Aston Villa Football Club News

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

• Ground:Villa Park
• Capacity:42,584

Success spurs Petrov on

18 Feb 2009 - 07:52:34

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Bulgaria international Stiliyan Petrov has revealed that he would be happy to sign a new Aston Villa contract, if he knew Gareth Barry was staying with the club.

Petrov has only 17 months remaining of his current four-year deal following his £6million move from Celtic in the summer of 2006 but would be happy to commit his long-term future to Martin O'Neill's side.

He said: "The manager will try to show everybody that he wants to build something big here and one of the things is to keep Gareth Barry because he is maybe the most important player at the club.

"If we keep Gareth it will also send out a message to all of the players, a big message that we are in for something big here next year.

"We all hope he is going to stay because he is one of the best midfielders in the country and you try your best to keep him if you want to achieve something.

"There have been no (contract) talks - not at all. My job now is to play football. If the club is interested to offer me a new contract, they will contact my agent and speak about that.

"It is no priority at the moment. There are other priorities at the moment - for the club to finish in the top four of the Premier League and go as far as we can in the UEFA Cup. That is the most important thing."