Boss Gerard Houllier takes Villa into battle with Burnley vowing to try and keep Nigel Reo-Coker after preliminary discussions started over a contract extension.

Houllier confirmed Reo-Coker will wear the captain’s armband in this evening’s Carling Cup last-16 battle until Stiliyan Petrov recovers from injury, with Richard Dunne his vice-captain.

However, the subject of Reo-Coker’s long-term future is also on the Villa manager’s agenda with the midfielder’s deal expiring at the end of the season, enabling him to talk to other clubs from January.

But Houllier is eager for the 26-year-old – a key man in his regime to date – to stay.

When asked if there will be contract negotiations in the near future, he replied: “It’s too early to say but (chief executive) Paul Faulkner has started to have talks with his agent.

“He knows I want to keep him and we will try to keep him. If he wants to go elsewhere, he will go elsewhere. A contract doesn’t mean a lot anyway.

“But the situation is this – he has practically played every game while I have been in charge and his performances are getting better and better.”

Houllier admits experience has taught him to be cautious over handing out long-term deals to players because, once signed, they can take their foot off the gas.

But the manager does not see that problem with Reo-Coker, who has re-established himself as a first choice after falling out of favour under Martin O’Neill, with whom he had a heated training-ground bust-up last year.

The Villa boss said: “Nigel has got a personality and I like that. He is a winner, he is a fighter.

“But you have to be careful when you give good contracts to players. You don’t want a player, once he has a contract, to get back into a sort of comfort zone, put a bit of weight on sometimes and not work as much.

“You have to make sure the contract is not the end in itself. It must the start of a fighting experience to win things for the club.

“If you give a contract to a player it means you trust him for the future.

“I want players who are very hungry for success and not players who just think ‘feet up and relax’.”