Aston Villa stars must wait on offers of deals

Aston Villa's out-of-contract stars were today told they will have to wait until the end of the season before the club offer them new deals.

Carlos Cuellar, Brad Guzan and Emile Heskey can all leave the claret and blues for nothing in the summer, with their current agreements due to expire.

Heskey is strongly tipped to depart as Villa look to continue their commitment to drive down the wage bill, although the club run the risk of losing Cuellar and Guzan as they attract interest from other clubs.

But Villa assistant boss Peter Grant revealed the players were happy to accept that manager Alex McLeish wants to concentrate on matters on the pitch.

Grant said: "The gaffer's said he would rather put all these talks back until the season ends.

"Alex has always preferred to do his business at the end of the season.

"He knows the most important thing is winning games. His thinking is 'I would rather leave it as much as I possibly can' and I think the players understand that now.

"It used to be that, if your contract was up next year, you wouldn't be spoken to until the end of next year."