Six months after Gerard Houllier was able to dine at the transfer market’s top table, new Villa manager Alex McLeish faces a summer searching for scraps.

Villa splashed out a club-record £24million on Darren Bent in the January transfer window but, unless owner Randy Lerner has deeper pockets than first thought, it promises to be a summer of wheeling and dealing for McLeish.

Several big earners have left the club, which has eased the wage bill but, with the exception of one or two signings, the Scot will have to sell before he can buy or put his faith in the club’s talented youngsters.

Villa’s number one priority is to sign a goalkeeper to replace Brad Friedel with Manchester City’s Shay Given and Birmingham’s Ben Foster the preferred choices, but Bolton’s Ali Al-Habsi and West Ham’s Robert Green are also under consideration.

McLeish will aim to supplement his major transfer business with a couple of loan signings from at home and abroad depending on what is available.

A phone call to Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp to see what the forthcoming season holds for Kyle Walker may not be too far away, especially if Carlos Cuellar is allowed to leave, after the young right-back impressed while on-loan last season.

Overall, Villa are fairly well stocked in defence and midfield and while the futures of Stephen Ireland, Stephen Warnock and Richard Dunne looked to be elsewhere, under McLeish their Villa careers could be reignited.

Ireland in particular remains a great enigma and the next few months will decide whether he has a future or whether Villa are best off cutting their losses.

Ultimately, though, the financial belt tightening at Villa means McLeish’s spending plans are intrinsically linked to which players, if any, are sold.

Over the past few summers, Villa fans have had to contend with losing one of their top players as first Gareth Barry and then James Milner left for Manchester City, with Ashley Young continuing the trend by joining Manchester United.

It was perhaps the right time for Young to leave Villa and his desire to play in the Champions League – virtually doubling his wages in the process – led to a begrudging acceptance that his departure was an acute reflection of where Villa are at.

It is, however, a completely different situation with Stewart Downing who is being strongly tipped for a move to Liverpool, with Arsenal having also registered an interest.

There is a sense that Downing owes Villa, after the club took a calculated gamble by signing him from Middlesbrough while he injured and nursed him through his rehabilitation – the player himself has said as much.

More pertinently, however, it would represent a change in the landscape if Villa were to sell not one but two of their star players in one summer.

It would arguably send out the wrong signals as to where Villa are headed as a club and as well demonstrating a lack of ambition – internally as well as externally – it could serve to further anger a volatile fanbase.

The loss of Downing is a double-edged sword for McLeish. On the one hand he is losing a popular player and a model professional, who was comfortably Villa’s best player last season.

But, on the flip side, Downing will be worth considerably less in 12 months time when he only has a year left on his contract and Villa will be in a weaker bargaining position, for a player who seems to think his future lies elsewhere.

Looking at it objectively, the sale of the winger for a fee in the region of £20million would not represent a bad bit of business from Villa’s perspective, especially if McLeish could snap up Charles N’Zogbia and have some cash left over.

Arguably the most important thing, though, is that Villa and McLeish need to make a decision on the Downing issue quickly to avoid a repeat of the transfer saga that engulfed Milner’s departure.

There is no threat of McLeish walking away as happened with Martin O’Neill, but the new Villa boss needs time to plan and pursue other targets.

Lerner took a risk by appointing McLeish so he needs to give him every chance of a smooth pre-season, rather than the uncertainty which characterised the build-up to the previous campaign and left Villa playing catch up.

By Timothy Abraham