O'Neill has already splashed out on strengthening his squad this season with the signings of Stiliyan Petrov, Ashley Young, John Carew and Shaun Maloney.

But that is only the tip of the iceberg for the former Celtic boss with new owner Randy Lerner set to dip into his pocket to bankroll the Villa revolution.

FitzGerald said: "We want to be around the top of the Premiership and playing Champions League football and you need world class players to do that.

"We showed in January that we are prepared to make a big commitment to bringing players in and Randy Lerner has freed up a transfer pot for Martin O'Neill.

"People might have thought we pushed the boat out in signing Ashley Young (£9.65 million) but I can guarantee significant funds have been made available which is money coming from the owner.

"No-one has put a figure on the sum but we wouldn't have come out and said we want to be competing at the top of the Premiership and be in the Champions League if we didn't know what that entailed."

O'Neill is already being linked with a host of players including Liverpool striker Craig Bellamy - he played under the Irishman at Celtic - and Tottenham forward Jermain Defoe plus Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boruc.

Meanwhile, Villa are close to completing work on their £13 million revamped training ground which is just a few hundred yards from their current headquarters at Bodymoor Heath.