Marlon Harewood believes the Steve Sidwell capture is a sign that Villa mean real business next season.

And the striker is not ruling out an assault on the top-four once Martin O'Neill adds more quality signings to the Villa squad.

Harewood, who became something of a cult he helped Villa finish sixth in the Barclays Premier League in his first season, is now looking to build on that.

He said: "Anything is possible. If we can get a team together with good team spirit, the lads start performing then anything can happen.

"We had a small squad last year and we did really well. I think Martin will be trying to work on that and get more players in and hopefully he does that. If we get players like that in then you never know."

Villa return to competitive action on Saturday as they travel to Danish side Odense BK in the Intertoto Cup third round.

And Harewood has warned his team-mates they cannot afford to take Saturday's opponents for granted. He added: "It's a great opportunity for Villa to get into Europe but we can't enter the game thinking like that."