Aston Villa striving to bring in defender with Stephen Warnock linked again

Aug 13 2009 by Lisa Smith, Birmingham Mail

One of those Villa have been looking at – with Freddie Bouma also out with an ankle injury and Luke Young missing pre-season with a thigh strain – is Blackburn left-back Stephen Warnock.

Rovers’ boss Sam Allardyce yesterday claimed a £4million bid from Villa for the defender had been turned down but it is thought further negotiations are on-going.

O’Neill has already tried to prise Sylvain Distin from Portsmouth while also being linked with Arsenal defender Philippe Senderos and even Sol Campbell.

“I would like to get a few in of course,” he said.

One defender O’Neill does have at his disposal is summer acquisition Habib Beye.

“He has trained for a couple of days and he has enjoyed it,” the Villa boss said of his £2.6million acquisition from Newcastle.

“It’s new surroundings for him but he is quite happy and if he had to come into the side immediately he’s experienced enough to do that having played a lot of senior games.

“We will have a look at it as things develop.”

He added: “The more versatile the defender we sign the better for us. Certainly Beye is versatile. If we had an emergency he can play at centre-back and he can play at right-back as well.

“Versatility would be great but if I can at all avoid it I don’t want to put players in positions that they are for the most part unaccustomed to.

“There is a distinct difference between that and being versatile. As long as a position is not completely alien to them they might enjoy that versatility themselves.

“That’s the irony of it all. We need to improve our defensive cover and we will try to do that.”