O'Neill waiting to snare targets

Villa boss Martin O'Neill admits his targets this summer are "key players at other football clubs" – and fans need to be patient as he tries to snare them.

O'Neill is in the closing stages of his first major deal of the close season, having thrashed out a £5.5m fee with Chelsea for Steve Sidwell.

But an even greater test of the club's growing ambitions lies ahead, in O'Neill's pursuit of Blackburn's transfer-seeking right sided midfielder David Bentley.

He is the top target for the Premiership's second-tier clubs, including Everton and Tottenham.

Villa fans are desperate to see the club pull off that kind of coup, to add weight to its claims of a bold new era under owner Randy Lerner.

There is also speculation that O'Neill is looking at Anton Ferdinand.

The boss is under pressure to recruit heavily this summer, having been caught short with an under-strength squad last season plus the possible loss of Gareth Barry.

A "waiting game" still needs to be played, according to the Villa boss, for his plans to materialise.

He said: "It takes a bit of time. But the people we want to try and improve this club are players you can almost automatically assume are key players at other football clubs.

"These are people it might be difficult to prise out of their current clubs."

"We need to improve our squad and I know that. But it's a fact that improving the squad gets harder as you progress.

"We have just finished sixth in the Premier League and I think the supporters will agree that we have progressed over the last two years.

"To improve on what we now have means bringing in even more quality and the competition for quality players can be fierce."