Randy Lerner aims to convince Martin O’Neill that he has the platform to win the Barclays Premiership and the Champions League so that the Aston Villa manager would feel compelled to reject any advances from England, should Steve McClaren’s tenure come to a premature end.

The Villa chairman was on the phone to O’Neill yesterday the moment his redirected flight from Cleveland landed in the Nottingham snow and immediately the subject of the England head coach’s job was raised. In his first interview in Britain since taking over from Doug Ellis in September, Lerner said that he would be powerless to prevent his manager, who is on a short-term contract, from talking to prospective rival employers but had been assured that O’Neill would want to stay.

O’Neill was interviewed for the England job after it was announced this time last year that Sven-Göran Eriksson would be leaving. After their disappointing showing against Spain in the friendly at Old Trafford on Wednesday evening, England play Israel and Andorra next month in qualifying matches for Euro 2008; should the FA decide to take drastic action if qualification looks in jeopardy, O’Neill’s name would come to the fore.

“I think you can never get in anyone’s way,” Lerner said. “The guy is going to go on his journey. Martin and I have talked about this. We talked about it this morning, in fact. He called to check I’d landed OK and I said I noticed England got beat last night.

“He basically said, ‘I manage for Aston Villa and am in for the long haul. We have a job to do and we are going to see it through.’ ” England’s early form under McClaren has led to renewed questions over whether the FA made a mistake in overlooking O’Neill, who was taking time out the game to care for his ill wife last season. “I am not qualified to answer that question,” Lerner said.

The initial hullabaloo over O’Neill’s advent at Villa last summer, before Lerner’s £62 million takeover, has levelled out as Villa have fallen back into mid-table. A successful January transfer window, however, with John Carew and Ashley Young arriving in deals worth a total of £14 million, has revived the feel-good factor at the club.

Lerner, while pledging to continue backing his manager in the transfer market, realises that Villa’s chances of “competing in Europe and for the league” within three years depend on much more, not least O’Neill’s peace of mind.

“I don’t think, in Martin’s way of thinking, contracts are very important,” Lerner said. “You have to rely on the relationship. He has to be where he feels right. The way to keep Martin O’Neill is to be respectful, supportive and let him do his thing.

“I would acknowledge that, given the current statutes that govern this country, I don’t know if I could do anything about it [if a bigger club or country sought his services]. I can’t jump on him and hold him down. When you are talking about Martin O’Neill and these coveted, celebrated jobs, it should not really involve a ‘me’. The best thing that I can do is create a compelling opportunity.

“I think he’d like Aston Villa to win the league and win the European Cup. He has done it before as a player, with a great club and a great manager who still sits up there somewhere in his mind.”

O’Neill often doffs his cap to the late Brian Clough, who, having inspired Nottingham Forest to successive European Cup triumphs, was interviewed for the England job in the early 1980s. O’Neill shares a stubborn streak with his mentor and it is thought that he wants to prove himself within club football at the highest level too.

Villa have signed a five-year deal with Nike thought to be worth £25 million.

Big mover

Randy Lerner, the Aston Villa chairman, is 44 and said to be worth $1.2 billion (about £600 million)

Studied at Columbia University and — in 1982, the year Villa won the European Cup — at Clare College, Cambridge

Became chairman of MBNA credit card company (subsequently sold) upon death of his father in 2002. He also inherited the Cleveland Browns NFL side

Bought Villa for £62.6 million in September

Spent £15.5 million on Stiliyan Petrov, Ashley Young and Shaun Maloney

Lives in Cleveland, Ohio, and London