Petrov pursuit set to drag

Villa and Portsmouth both made opening bids of £5m and O'Neill, who watched Celtic play in a friendly against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, is resigned to lengthy negotiations. It was believed he returned to England from Villa's training camp in the Netherlands to conclude the Petrov deal that evening but after returning to Nijmegen yesterday, albeit after a wait of almost four hours at Heathrow, he denied that he had spoken with Celtic owner Dermot Desmond. "Petrov's name was not mentioned, honestly," O'Neill said. "I did not pursue that. I was simply invited to go to the game some weeks before I became Villa manager. Nothing is imminent. There is no chance of anything happening before we get back from here." Villa conclude their pre-season tour with a match against FC Groningen this evening.