Olof Mellberg believes Martin O'Neill's Young Lions can build on last season and establish Villa as genuine top-four challengers.

The Swedish international defender may well be Juventus bound but he will be keeping tabs on his former club as he begins life in Serie A.

And he is confident European football will be the making of O'Neill's exciting young team - providing Villa can overcome the Intertoto Cup hurdle next month.

Mellberg, currently on Euro 2008 duty with Sweden, said: "People ask me 'is this the best Villa squad I've been involved with' but it is difficult to compare because this is a different situation.

"We have a lot of young talented players and back then we had a lot of older experienced players - Peter Schmeichel, Paul Merson, Ian Taylor, Dion Dublin, Steve Staunton and so on.

"They were great players but probably at the end of their careers. Now we have a lot of young players at the start of their careers who were key players last season.

"But it definitely looks good for the future now. I think it is a time now when Villa are trying to strengthen and establish themselves up there just behind the big four."

Villa make an early return to competitive action next month for the Intertoto third round and Mellberg hopes his former team mates can progress through to the Uefa Cup.

He added: "It is always a good experience to play in Europe especially for the players at Villa as they are young like Gabby and Ashley.

"Being involved in some way in those situations is a good learning curve, when you become involved in the Uefa Cup or the Champion League.

"It is a different sort of thing to normal domestic football, a lot of pressure, and there is a lot of attention which you learn from."