O'Leary had to follow Ellis wage orders

[andy villa]

David O'Leary has revealed he was under orders from Aston Villa chairman Doug Ellis to halve the wage bill when he replaced Graham Taylor.

O'Leary has released 12 players since the end of last season to try to meet Ellis' demands and only brought in Gavin McCann, Thomas Sorensen and Nolberto Solano.

It is testament to his management skills that, despite all the cutbacks, he has transformed Villa from a side who avoided relegation by three points into one challenging strongly for a Champions League spot.

Villa are the in-form team of the contenders for fourth spot and will be defending a six-game unbeaten run when they entertain Tottenham on Sunday.

O'Leary said: "When I came into the job I was told to asset-strip the club and keep it in the Premier League.

"The chairman told me that we needed to cut the wage bill by half. Twelve players have gone and, in the squad of 16 we've got left, there are people of 35-36 [Dion Dublin, Ronny Johnsen] coming to the end of their contract.

"When people heard that I was about to take the Aston Villa job, they told me not to go anywhere near it.

"I came in and there was a dressing room of individuals, some players were not talking to others, some didn't want to play. They had just avoided relegation. That is what I faced.

"I had to do a lot of clearing out and a lot of people who didn't want to stay here did go. I don't think this club will ever have had as small a squad in its history.

"But we've now got a tight little ship and we've been over-achieving, getting the best out of everyone. We've also been quite lucky with injuries.''




fuckin ellis tryin to ruin my club...... exactly where is this freed up money goin then u old twat?

[Danny]