Flying Winger Hails Aston Villa Manager

Martin O'Neill must remain as Aston Villa manager if the club wants to win trophies in the future, according to Ashley Young.

The England winger has seen speculation about the future of his manager fill the back pages, but despite this Villa sit in seventh place in the Premier League and also remain in the FA Cup.

O'Neill also steered the Villains to the Carling Cup final and has steadily developed the club since he arrived in 2006 - bringing a number of exciting young English players such as Young to the club in the process. Several of these signings will be hoping to help England justify their World Cup betting odds in South Africa this summer.

Former Watford star Young scored the winner as Villa beat Bolton at the weekend and he claims O'Neill is taking the club "in the right direction" and should be given all the time he needs to achieve success.

"If you'd said to us at the start of the season we would get to the Carling Cup final, the FA Cup semi-finals and go into April still with a chance of finishing fourth you would have taken that," he said.

"Of course Martin is integral to taking Villa on to the next stage."

The FA cup betting suggests the Midland club will have a hard time getting past Chelsea, but Young will be confident of causing an upset.

Young's teammate John Carew recently said the players at Villa Park have developed in the last 12 months and will not slip up in the latter parts of the season like they did last season.