O'Neill happy with squad

Villa manager pleased with investment

By Amanda Cornforth   Last updated: 5th September 2008   Subscribe to RSS Feed

O'Neill happy with squad

O'Neill: Strong

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Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill believes he has his strongest squad ever at his disposal this season.

O'Neill has invested £35million this summer in new players to build what he bills as his best squad in his two years at the club.

But the Irishman admits that he still has some work to do to perfect the team as he would like to see more pressure for places in the starting line-up.

"I think the squad is stronger than in the previous two years," O'Neill told the Birmingham Mail.

Competition

"There's a bit of competition for places and we have got players who we have paid money for who we have not even begun playing in the team.

"That hasn't really existed here before and if we are involved in competitions and we are going to be playing Sunday-Thursday, Sunday-Thursday level all the time, you will need the players.

"Every single football club has still got automatic choices - Manchester United have automatic choices when everybody is fit, so do Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Everton - wherever.

"At the moment we still have a few automatic choices in the team and wouldn't it be fantastic if the automatic choices were no longer automatic?"