Villa boss Martin O’Neill believes his current squad is the strongest in his two years at the club.

The Ulsterman has performed major surgery on his squad this summer, with six players leaving, stating defender Olof Mellberg was the only one he was sorry to see go.

He has certainly splashed the cash, though, spending £48million on eight players during the close season –  more than any Villa manager has previously spent in a single summer.

It was a significant step in O’Neill’s attempts to build Villa’s squad in his own mould – and the Villa manager is delighted to have created some
competition among his squad.

He said: “I think we had to strengthen the side. We lost some players in the summertime, of those the one that you would have wanted to keep would have
been Olof Mellberg, I think the rest had run their course.

“I think the squad is stronger than in the previous two years. There’s a bit of competition for places, you have got players you have paid money for who
have not even began playing in the team.

“That hasn’t really existed here before and if we are involved in competitions and we are going to be playing Sunday/Thursday, Sunday/Thursday level all the time you will need the players.”