Nigel Reo-Coker has been left out of Villa’s squad to face Cardiff tonight.

Boss Martin O’Neill finalised his squad for the Carling Cup third-round clash earlier today, but it emerged this afternoon there was no place in it for the midfielder – fuelling speculation last week’s training-ground bust-up is still to be forgotten.

The feuding pair had to be separated by players at Bodymoor on Thursday and Reo-Coker was left out of Saturday’s squad for the visit of Portsmouth.

He returned to training on Monday and met with O’Neill, although the Villa boss has refused to shed any further light on their discussion.

O’Neill said: “I had a word with Nigel in private and that is how it is going to remain. I

“If Nigel and his associates want to divulge anything, that is entirely up to them. As far as I am concerned, that is the end of the issue.”

But Reo-Coker’s exclusion will be sure to raise further question marks over the former West Ham’s skipper’s future at Villa Park.

Meanwhile, O’Neill believes player power has rocketed since his distinguished days on the pitch and, speaking generally, he conceded the current generation of players now demand a greater say in club affairs.

He said: “The game has changed now. In my day, and days before that, players had no power. The club and the manager ran the show. That’s the way it was and nobody saw fit to change it. I felt at the time that players should have a better say but now it’s gone the other way.

“Players now at least want to believe they’re in charge of things, and there’s probably a great deal in that, so it has gone full circle. The reason it has is because of the money in the game.

“I believe if there’s a valid viewpoint, then you should listen to it, but if you’re spouting off just for the sake of things I’m not so sure that makes for easy listening.”

O’Neill revealed he would never take it for granted that the Villa dressing room are all behind him.

He added: “Are all the squad singing from the same song sheet? I would never take anything like that for granted at all. I certainly wouldn’t be foolish enough to believe that all the time.”