21 minus four plus one equals

EVERY year I've heard it.

"This summer is massive for Aston Villa."

With apologies to Carol Vorderman the algebra facing Villa this summer would be too hot even for David James' (He used to tell me he watched Countdown every day) and the nations' favourite bit of brain-tot.

I should know, as me and Carol actually had the same maths teacher, Palmer Parry in Rhyl, North Wales- albeit a few years apart and I would guess she was closer to the A+++ bracket whilst I was stuck in a mid-table C.

I digress...the figures facing Martin O'Neill in terms of squad-building this summer would test Archimedes, Babbage, Descartes, Fibonacci and Pascal. Even Pythagoras... perhaps?

I remember David O'Leary used to say something like: "There is a train coming towards the station and we have to be ready", or words to that effect when describing the onset of the pre-season rebuild.

Colourful stuff from Dave. Of course his train did arrive, although it was more 'Rusty' than 'Thomas the Tank Engine'.

But for so many reasons I can't help but think this summer could be absolutely gigantic.

Not only have Villa lost four players (Berger, Mellberg, Sorensen, Carson) and face the reality of losing a fifth (Barry, in case you hadn't heard?).

But they not only go into the new season with genuine top five aspirations but face the prospect of playing no less than 18 matches more next season in Europe if they get to the UEFA Cup Final in Turkey.

All that and two extra substitutes are allowed onto the bench at Premier League matches. That's 18 players per match.

Two seasons ago, around the time Villa took Gabor Kiraly from Crystal Palace on an emergency loan, Villa could only have named seven substitutes by picking youth teamers.

That FA Cup game at Manchester United, in January 2007, saw Steven Davis, Robert Olejnik and Peter Whittingham sit alongside Milan Baros and Jlloyd Samuel.

Thomas Sorensen, Stuart Taylor, Patrik Berger and Craig Gardner were injured, Olof Mellberg suspended. Ashley Young, John Carew, Phil Bardsley and Shaun Maloney were weeks away from joining as reinforcements.

Things got so bad that Lee Hendrie was brought back from a loan spell so that he could warm-up on the sidelines when Villa went back to Old Trafford six days later in the league.

Now that's bad! (Apologies to Lee, I'm joking)

Villa had nine players play 32 league games or more last season. They used 21 players but even that included the likes of Moustapha Salifou, Wayne Routledge, Stuart Taylor, Isiah Osbourne and Patrik Berger with four starts between them.

As things stand the substitutes for the first game of the season on July 19 in the InterToto could include Villa's press officer Phil Mepham who once, allegedly, was on the books of Mansfield.

Even with prolific youth striker Nathan Delfouneso coming into the fray because Curtis Davies and Stephen O'Halloran are injured, Villa could only name six subs at present.

Here's the current team for the InterToto: Taylor; Gardner, Knight, Laursen, Bouma; Petrov, Reo-Coker, Barry, Young; Carew, Agbonlahor. Subs: Harewood, Delfouneso, Salifou, Routledge, Maloney, Osbourne.

Now of course the youngsters, the likes of Bannan, Forrester, Lund, Lowry, Clark, Baker, Collins... are on hand to step in.

But surely this proves that this pre-season, more than any since John Gregory whittled away the Dwight Yorke and NTL monies, will be hectic.

Here's hoping.