Villa set to step up chase for Davies

Aug 22 2007 By Bill Howell, Birmingham Mail

MARTIN O'Neill is refusing to give up on Albion's wantaway defender Curtis Davies but he is being frustrated in his pursuit by the Baggies refusing to set a transfer fee.

O'Neill has upped his initial £6million valuation of the player and is now believed to be ready to pay around £8million to land the England under-21 international who is keen to move to Villa Park.

Further talks between the two clubs are planned to try to break the stalemate but O'Neill is determined to get his man.

O'Neill is also being frustrated in his efforts to land Porto's Jose Boswinga with his price thought to be escalating all the time.

"It goes up every second of the day," said a source.

O'Neill admits he is now ready to pay over the odds to land his targets as he prepares for a frantic final week of the transfer window.

"I have to admit now that inflated prices is the norm at the moment, so I may have to re-evaluate my thinking about this," he said.

O'Neill remains convinced he will get all of his transfer targets inside the next nine days.

"Sometimes you have to go by what the other club says, but I am not panicking at all," he said. "Like everything else you always have to have a plan A, plan B, plan C, call it what you want.

"But the people I have persued to begin with, I think, are worth pursuing," he continued.

He added: "We have a number of opportunities and I would like to see those opportunities through to the end - things that presented themselves, not yesterday or the day before, but things that have been going for some considerable time."