Jores Okore: We can cope without Benteke

Defender Jores Okore believes the future is bright at Aston Villa, even if star striker Christian Benteke leaves the club.

The centre-back was part of the team that was on the wrong side of a 4-0 thrashing on Saturday as Arsenal came away from Wembley having lifted a record breaking 12th FA Cup.

It is widely expected the showpiece final will be Benteke's last game for the club with both Liverpool and Chelsea reportedly ready to match the Belgian's £32.5million buy-out clause.

But even if the striker does leave, Okore believes there is still plenty for Villa fans to be positive about when it comes to next season.

"If Christian does leave, the club will find someone else to replace him and we will work form there," the 22-year-old said.

"You can find quality players if Christian goes.

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"But Christian is still here, he is under contract and hopefully we can keep him as that's in all our interests.

"We need to invest in the team and do what we can to keep him happy because he is a big threat for us."

Whether Benteke stays or goes, Okore believes manager Tim Sherwood is the right man to lead a claret and blue revolution.

"It's a really big summer, Tim has his own ideas and it's going be really exciting," he said.

"He came in and he needed to change a lot of things quickly and he did well.

"But after we get a full pre-season under him I think we will be more stable.

"Hopefully we will get out of this relegation battle we have been in for the last few years, get to mid-table and develop from there.

"We can't struggle anymore. This is a young team and you have seen some good things for us. I think we can go far."

Meanwhile, Okore admitted Villa were comfortably outplayed in the FA Cup Final.

"It was really tough, we never seemed to get our game going," he said.

"We lost a lot of balls in midfield and they scored just before half-time which helped them a lot.

"We needed to be sharper and keep the ball better, we lost the ball too much.

"Every time we got possession we lost the ball in dangerous areas and we didn't create a lot of chances."