Houllier expects Young stay

Aston Villa boss Gerard Houllier is confident of keeping winger Ashley Young in the January transfer window.

England international Young has been linked with possible moves to Liverpool and Tottenham after impressing at Villa.

Young, who has 18 months remaining on his current deal, has already indicated he wants to put talks about his future on hold until the summer.

But in any case Houllier is prepared to retain the services of the former Watford player until his contract expires in the summer of 2012, even though he could then leave on a Bosman free transfer.

"Ashley knows that the club's will is to keep him. I'll keep him until the end of his contract and to keep the club developing," said Houllier.

"He told us very clearly that he would like to end this season and see what he'll do and we respect that.

"Let's wait and see. At the moment I can tell you that we'll assess things a bit later on. But in the meantime I don't think he'll leave in January. I don't think so."

Young is battling to be fit for the home Boxing Day clash against Tottenham because of a knee injury.

"We don't know yet about Ashley. He hasn't trained with the team yet but it's still early," Houllier added.