O'Neill groans at Europa schedule
Villa chief Martin O'Neill believes UEFA have missed a trick by failing to cut the number of games in next season's revamped Europa League.
O'Neill courted controversy when he left eight first-team stars at home for Villa's UEFA Cup last-32 second leg defeat to CSKA Moscow.
He pointed to the seven games which remained to still win the trophy to justify his decision to prioritise what was then an assault on the Champions League.
The claret and blues have already secured their place in the competition again for next season.
Yet despite UEFA altering the format and name of the competition, it will still take 17 games to win it.
The manager said: "It is too many games. It is honestly. You would have thought the one thing they could have done was that, whoever comes out of the group stage, are in the last 16.
"It should have been like the Champions League, but getting through the group stage and you're still in the last 32 – it's a round too many.
"I just felt when they were overhauling it, it would have been really sensible to make changes but I see it's still the same format after Christmas.
"I think that if you get out of the group stage you should look forward to the final 16 after Christmas.
"I just believe those two extra games you play just make it look, from a distance, like you've still got miles to go."
If Villa succeed in their August play-off they will enter the group stages, which are made up of 12 groups of four teams who play each other home and away between September and December.
The top two, together with the best eight third-placed teams, will qualify for the last 32 in February where the competition enters a knockout phase.
It promises to be a potentially gruelling schedule, but one O'Neill hopes Villa can cope with following a summer of strengthening.
He said: "If we're lucky enough to get through the group stage, and we would want to, I would hope by this time next year that we would be able to cope with things that are thrown at us.
"That's a different issue, certainly we've got to try to win the competition in terms of a bigger squad.
"I'm disappointed in having to prioritise in the manner that I did. I have great respect for the competition in this sense, although it would be said it didn't show it."
