Villa Boss Happy With Randy Lerner's Backing

Martin O'Neill has confirmed what some of us have been banging on about for months. Randy Lerner is giving his manager full backing in the transfer market.

There were a few doubts growing amongst fans with a split over whether it was Martin O'Neill not making signings or Randy Lerner not having the money!

MON has said before that he only wants to bring in the players he wants, that he won't spend for the sake of it and that he has the full backing of the Villa owner, but doubts grew after a tame transfer window last summer, a non event last January and a slow start this summer.

Villa aren't far off spending £50million this summer now and there are links to more on the way, including West Ham striker Dean Ashton and Martin O'Neill told the post he is happy to be spending money for the first time in his career!
"The chairman has said I have earned the right to spend that money and he has always said he would back me, something I have never doubted for one minute. Many clubs spent far more than us last season and didn`t do nearly as well. In terms of increased expectations, I don`t think [the spending] makes a jot of a difference - absolutely not.'

Adding, "There was pressure on us to achieve last season and I am delighted that for first time ever I have actually spent some money. I didn`t want to die not knowing what that luxury was like. I couldn`t do it at Leicester because we never had the money. At Celtic I spent £6 million on Chris Sutton which was the same fee we recouped for Mark Viduka, who wanted to leave. But that was at the same time as Rangers were spending £12 million on Tore Andre Flo and had some wonderful players so we had to try and compete in some aspects. I am not a kid in a sweet shop - but this is an opportunity for us to move forward and I am delighted the chairman has given me his full support."

So there you go, Martin O'Neill is a happy bunny, now lets beat Liverpool at the weekend and push ourselves up for a challenge on the top four!

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