Aston Villa striker John Carew

MARTIN O’Neill has made it clear Aston Villa have no plans to sell John Carew this summer.

Manchester City and Spurs have both expressed a large interest in the £10million-rated Norwegian giant after he finished top scorer at Villa Park last season.

But already lost Gareth Barry to City this month, O’Neill is set to resist any offer for another of his star performers.

The Villa Park boss said: “We want John to stay at the club – he’s signed for a couple of years and we want him to stick around.

“He’s very popular with the crowd and that helps his confidence. And his goal-scoring ratio is now up where it should be. We want him to stay here, it’s as simple as that.”

Despite a serious back injury sidelining him for three months midway through his second full season at Villa, Carew, 29, still rattled in 15 goals.

And with the Villa faithful giving him cult status for his late-night visit to a local lap-dancing haunt on the eve of a Uefa Cup tie – which landed him a £10,000 club fine – ­selling Carew might spark a real backlash.

O’Neill, who last week denied being in the hunt for Michael Owen, added: “That incident does seem to have made him a bit of a cult figure with the fans.

“But John had a great season considering he missed those three months.

“For him to come back from his bad back the way he did was fantastic. I couldn’t be more pleased with him, he’s done terrifically well for us.”

The last thing O’Neill needs is for another transfer saga to dominate the summer in the same way Barry’s proposed move to Liverpool did last year.