Villa insist O'Neill will stay and deny rumours of a bust-up with owner Randy Lerner
Published 23:00 30/03/10 By James Nursey
Martin O'Neill is staying at Aston Villa and has held a crunch meeting with his squad to demand a drastic improvement.
Boss O’Neill, 58, remains in charge at Villa Park despite rumours yesterday that he had resigned.
Bookies now make him second favourite behind Jose Mourinho to take charge at either Manchester United or Liverpool next.
But Villa insist there is no truth that O’Neill has walked or had a disagreement with owner Randy Lerner over funding or the introduction of a director of football.
O’Neill got his squad together on Monday for a meeting after their 7-1 mauling at Chelsea.
The manager described the result as “devastating” as Villa’s 10-game unbeaten league run came to a shuddering halt.
He told his players he “expects better” in the remainder of the season.
But Villa director General Charles Krulak insisted: “Questions about Randy and Martin and their relationship are simply the result of speculation – not based on fact at all.”
Seventh-placed Villa face Chelsea again in an FA Cup semi-final on April 10 and they have seven more games in their bid to get into the Champions League – starting at Bolton on Saturday.
But O’Neill admitted before the Chelsea game that some of his players look tired.
Villa did not bring in any new recruits in January despite selling Craig Gardner for £3.5million to Birmingham.
And O’Neill’s tendency to field a settled side has frustrated the likes of Habib Beye, Steve Sidwell, Luke Young and Curtis Davies.
O’Neill finally dropped Carlos Cuellar from right-back for Young and also brought in Sidwell against Chelsea but his team were hammered.
Chelsea are firm favourites for their FA Cup semi-final but Villa’s American owner Lerner would like a trophy after investing £179million in the club.
Lerner’s spending has enabled successive sixth-place finishes and a Carling Cup final appearance this term.
But the club lost a record £43.7m in the last financial year and several of Villa’s squad men like Beye, Sidwell and Nigel Reo-Coker, who all earn around £40,000 a week, are expected to be off loaded this summer.
