Carling Cup gives Aston Villa boss a chance to keep fringe players happy

Oct 27 2009 by Mathew Kendrick, Birmingham Post

“When you are on the bench at Man Utd, then you are experiencing some sort of success,” said O’Neill.

“You are part of a successful set-up and in some way, you are sharing in that.

“For a quality player it might be easier to have reflected glory on the bench from being part of a squad like at Man Utd than it would be from being on the bench here.

“I think you only get that eventually with success.

“You look at Chelsea too, where players could walk into other teams but are prepared to go and battle it out because there is a chance they could be contesting a Champions League quarter-final, semi-final or final.

“I get back to the point that they have earned the right to have a few players sit it out for a few games.”

O’Neill admits that teams of Villa’s level will face an ongoing struggle to satisfy their deputies because under-utilised, high-quality players will always feel hard done by.

“I think with the likes of ourselves, and perhaps maybe Tottenham to an extent, the players who are not in the side may feel they are capable of going to play in someone else’s team,” he said. “I think you need the success with it.

“It is not easily resolved because you are constantly aware of the good players who, for one reason or another, are not able to get into the side and may consider themselves a wee bit unlucky not to be in it.”