It is thought Gabriel Agbonlahor, John Carew, Stiliyan Petrov and Ashley Young could all be in line for new deals.

Villa are offering the new contracts either as a reward or because players are down to the last two years of their current deals.

Villa manager Martin O'Neill said: "We are in the throes of things.

last year

"We have been talking to a number of players, players' agents and that is something that we are looking at."

O'Neill also believes he can retain the services of defender Wilfred Bouma, who is into the last year of his contract after Villa took out the one-year option on his deal.

A longer deal has not yet been agreed with the Dutch defender but O'Neill said: "It is not a problem.''