Aston Villa are in talks with several of their first-team regulars in a bid to to pin them down to extended contracts at Villa Park.It is thought Gabriel Agbonlahor, John Carew, Stilian Petrov and Ashley Young could all be in line for new deals.

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

Villa boss Martin O'Neill told the Birmingham Mail: "We are in the throes of things.

"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.''

More Football News from TEAMtalk