Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce has revealed that he will not make wholesale changes to his squad this summer.
The Midlands side had expected to be one of the favourites for promotion to the Premier League this season but struggled under Roberto Di Matteo in the early part of the campaign and, with Bruce having taken the reins in October, are destined for a mid-table finish and another season in the second tier.
Villa spent more than £50m on new players last summer but Bruce does not expect that the club will splash the cash again ahead of the next campaign.
"There won't be huge turnover this summer," he told AVTV. "I don't think the club can expect to do that again. We've seen huge turnovers in the last couple of years.
"One or two with that little bit of quality. I've got a squad now which I'm delighted about. If there's a player who can make that big bit of difference, then one or two rather than eight or 10 and I can't see many going out the other way either.
"I'm always confident that I can get a team together that can get out of this division. I've done it before and it would be terrific to do it here. It's never going to be easy because of who we are.
"We are the big scalp in this division and everybody wants to turn us over and the teams who come to Villa Park want to perform in the big stadium, big arena so all of the bits and pieces make it difficult but I'm quietly confident that we're going to be able to mount a challenge and hopefully we're good enough."
Meanwhile, the Villans are thought to be preparing a £3m deal to make Manchester United keeper Sam Johnstone's loan deal permanent this summer.
Neil Wilkes
