Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neill has distanced himself from reports linking Stan Collymore with a return to the Midlands club, expressing doubts over the striker’s plans to come out of retirement.
Collymore was brought to Leicester by O’Neill in a cut-price deal six years ago and reports yesterday suggested he was keen on a reunion with the new Villa boss.
But O’Neill today played down the link. “Stan is 35 and he would have to get fit. He would need a lot of willpower and a lot of self-determination to get fit for the Premier League to be perfectly honest,” he said.
“At 35 you need a great desire and I just don’t know what Stan has been doing in the last couple of years. I don’t know whether that desire has returned.”
If the Gaffer doesn’t know what Stan’s been up to, I can only presume the Blockbuster Video outlets of the Midlands have had a sudden run on copies of “Basic Instinct 2”. Either that, or O’Neil doesn’t read the newspapers.