Wilfred Bouma is set for talks after Villa took up a one-year option on his existing deal.

Martin O'Neill is keen to agree a longer term deal with the Dutch international defender and Bouma has admitted he wants to put pen-to-paper.

The former PSV Eindhoven man started every single Barclays Premier League match this season and is enjoying life in the English top-flight.

He said: "The extension to my contract is already there and there will be some talks in the coming weeks. I think we will get it sorted.

"The manager said it will be for two or three years so we will see what happens. I'm very pleased with how things are going and we shall see what the deal brings.

"In my time here we have gone from 16th to 11th to sixth, which is a massive improvement. My performances have gone the same way as well and hopefully I can continue that after the summer."

Bouma continued: "The Premier League is a hard league and we have done particularly well with the small squad we have.

"Hopefully we can get some more bodies in during the summer and our best players will stay - including Gareth Barry. He is very important for us.

"We have been very lucky with injuries. If you have a small squad with a lot of injuries then you risk breaking up what we are trying to achieve. Touch wood, we can do that. As for how many only the manager can decide.

"It was disappointing to miss out on the UEFA Cup but it was out of our hands anyway on the final day, so it wasn't quite so disappointing.

"We have still got into Europe and it could have been worse if the other results had gone against us, we'd have had nothing."