The player made it clear through his agent that he needs to move Clubs in order to guarantee a place in Luis Suarez' Ecuador's World Cup Finals Squad.

"Ulises' agent came to see us three weeks ago and said the lad wants to play and would we be prepared to take an offer for him," O'Leary told reporters."

Ulises De la Cruz has only managed to make it in the 11-player squad in 2 games so far this season, the first against Manchester United in Augoust and Middlesbrough in October.

David O'Leary does not want to let players leave in January's transfer window because Aston Villa have the smallest squads in the English Premiership. He has made it clear that the club can not afford to buy more players.

"I don't want to lose him when I've got such a compact squad. But he's a lovely lad, a great professional, his contract runs out at the end of the season, he's got a World Cup coming up and he wants to play for his country."

However, the arrival of Aaron Hughes from Newcastle last summer and the recent return to fitness of Mark Delaney after knee and groin injury mean that O'Leary is more flexible on releasing the Ecuadorian International defender."

"I told the agent that if the boy wants to get away, we'd listen to offers. But, as I speak, we haven't had any offers.

"We are trying to keep the numbers up here not lose them. But, with Ulises, I've also got Mark Delaney and Aaron Hughes to cover his position, and that is one position maybe you can look at."

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