Villa finished sixth in the Barclays Premier League despite operating with the smallest squad in the division. They will now face opposition from either Northern Ireland, Finland or Denmark in the third round of the Intertoto Cup in a two-legged tie on 19th-20th July and 26th-27th.

But by then O'Neill hopes to have a stronger squad at his disposal, even though Olof Mellberg is bound for Juventus and the out-of-contract Thomas Sorensen and Patrik Berger are also poised to leave. O'Neill also has to decide whether to try and sign on-loan Liverpool goalkeeper Scott Carson on a permanent basis.

O'Neill, who plans to hold talks with club owner Randy Lerner during the next few days, said: "We've ended the season with 60 points and in most years that would have been enough to qualify automatically for Europe.

"Last season we would have walked it and even seventh place got automatically into Europe 12 months ago.

"So from that aspect it's disappointing but it shouldn't mask the fact that we've come on leaps and bounds from last season. To do it with the smallest squad in the Premier League has made it particularly impressive but that's something we would want to address in the summer.

"We've generally been lucky with injuries and would have struggled to cope had we experienced the problems some other clubs have had with injuries. And it is not rocket science to point out the squad as it stands would not be strong enough in depth to compete in Europe."