Source: Team_Talk
O'Neill plans to listen to Villa fans
O'Neill appreciates those supporters - understood to be around 300 - have forked out a considerable amount of money to follow the team to Moscow for the return leg of their last-32 tie with CSKA.[LNB]Upon learning of the fact Gareth Barry, Brad Friedel, Emile Heskey, James Milner, Ashley Young, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Carlos Cuellar and Stiliyan Petrov had not travelled with them, those supporters may arguably feel they have wasted their hard-earned cash.[LNB]O'Neill hopes they, like him, will view the bigger picture because next season's journey could involve far more illustrious fixtures if Villa qualify for the Champions League.[LNB]"We've about 300 travelling fans who have spent very good money in coming to support us," O'Neill said.[LNB]"I don't know their viewpoint, but I'd like to find out and I hope we will find out because it's those people I've thought about, having spent their money.[LNB]"Other football clubs flout these things, and they get a bit of criticism for a minute or two, it seems as if it (resting players) is sacrilegious.[LNB]"This is the first time we've done it and it (the criticism) seems to be lasting forever, yet we've gone as strongly as we can every single time before.[LNB]"I've played by the rulebook, such as in FA Cup matches this season with Gillingham and Doncaster.[LNB]"For me, this competition is important. Perhaps if we were further down the line, if this was a quarter-final here tomorrow, it might be a different issue.[LNB]"But who is to say the players in the side tomorrow won't be able to turn this around?[LNB]"We have a real fighting chance of doing it and that would be fantastic for us. That would maybe placate those travelling fans.[LNB]"But if you had given them the opportunity to press on to get into the Champions League, with the squad we possess at the moment, they would say, 'You do what you think is the right thing for the club'.[LNB]"That's what I'm doing. Whether in time it proves to be correct is in the lap of the gods."[LNB]The 56-year-old insists at no stage did the financial aspect come into his thinking as a team can earn more from reaching the group stages of the Champions League than a UEFA Cup final.[LNB]"I didn't look at it like that. It was more the kudos aspect of it," remarked O'Neill.[LNB]"I was involved in the UEFA Cup final with Celtic (in 2003) which was an incredible journey.[LNB]"Although we lost in the final, which was a major disappointment, the journey in getting there, knocking out Liverpool, Blackburn, Stuttgart and Boavista, was fantastic for us.[LNB]"Although we have not given this up the Champions League is very important, and we've a chance. That's all it is - a chance.[LNB]"I had to make this decision on what I've seen, and what might lie ahead."[LNB]O'Neill concedes it was arguably his biggest decision since he has been at the club, but one he maintains he has no regrets over.[LNB]"The irony is we spent all of last season trying our hardest to qualify for this UEFA Cup," added O'Neill.[LNB]"Yes, I will be upset if we lose because we came into this in the Intertoto Cup in July, so it is important to us.[LNB]"But I've made a decision and I stand by it. Am I comfortable with it? I'm not sure you're ever comfortable.[LNB]"With hindsight will I change things? Who knows, but I've done it now - it's my decision and no-one else's.[LNB]"We've already played 12 more games this season than we did in the whole of last season, so that tells you the story."[LNB][LNB] CSKA Moscow v Aston Villa. Click here to bet.[LNB]
