He may be a man of few words, but Wilfred Bouma made a couple of bold statements on the football pitch throughout the course of 2007.

The Dutch full-back finally announced his arrival as a Premier League player, putting his earlier injury worries behind him to remain virtually an ever-present in the Villa line-up.

He also reclaimed his place in the Netherlands team, helping them to secure qualification for this summer's European Championship finals in Austria and Switzerland.

Now he is looking towards the continent on two fronts. Apart from his likely involvement for his country at Euro 2008, he is also optimistic of stepping out in the UEFA Cup for his club come September.

Bouma knows all about playing in major competitions, having represented Holland at Euro 2004 as well as playing in the Champions League for his previous club PSV Eindhoven.

In typically cautious fashion, though, he refuses to get carried away with Villa's chances of playing in Europe's top club event, even though the notion is a distinct possibility at this stage of the season.

"We are still in the running for the Champions League at Villa but you have to be realistic," he says. "First you have to think about qualifying for the UEFA Cup.

"We have been lucky not to have a lot of injuries and, fingers crossed, it will stay that way but the other top clubs all have bigger squads than us.

"It might take another couple of years before we can achieve a Champions League place. When you look where we've come from, you realise there's still some way to go. A couple of years ago we simply weren't good enough. But this squad should be good enough to get into the UEFA Cup. Our confidence is really highly, although we know we have to keep working hard."

One of the reasons for the team's massive improvements is undoubtedly the emergence of Bouma as a solid, reliable left-back following a season-and-a-half plagued by injuries and loss of form.

"It wasn't a good beginning for me and I don't really like to remember it," he stressed. "It's in the past. I had a lot of injuries and then I wasn't in the team so it was a hard time.

"I know I can still do better, but I'm happy with the way things are going. If you don't feel well outside of football, things often don't go well on the pitch, either. I wasn't settled for quite a while but everything is fine now.

"But the good thing is that I came out of it much stronger and now I've had a long run in the team. Things are going well and hopefully we can continue that."

One of the reasons behind Villa's recent success is the fact that Martin Laursen has been getting forward from the centre of defence to score on a frequent basis.

Bouma, by contrast, has yet to claim his first goal for the club, and his role in the side hardly suggests we should be holding our breath waiting for it.

"If you don't go up front at free-kicks or corners, it's hard to score!" he jokes. "I've scored a couple for Holland because I'm able to get forward but here I'm expected to stay back and mark the opposition strikers. It's part of my role in the team.

"The biggest thing for me is to be playing. If I happen to score at some point, that's fine but if not it doesn't worry me. I'm there to prevent goals at the other end. That's why I'm in the team."

Wilfred - or Freddy to his team-mates - was a regular in the Dutch team when he joined Villa but his initial problems here resulted in him being overlooked for the 2006 World Cup finals.

But he was recalled to the side for a friendly shortly after establishing himself in the Villa line-up and subsequently played in half a dozen European Championship qualifiers as Holland booked their passage to the finals.

"It's going to be my second big tournament and I'm really looking forward to it," he says. "It was a big disappointment not being in the squad for the World Cup finals, but I know why I wasn't there.

"Now I'm looking forward to this summer but before then I'm looking forward to every match with Villa. Now we are in this position, we want to stay up there. I'm not really thinking about the European Championships at the moment - that can wait."