No Approaches And No Sales

It appears Villa boss David O'Leary was hoping he could still bring in some loan players but was told by the FA that he already has his quota!

He explained: 'I thought you could have four players on loan. But I rang the FA and they said that Premier League clubs seldom have two loan players anyway.'

O'Leary had been linked to yet another move for Chelsea defender Robert Huth and since O'Leary has been told there will be no players being bought this January, it appears that he will have to make do with what he has. At the weekend what he had was sixteen players to choose from, one (Steven Gardner) with no real first team experience.

O'Leary has also insisted that despite the fact Delaney and De La Cruz might want to leave, he has had no approaches for the players. He also dismisses any talk of Lee Hendrie being allowed to leave.

He said: 'De la Cruz has said he wants to leave and Mark Delaney the same. For me to make a decision on that, you've got to have an offer in. No-one has phoned me up and made an offer for those two.'

On our 29 year old midfielder he said: 'On Lee Hendrie , he has not come to me about wanting to go out on loan. I think he knows we can't afford to let anyone go out on loan. No-one has phoned me up about Hendrie, Delaney or De la Cruz. We would knock them back because we are down to the bare bones.'

He also confirmed there will be no new arrivals: 'The way I have been told, there is not going to be anyone coming in here in any shape or form even if people go out of the club.'

Ahhh come on Doug, you are Mr Aston Villa (sic). You say you've put money into the club, prove you love us, bring our squad up to the standards of giant clubs like Charlton and Fulham. (Angry smiley etc etc).

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Go on, get vitalled!