Martin O’Neill admits that he would never want to work under a director of football - and it was the presence of one at Tottenham Hotspur that dissuaded him from taking over as manager at White Hart Lane.

Aston Villa play the first of four matches in nine days away to Tottenham this evening, but O’Neill is determined to retain such a workload. When he was in charge at Celtic he was approached about the Tottenham job, but with David Pleat operating as director of football, the plan stalled. “If the manager sees fit to bring in a director of football, that is his prerogative, but it shouldn’t be the other way around,” O’Neill said. “Some directors of football have power without responsibility.”

Villa play a Uefa Cup first-round, first-leg match against Litex Lovech in Bulgaria on Thursday before playing West Bromwich Albion in the Barclays Premier League and Queens Park Rangers in the Carling Cup.