Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill has ended his interest in David Bentley after Blackburn turned down his bid for the England winger last month.Bentley has signalled his intention to leave Ewood Park in order to further his international ambitions.

Rovers turned down an offer from Villa last month, though, and followed that up by rejecting a bid from Tottenham on Thursday.

Now O'Neill insists he will turn to other targets rather than reignite any interest in the England player.

He told the club's official website: "I wouldn't normally respond to individual links but as (Blackburn boss) Paul Ince rightly said, we did make a bid for David Bentley.

"That was some time ago and Blackburn rejected the bid - as is their prerogative.

"We do not intend revisiting that and we have switched to other transfer targets."

Meanwhile O'Neill says he is excited by the possibility of European football as he prepares his side for Saturday night's Intertoto Cup tie with Odense knowing victory in Denmark would virtually guarantee a place in the UEFA Cup.

Having shown dogged determination to seal their sixth-place finish last term a return to the European stage for the first time in seven seasons would be a further sign of the progress Villa have made under O'Neill.

But the Ulsterman is aware how quickly the situation could change, which is why he is eager not to suffer any mishaps this weekend.

"I know the fans are excited about the prospect of European football and I share that excitement - I am sure the players do as well," O'Neill said.

"We worked so hard last year to get ourselves into this position, so there is no point throwing it away at the first hurdle."

O'Neill just wants to get past Odense, a side who will have the edge in terms of fitness but maybe not class.

Craig Gardner has been included in a 21-man squad after recovering from the groin injury that forced him to miss Tuesday's defeat at Lincoln.

"It will not be easy because they are ahead of us in terms of fitness. I have had them watched and have the DVDs of their games against TPS Turku in the last round because we always felt Odense would be the team we ended up playing."

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