Aston Villa: O'leary says no to loans

Aston Villa boss David O'Leary has admitted that he was hoping to bolster his squad during the January transfer window before the injury to striker Darius Vassell. Vassell is set to be out for up to three months due to a broken ankle, leaving O'Leary desperately short of options in attack.

He said: "Everybody will be trying to do some business in January. I'm hoping to do some and not just because Darius Vassell is injured.

"I look upon what we have here at the moment and up front we've got Juan Pablo Angel and Vassell, who is now injured, and a player on loan in Carlton Cole. I look at the overall position and we need more players.

"If I'm the only one looking for players, it's still going to be hard to get them because other clubs don't want to let them go or will say we'll look at the situation in the summer.

"In general, most clubs want to keep players that other clubs want. People talk about loans, but where do loans take you? It doesn't move you forward."

Meanwhile, in-form midfielder Lee Hendrie says he would have considered leaving the club had O'Leary not been brought in in the summer of 2003. Hendrie commented: "If David O'Leary hadn't have come in I would have been gone from Villa without a doubt.

"Graham Taylor wanted to sell me and there was no future here because he was doing nothing for me.

"He had no intention of doing anything so it was better that I did move on, not that I wanted to."

4thegame