Football: O'NEILL: SAM COULD BE THE MAN FOR JLLOYD'S FUTURE.

Byline: By GRAHAM HILL

MARTIN O'Neill insists he has not spoken to Bolton about their interest in Jlloyd Samuel - but accepts that the player will be able to talk to any English club he wants to in the summer.

Bolton boss Sam Allardyce is stepping up his interest in the Villa full-back, left, and has admitted a move for Samuel is on the cards.

O'Neill has hinted that the former England Under-21 international could be offered a new deal, but Samuel has not been a regular at Villa Park this season and he seems certain to look elsewhere. Allardyce has been tracking Samuel's fortunes for some weeks and considered a January transfer window deal, as reported in the Sunday Mercury at the time.

But O'Neill appears to be building a side with Samuel on the fringes although he realises the player's future has to be considered.

"No-one has spoken to me about it from Bolton, but if Jlloyd's contract is up in the summer then he is free to speak to people in May," said the Villa boss.

"He has a number of choices. He may get an offer here which he can accept or disregard, or can wait until May.

"It's been a stop-start season for Jlloyd - he played in the opening game of the season, got injured in the second and came back. He played a couple more games but then he was taken ill and even this week, he's been off with illness.

"It's a difficult one to make assessments. Before I say whether there's a new deal for him here, I'll sit down and talk to him first.

"I can sit down with him whenever I like, but he is free to speak to clubs abroad now and sign a pre-contract."

O'Neill will call for an improvement in Villa's poor record in cup competitions next season - so that they do not have a string of blank Saturdays.

Villa returned to action against Fulham yesterday after a three-week lay-off due to the fact that they exited the FA Cup and Carling Cup.

O'Neill's interest in the FA Cup lasted just one round when they were beaten by Manchester United.

As a result, they sat out the Saturday's earmarked for the fourth and fifth rounds while Arsenal's appearance in the Carling Cup Final meant they did not play a week ago.

And with it being sixth round day next weekend, they do not now play for another 10 days until they host Arsenal at Villa Park on March 14.

Essentially, they will only have had one game in four and half weeks, and then they face Arsenal and Liverpool in the space of four days.

"I'm on for a mid-season break, it's something I've spoken about before," said O'Neill. "But I'd rather all clubs had it at the same time! We were the only ones not playing.

"But the obvious way to solve that is for us to play better in the Cups and get a run going. Then we wouldn't be the ones with blank Saturdays."

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Title Annotation:	Sport
Publication:	Sunday Mercury (Birmingham, England)
Date:	Mar 4, 2007
Words:	509
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