Despite O'Neill pledging his immediate future to the club,
sources at Villa Park are far from convinced he will be in charge
next season.
He will certainly not tolerate plans to bring in a director of
football, something which chairman Randy Lerner is considering.
And if O'Neill walks away, former Manchester City boss Hughes
will be Lerner's top target. However, Hughes has made it quite
clear he will not hold talks with any club while they still have a
manager in place because he is still angry at the way his sacking
by City was handled.
Roberto Mancini was appointed just hours after Hughes left in
December.
But Hughes is determined to find a high-profile club and doubts
over O'Neill's future have alerted the former Manchester United
striker's advisers.
While O'Neill has dismissed reports of a rift with Lerner, he is
still waiting to see whether Villa make a leap forward in the
summer transfer market, especially having spent just £80million in
four years.
He fears Lerner's priority is expanding the stadium in order to
maximise revenue, rather than spending big on players after the
club posted record losses of £43m for last year.
O'Neill has a clause in his contract which gives him a 'window
of opportunity' at the end of the season to talk to any clubs
interested in luring him away.
Liverpool would certainly be keen as they look for a successor
to Rafa Benitez.
Those closest to Villa feel O'Neill is losing the confidence of
many of his players who are upset at his reluctance to make changes
to his starting line-up.
Fringe players like Steve Sidwell, Luke Young, Habib Beye and
Fabian Delph have grown frustrated at their lack of opportunities
despite the team dropping points against Wolves, Stoke and
Sunderland.
They are also fed-up with the lack of communication with
O'Neill.
"Martin doesn't speak to the players for three days after a bad
result. It's almost impossible to get any sense out of him," said a
source.