David O`Leary believes Aston Villa will not see the best of midfielder Eric Djemba-Djemba until next season.
The Cameroon midfielder has struggled since his £1.3m January move from Manchester United and was on the bench against Middlesbrough nine days ago.
But O`Leary said: "I bought Eric more with a view to next season.
"I really feel he will need a good pre-season under his belt with the way that we play. He hasn`t played much and we need to get him up to speed."
O`Leary admitted that he had wanted to ease Djemba-Djemba in gently, but injuries had forced him
to change his plans.
"He came in against Arsenal which wasn`t the best of games to come in when he hasn`t played much," he said.
"He did quite well at Portsmouth and I think he did alright against Everton but what he has needed is to come into a team that is playing really well.
"We need to let him settle in until the end of the season and we will develop him and get him up to speed more pre-season.
"I was hoping we would not have to use him as much, bring him into the club and let him know the way we want to play, but because of the lack of bodies I`ve had to use him."
