O'Leary: Villa could be in trouble
Aston Villa manager David O’Leary is desperate to shore up his leaking defence but, with a proposed takeover in the offing, it is a question of whether he will be in a position to strengthen come the transfer window.
Not for the first time this season, O’Leary watched in despair as his backline disintegrated in the 3-1 defeat against Manchester City at Eastlands.
O’Leary fears unless the situation quickly improves, then Villa almost certainly face a scrap to avoid relegation, with the club currently just two places and two points off the bottom three.
With Martin Laursen out until the summer with a knee injury, and Olof Mellberg and Liam Ridgewell currently struggling for form and as a partnership, the re-opening of the window in January cannot come soon enough for the manager.
O’Leary has been linked with a move for Spartak Moscow’s Serbian defender Nemanja Vidic this week after undertaking a spying mission to Russia at the weekend.
But the future of the club is up in the air, with negotiations understood to start this week with property development company Comer Homes Group regarding a £64million buy-out.
Any takeover could lead to O’Leary being handed a crucial transfer kitty, but with just nine weeks to go until the transfer window , the clock is ticking on those talks.
O’Leary, who last night claimed the takeover speculation was proving “unsettling”, said: “I know what is needed.
“From day one this season we have given away too many easy goals and made life very hard for ourselves, and that is why we are where we are in the league.
“We are gifting teams big advantages and we are not good enough to give them those advantages and have to start pulling it back.
“There are a few things that are hard to take, particularly when I know what would put it right, but I can’t do anything about it.
“What the whole club needs is two solid centre-halves who can win the ball whenever it comes into our box. That gives everybody a lift – all around the team.
“Manchester City had [Sylvain] Distin who cost £5million, while Kevin Keegan paid £4million for David Sommeil.
“Plus, at the other end, they were a threat from set-plays. Why weren’t we a threat from set-plays? Because we haven’t got powerful enough centre-halves.
“Does this surprise me? No. It’s been like a train coming to hit me in the face.”
O’Leary now has to prevent his side coming off the rails altogether, and is demanding his players now “stand up and be counted”, otherwise he fears the worst.
“Only time will tell whether we pull away or not,” added O’Leary.
“It is easy for me to say yes, but for us to pull away we have to start defending better.
“We have been our own worst enemy so far this season and that has to stop. I am aware of our problems – now doing something about it is the thing.
“We’ve got to move on and life is going to be hard, particularly if we continue conceding the sort of goals we’re conceding at the moment.
“This is where I will see my side’s character – big style. We need plenty of character and we’ve got to stand up and be counted.
“We’ve got to start showing more hunger and stop giving soft goals away as we have all season. If we don’t do that, we could be in trouble.”
