Last of the big spenders

VILLA might be on the coat tails of the top four but have they spent like it?
Ever wondered how much Martin O'Neill has dished out on players since his radical overhaul of the staff began some 18 months ago.
O'Neill has let aroud 15 players go since the Irishman joined the club, recouping around £18.25 million if you include the £3.5million that Albion will pay for Luke Moore at the end of the season.
£4m came in for for Steven Davis, £1m for Aaron Hughes, £2.5m for Liam Ridgewell, £5m eventually for Gary Cahill, £1m for Gavin McCann, £750,000 for Kevin Phillips and £250,000 for forgotten Frenchman Mathieu Berson and the same for Peter Whittingham.
Villa have shelled out £6.5m for Stiliyan Petrov which will can rise to £8m after a number of games, £8m for Nigel Reo-Coker, £4m for Marlon Harewood- again, if he plays the number of games, £3.5m for Zat Knight, a £1.7m loan fee for Scott Carson and Ashley Young was £8m to start with and about £8.5m now after playing for England.
Curtis Davies will be £8.5m in time and Wayne Routledge was £1.25million.
Have you done your sums?
I make that around £43.45million spent, minus the sum recouped that makes £25.2million.
I can be argued that the Petrov fee was financed by the sale of the Serpentine Land around Villa Park, but in any case, when the top four can spend £25million on just one player, and the likes of Portsmouth, Manchester City and to a lesser extent Everton can spend a pretty bob or two on new recruits and wages, it just illuminates the task facing Villa in competing at the very top of the market.