Aston Villa captain Stiliyan Petrov would be happy for midfield duo to stay

Jul 29 2010 by Mat Kendrick, Birmingham Mail

Luke Young, Curtis Davies, Nicky Shorey and Habib Beye are the other four surplus players O’Neill is prepared to sell to bring in cash.

Petrov is convinced all of the claret and blue outcasts remain good players and could continue to do a good job for Villa.

“The manager is trying to bring in new faces and to let some people go,” he said.

“But even if we stay the way we are, we have still got a team to compete because every player in our team is a good player. Some people may leave and other people will come in.

“It’s hard to see when you’ve played with somebody for three or four years and you’ve gone through a lot of hard work all that time to see them leaving, but that’s the way football goes.”

Petrov reckons O’Neill is happy to sacrifice players and operate with a tighter squad, adding: “The manager is reviewing what we need to go to the next level.

“He thinks with a smaller squad we will be better because most of us could play 37, 38 games.

“If we improve as a team and reach where we are trying to reach then the manager and the chairman are working the right way.”