Aston Villa chief Martin O'Neill has conceded the chances of breaking into the top four next season are slim.
Nigel Reo-Coker recently suggested Villa should be pushing to gatecrash the Premier League's 'big four' as the club look to make the next step under O'Neill.
Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan provoked widespread debate at the back end of last season when he claimed it is almost impossible for any side to break the monopoly of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool in the higher echelons of the Premier League.
O'Neill can understand Keegan's sentiments and admits it is getting harder to challenge the top sides.
"To go that big leap into the Champions League is a real big order of events," O'Neill told The Mirror.
"Kevin Keegan has already said he doesn't think Newcastle can and that might put it into a realistic perspective. They are a massive club who played Champions League not so very long ago.
"So if Newcastle, who pay big wages and who average over 51,000 people, can't and are thinking it is going to be hard, then maybe it does put it into perspective."
Meanwhile, O'Neill is determined to bring in new players quickly after losing Olof Mellberg, Thomas Sorensen, Luke Moore and Patrik Berger this summer.
"It's a rebuilding job and we are going to try and start as quickly as we can," added O'Neill.
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For the love of god don't buy Crouch!Look at teams like Zaragoza who just got relegated from La Liga. o' Neill already came out and said that he wants to but a player who can play behind the forwards and Aimar would be perfect for that position and we could get him for around £7 million.
I agree but think most good players are looking to join champions league clubs so its important to keep a good youth policy. Please don't sign Crouch again.
being a villa supporter i have yet to see any decent players being brought we have a billionaire owner but spend pennies the only player i can realisticly say was a good buy was ashley young but the rest are not to be seen ie salifou, routledge, ect so please martin we have waited long enough take us to the heights we dream of buy a world class player just to give us some hope and not other teams rejects or has beens
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