Martin O'Neill expects to learn on Saturday evening whether his
bid to convince Ashley Young to join Aston Villa has been
successful.
Watford have accepted a bid for the England U21 international which
is expected to exceed the £9.5million fee Villa paid to land Juan
Pablo Angel, with O'Neill having engaged in brief discussions with
both Young and his agent on Thursday.
Young has emerged as one of the transfer window's hottest
properties, with the forward having already spurned the opportunity
to join West Ham, as talk suggests that he is eager for Tottenham
to come in again for his services, having previously had an offer
rejected by Watford.
O'Neill concedes that at present the deal is very much in the
balance, well aware that nothing is cut and dry with other clubs
monitoring the situation closely.
"I should reckon, by close of play on Saturday, that I will have a
fair idea of the player's decision," said O'Neill.
"I had a brief chat with Ashley on Thursday but there is a long way
to go. I also spoke to his agent very late on Thursday. That's the
state of play at this minute.
"I would like to see the player here. It would be great. He has got
fantastic potential but I am certainly not going to rush it and I
am allowing people to make up their own minds.
"There is no point really in being hypothetical about something
that might not materialise but do I think Ashley is a good player.
Absolutely."
Villa's recent form has seen them fail to pick up a win from their
past 12 games but O'Neill does not believe their mini-slump will be
a factor in Young's decision.
"Is it a problem bringing him to Villa? Those sort of things were
not discussed at all," added O'Neill.
"I didn't gauge anything in that direction at all from a
conversation with him. He seems very level-headed.
"While I am always hopeful about things, I am never categorically
certain about anything until people have signed.
"What I do know is in the scheme of things, he would be an
excellent acquisition for us. I would prefer having a conversation
saying everything has been sorted out but it hasn't because it
happened so late on Thursday.
"We've had no chance really to run things through right to the
end."