Martin O'Neill, Aston Villa's ever-eloquent manager, declared Monday that his club simply could not compete financially with the so-called "Big Four" clubs in English soccer.

"We are in the same league as Manchester United, who have gates of 75,000 and are a different entity. We are in there against Arsenal, who house 60,000 fans every home game," O'Neill said. "Then we are against the other two [Liverpool and Chelsea], who have our sort of gates but not only have the experience behind them but a lot of money to go at it as well. We won't be able to compete financially. We are trying to run this as a business at this minute. That is difficult, especially in this day and age."

The Irishman, however, used this statement as a challenge for his club to find other ways to compete with the economic muscle of the established Champions League sides: "I think that is part of the excitement of it all. You have to try and find other ways to compete. I don't think we'll ever be up there in finance terms but it doesn't mean you cannot compete in other ways."

 

Read the original story...