Stiliyan Petrov is close to new contract

Aston Villa’s Bulgarian midfielder Stiliyan Petrov is close to agreeing a new contract with the in-form Premier League club. “We will be dealing with it the minute the transfer window is over,” Martin O’Neill told. “He is playing great. I have the utmost regard for him because he has fought back from a really difficult situation.

“Sometimes you can never win people over, but he has done that himself. “I think he has been really big for us this season, consistently excellent, confidence is high now whereas confidence wasn’t that high before.”