Aston Villa Football Club News

• Nickname:The Villains
• Founded:1874
• Manager:Alex McLeish

• Ground:Villa Park
• Capacity:42,584

Petrov hopeful of Villa arrivals

19 Aug 2009 - 15:56:27

Click To Enlarge

Aston Villa midfielder Stiliyan Petrov is optimistic that the club will bring some new players to Villa Park before the end of the transfer window.

Fabian Delph, Habib Beye and Stewart Downing have been high profile additions to Martin O'Neill's squad this summer, but they have been dealt with the losses of influential duo Gareth Barry and Martin Laursen.

And on the back of an opening day home defeat at the hands of Wigan Athletic, Petrov is hopeful of welcoming more new players to the club before the end of the month.

The former Celtic man acknowledged that Villa were short of depth last season, as they fielded just 17 players in the Premier League.

He said: "This season you will be playing double headers. Every team you will play twice in the group stages, like in the Champions League, so it will be more games.

"That's why the manager is trying to make sure we have enough players to cope with this year in domestic cup games, Europe and the Premier League as well.

"Other teams in Europe have big squads and we must do that as well. I think before the window shuts we will have a few more signings. I hope so."