Aston Villa: Manager Martin O'Neill's pre-season thoughts
“But I think that there’s plenty of room for improvement in the team – and I could easily point out that by mentioning the run at the end of the season which wasn’t the best. I think we could all improve on that.”
Villa won just two matches at home to Hull City and Newcastle in their final 13 league games to tumble out of the top five.
Coupled with that run were damaging cup exits in Europe and at Everton but O’Neill would prefer to stress the positives.
Villa are back in Europe and even with a ridiculously stretched squad out in Spain in pre-season a number of youngsters came to the fore, notably 19-year-old Marc Albrighton.
But you can look at the vast majority of the first team squad, from the likes of Nigel Reo-Coker, Craig Gardner and Curtis Davies right through to Steve Sidwell, Ashley Young, Gabby Agbonlahor and James Milner.
That’s not even mentioning the likes of Nathan Delfouneso, Eric Lichaj, Ciaran Clark, Barry Bannan, Shane Lowry, Chris Herd and Andreas Weimann who will all be looking to push their claims this season.
“I think it’s encouraging that many of our players are at an age where they haven’t reached their peak, but it’s really up to the individual,” O’Neill said.
“People who’ve had a look at the Premier League have seen the sort of competition there.
“Knowing there’s competition from within your own club and the competition out there facing you on a week to week basis, when you’ve had a look at that and seen what’s necessary, any player worth his salt will go and make the necessary adjustments.”
Clearly whilst the likes of Ashley Young and John Carew will provide the thrust of Villa’s attacks this season, and the club will rely heavily on new skipper Stiliyan Petrov as a rare older head, there is much more to come, particularly from the likes of Reo-Coker and Sidwell, whilst the supporters may also feel it is high time the likes of Nicky Shorey and Emile Heskey pull their weight.
And yet, there is a danger of completely wiping the history books and the achievements in pulling the club out of the mire where David O’Leary had taken it until O’Neill’s appointment three years ago.
“I think we have improved in that time,” O’Neill adds with rather a fair amount of contentment.
