Villa close in on Bardsley
08 Jan 2007 - 09:22:29
Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill hopes to seal a deal this week to bring Manchester United full-back Phil Bardsley to Villa Park on loan for the rest of the season.
The 21-year-old was on loan at Rangers in the first half of the season and had been expected to spend the rest of the campaign with Sunderland.
But O'Neill told Villa's official website: "I spoke to Sir Alex (Ferguson) a few days ago and he wouldn't mind at all. But like anything else, until things are signed, I won't take it for granted.
"Hopefully he'll join us this week, though obviously he can't play against Manchester United next weekend.
"We just want to start building the squad up a wee bit to give the players a helping hand."
Meanwhile, O'Neill felt sorry for on-loan keeper Gabor Kiraly, whose late error led to Villa crashing to a 2-1 FA Cup third round defeat at Manchester United.
The Hungarian shot-stopper let Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's stoppage-time shot squeeze under his body to seal the visitors' fate.
But O'Neill said: "Kiraly came to us with the best of intentions, and we're grateful for him to come when we had a goalkeeping crisis some weeks ago.
"Palace gave us permission to take him on and I'm grateful to him. He's distraught, because it's a goal he probably should have stopped."