Houllier rules out loan moves for trio

Published Nov 8, 2016

Last updated Feb 10, 2011

Gerard Houllier today insisted none of Villa's young midfield stars will be allowed to leave the club on loan.

Villa bolstered their options in January with the signing of Jean Makoun from Lyon and the arrival of Michael Bradley on loan from Borussia Moenchengladbach.

And the return to fitness of Nigel Reo-Coker and Stiliyan Petrov has meant that chances for Fabian Delph, Barry Bannan and Chris Herd have been few and far between recently.

The Villa boss has allowed American defender Eric Lichaj to join Leeds United on loan for a month, but he will not listen to temporary offers for the midfield youngsters.

"There is no chance because they've got four months to learn," said Houllier.

"Barry will be training with the first-team which was not the case before, so in terms of intensity in terms of pace of the game he's got to for the four months coming up.

"It will be part of a learning process and learn about the game and of course they'll play some games.

"You can't put the horse before the cart, you've got to work and then you'll play games.

"He, Chris and Nathan Baker won't leave — it's as simple as that.

"Fabian has been injured for a long time so he needs these four months obviously to build up. I've spoken to them and told them this."