Young aiming to repay Randy's millions

Jun 8 2007 By Bill Howell, Birmingham Mail

ASHLEY Young jets out on international duty today with the aim of repeating the experience with Villa next season - as a pay-back to Randy Lerner.

The England Under-21 flier is bang on form after a superb end to the season and joins Stuart Pearce's squad en-route to Holland for the European Championships.

He insists he is already looking forward to the challenges ahead at club level next August.

"I can't wait for next season. This is a massive club with ambitions of getting into Europe - that's where I want to be playing," he said. "The chairman has come in and put his money into the club.

"He has his say and he's doing really well for the club. Now it's up to us - the players - to pay him back and get us into Europe. We want to be playing in the Champions League."

Young says the first aim next season is to finish in the top ten, but the top four remains the club's ultimate aim.

"Looking to next season, we definitely want to be in the top half, but we're looking towards the Champions League. That's where everyone wants to be."

Villa's squad is undoubtedly one of the youngest in the Premiership and Young believes it has allowed a strong sense of team spirit to foster, not unlike at his former club.

"In terms of the dressing room, it's not that different from Watford. There's quite a lot of youngsters here at Villa.

"Everybody gets on with each other, there's no cliques at all and there's a really good bond.

"There's a real togetherness at the club and that's got to stand us in good stead for next season, because we're all pulling for each other."

Young insists he couldn't be any happier at Villa Park.

"I'm happy to be here. I'd heard a lot about the manager before I arrived - everyone was positive about him and nobody had a bad word to say," he said.

"That was one of the main factors in my decision to come to the club. The manager's been great and so have the fans since I came to the club - I couldn't have asked for anything better.

"You can tell the fans are really excited about what's happening here."