Aston Villa boss faces fight to attract new faces

The Frenchman has not given up hope of bolstering his relegation-threatened squad but the club's position at the bottom of the Premier League table is making things tough.

Garde will attempt to get his targets to look at the bigger picture, as the likelihood of a drop to the Championship looms large.

Frustrated Villa fans, with their team 10 points from safety, pleaded with chief executive Tom Fox at the Supporters' Trust AGM on Thursday night to get some transfer business done this month in order to help give the club a fighting chance of pulling off a miracle escape.

Fox said Villa had been ''holding conversations'' with a number of players but they are having trouble persuading them to come to Villa Park.

Garde understands the predicament and says he would ''not complain'' if the transfer window closed on February 1 and he had to complete the campaign with the players he already has.

"We are working hard to sign players but in our position in the table it is quite difficult to sign players,'' said Garde, whose side faced Albion today. "But hopefully we are getting closer every day it is going on.

"Players are attracted by what? They want to play in England if we are speaking about foreign players, and English players want to play in the Premier League.

"Foreign players want to come to England and the Premier League because of the good contract, but also interested in the project.

''If you are a clever player, you are not only looking at the figures in your contract. You are looking a little bit long-term or medium term and then then you think, 'maybe I will have this situation for the next 12 or 18 months'.

"I fully understand that this football club can be huge and I want to be part of the new building of this football club. This is a speech that some players understand and this is why I try to attract this kind of player."

''But it is not only because you have a good speech for 10 minutes that the player comes. There are a lot of other parameters that you have to consider before signing.

"In our position it is especially difficult to attract players and we are still working on it and hopefully we will have one or two signings before the end.''

Garde is expected to name the same starting line-up for the third Premier League game in a row at The Hawthorns.

The Villa boss is likely to stick with the team that earned four points from the home matches against Crystal Palace and Leicester, meaning he will make nine changes from the side he sent out for the FA Cup third-round replay with Wycombe in midweek.

Midfielder Carlos Sanchez will undergo a fitness test but full-back Alan Hutton (hamstring) and striker Gabriel Agbonlahor remain out.