[theo kawala]

Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill is to be offered a bumper six-year deal worth £15million.

New Villa Park owner Randy Lerner has been so impressed with the start O'Neill has made - the club are currently unbeaten and sixth in the Premiership - and wants to make sure he remains at the club.

The Northern Irishman signed a 12-month-rolling contract in August after taking a year out of football to look after his ill wife but despite protestations that he is happy with the deal, Lerner wants to prevent anyone being able to snatch him from the club.

"I think Martin O'Neill is great," he told The Birmingham Post.

"He has the record and the history for a long-term contract and that is the plan," the American businessman added.

O'Neill has used his motivational skills to turn around the club, bringing out the best of players who failed to perform under previous boss David O'Leary.

However, he has been reluctant to talk about his long-term future and it remains to be seen if the former Celtic boss will accept the offer.

One thing that is certain, though, is that O'Neill is already casting an eye towards the January transfer window, when he is expected to receive strong financial backing from Lerner.

O'Neill was only able to sign Stiliyan Petrov before the August transfer window closed, although he has since signed Didier Agathe and Chris Sutton.

That still leaves Villa with a smaller squad than last season following the summer departure of on-loan James Milner, who has returned to Newcastle, Kevin Phillips, Mathieu Berson and Ulises de la Cruz.

Milner was set to return to Villa on transfer deadline day only for the £4million deal to collapse at the 11th hour following his recall by the Magpies.

O'Neill said: "I'm looking at the January window and signing Didier Agathe and Chris Sutton are things I've tried to do to bolster the squad in the shorter term.

"As regards the transfer window, we've got things on the go at the minute and I've got a fair idea now where we can now strengthen the side.

"It's having the wherewithal to do this and Randy Lerner was happy for us to try to get James Milner at the end of August, so I don't think we'd be found lacking in that aspect.

"I would hope that if we continue to keep going, that we'd be in a position to do something.

"I'm in a position where I've got a few things 'on the go' just in case anything happens and that's where I am.''

O'Neill is set to hold more talks with Lerner when he returns to England during the second half of the current international break.

That could coincide with Villa being officially de-listed from the Stock Exchange which, as things stand, is set to happen on October 17.

One player O'Neill is distancing himself from is former Villa striker Stan Collymore who had expressed a desire to return to come out of retirement and rejoin the midlands club.

He said: "Stan is 35 and he would have to get fit. He would need a lot of will-power and a lot of self-determination to get fit for the Premier League to be perfectly honest.

"At 35 you need a great desire and I just don't know what Stan has been doing in the last couple of years. I don't know whether that desire has returned.

"He did terrifically well for me in a short period of time at Leicester. But if you're asking me today whether I could make an assessment that would be a difficult call.''

Meanwhile, former Republic of Ireland keeper Seamus McDonagh has agreed to become Villa's new goalkeeping coach following the departure of Eric Steele.

McDonagh, who worked alongside O'Neill at Leicester, has been employed in a similar role at Coventry City. Steele had joined Villa as part of John Gregory's backroom staff in 2001