Aston Villa defender Curtis Davies says the players are happy with manager Martin O'Neill's patient approach to the summer market.

"All summer there has been talk of another striker and another centre-half, with Martin Laursen retiring," said Davies.

"Either way, whoever does come in, they are going to be improvements and it's going to be competition for places.

"The manager doesn't come flying out of the blocks and try to outbid people, I think he is very shrewd with his signings. He identifies who he wants and he tries very hard to get him behind the scenes."

Davies added: "Hopefully there will be more additions similar to Stewart (Downing).

"It's a case of being patient. Some people think we manage to lose out on players, but that's only because we're not publicly throwing it out there.

"I'm sure the manager has a game plan because he's a very clever man. If we're going to try to push on next season we need numbers but also strength - there's no point signing people for the sake of it,.

"Touch wood, we will be having a long season - this Europa League is the never-ending tournament - if we can go far in that and hopefully in a couple of domestic players then we are going to need a lot of players."