Harry Redknapp today said he had no fear of returning to Villa Park after being targeted by the home fans on his last two trips there as Portsmouth boss.

On 19 October last year, linesman Phil Sharp was hit by a coin that was apparently aimed at Redknapp during Pompey's 0-0 draw at Villa Park, while Redknapp was verbally abused throughout the game when his team won 3-1 there in the 2007/08 campaign.

John Billington, the Villa fan who threw the coin, was banned from attending matches for five years, but Redknapp insisted: "I'm not worried. It doesn't bother me. Last time, some nutter threw a coin at the linesman. It was probably thrown at me, for no reason.

"The man is a moron and hopefully he will not appear again. We don't need people like him in football.

"We beat them easily when I was with Pompey, they couldn't take being beaten so easily. They decided to turn on me, and I don't know why, but it doesn't bother me. Villa is a great club."

But while he praised the work O'Neill has done in the Midlands, Redknapp cautioned against holding up Villa as an example of how to bring through the best English talent.

Asked about O'Neill's buy-British reputation, Redknapp said: "He has signed good players - but Stilian Petrov is not English, and nor are Brad Friedel, Carlos Cuellar and John Carew. You can't get carried away with that idea, and I don't buy into it at all.

"There is a terrific youth policy there, so players like Gabriel Agbonlahor and Gareth Barry were already there when Martin arrived."