out.
“We have in most of the cases, if not all, a sell-on fee attached to the deals so the club will get some sort of benefit if they go on and become massive players and are sold for very big money.
“I don’t sell players on the basis of being worried if people come back. I cannot sit and worry myself about players coming back to haunt me.
“There is a stage which players reach where if they are not going to play regularly in your side, they want to play regularly in someone else’s side.
“All four players believe they are Premier League players and they wanted the opportunity. Luke has chosen to go down a division at this moment but he feels West Brom will get promoted this season.”
O’Neill is aware of the importance of tomorrow’s match as Villa look to sustain their challenge for a European spot over the final third of the season.
He said: “I can’t stress how big this game is. If we’ve got any designs on trying to stabilise our own position and trying to keep it going over the last 12 games, we’ve really got to be focused.
“There are a lot of teams separated by only a point or two and we’ve got to try to stay up there and in contention.”
Striker Gabriel Agbonlahor will return after missing England’s friendly international with Switzerland and Villa’s 4-1 win over Newcastle because of a hamstring injury.
It means the in-form Marlon Harewood is likely to have to be content with a place on the bench again.
O’Neill said: “I think Marlon has been unlucky not to start a game in recent times. He turned the game for us at Liverpool and his contribution was as good as anyone when he came on at Fulham and he was excellent against Newcastle.
“But with Gabby (Agbonlahor) you are talking about someone in the side who has actually been called up for England.”
