Villa manager Martin O’Neill believes Ashley Young is so valuable he could now be a £30million player.

Young has been a revelation at Villa Park since arriving from Watford for a club record £8million, rising to £9.65million, in January 2007. O’Neill admits he could now be worth three times what Villa paid for him 18 months ago.

His valuation of the player would rank him among the country’s most expensive ever players, third behind Rio Ferdinand and the current holder of the British record transfer fee, Andriy Shevchenko at £30.8million.

The Villa boss hinted after Sunday’s win over Manchester City – when the talented winger put in yet another eye catching display – he could soon face a battle to keep him.

Villa fans will be relieved to hear O’Neill has no intention of selling one of his crown jewels.

In fact, despite having three years still to run on his current deal, the Northern Irishman is keen to tie down the 23-year-old for even longer on a new and improved contract.

O’Neill said: “He has some quite considerable time left on the contract. He’s been brilliant.  When we signed him from Watford we paid a lot of money for him but we didn’t pay a lot of money to him.

“He was a young kid and he was happy to do it. I had seen enough of him to know that he would come through

“He took a bit of time to settle, started off quite brightly and then went into a bit of a lull. Then he started to find it at the back end of last season again and then carried it right through the summer and it’s gone on.

“It was still a lot of money to pay for him, but at the end of the day he might be worth three times that now.”