O'Neill rules out recruiting for Aston Villa at European Championship

O'Neill will be watching the finals in Austria and Germany in his role as a TV pundit for the BBC.  

But the former Celtic boss is wary of signing players on the evidence of watching them in major tournaments.  

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On the box: O'Neil will be sticking to his role as a pundit at Euro 2008

O'Neill said: "I'm very cautious about signing players from the Euro Championships or from a World Cup because it's a very different environment.  

"Having said that, I did it a few years ago at Celtic. I signed a lad called Joos Valgaeren who was playing for Belgium at the time and impressed me. 

"He came over and he was absolutely brilliant so I suppose the only experience I have of signing a player from a tournament worked to my advantage.  

"But it wouldn't be something that I would be too keen to do. I think you need to see a wee bit more of a player before making a decision. 

"That said, there shouldn't be too many players on show in the Euros that we don't already know about.  

"Virtually all of them play in European leagues and we know all about them. It's not like a World Cup where you might see players from Africa or Asia who you might not have been aware of before."  

Meanwhile, O'Neill is expected to hold talks in the next few days with midfielder Gareth Barry, who is a target for Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez.  

Barry has hinted he wants to move to Anfield to taste Champions League football but O'Neill is desperate to hold onto the England midfielder.