Gregory admits transfer headache
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Your support makes all the difference.The Aston Villa manager John Gregory has publicly stated for the first time that he will have to sell players if he wants to bring in new talent. But he is adamant that the likes of Dion Dublin, Steve Stone and captain Paul Merson – all linked with moves away from the club – have a big part to play in the club's future.
Gregory, who is still keen to sign the Leicester midfielder Muzzy Izzet, would be reluctant to release players as he feels he is already short of the numbers required to sustain a push for a Champions' League place.
"I certainly don't want to sell players to create money to buy others – but to me it would appear that is the only way I can buy other players as things stand," Gregory said.
"To me it is defeating the object and if we lose a couple more players now through injury we will be down to around 15 or 16 players and the team and the substitutes will start picking themselves again, which is not a healthy situation."
Dublin and Merson have both been linked with moves to Leicester to help finance any possible deal for the £8m-rated Izzet. But Gregory insisted: "Dion is still very much part of my plans and I wouldn't want to lose him."
The former Leicester and England striker Gary Lineker has hit out at the transfer dealings of the club's previous manager, Peter Taylor, and has also questioned the appointment of the current joint managerial team of Dave Bassett and Micky Adams.
Lineker, in an interview with City fanzine The Fox said: "It is a bit of a worry. Things haven't looked good for a while and suddenly we seem to be a long, long way from where we were under Martin O'Neill.
"I'm sure Peter Taylor is a good coach but he made a lot of mistakes in the transfer market. Obviously he took a gamble on buying players from the lower leagues and it back-fired."
As for the introduction of the Bassett-Adams combination, Lineker said: "It was almost as if they weren't quite ready to gamble on Micky Adams, who has done tremendously well in his career up to now, so they brought Dave Bassett in.
"Now it seems a bit like they are waiting for Bassett to fail so they can bring Micky in – so why not just take the gamble on Micky rather than putting him in as No 2?
"Maybe it won't go wrong and Dave can turn it around. City have had an awful start but they have had bad starts before and got over them."
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