 The poor placing came despite O'Leary having spent more than £13 million the previous summer on players like as Milan Baroš, Kevin Phillips and Wilfred Bouma.Frustration within the club soon reared its head when, on 14 July 2006, a group of Villa players criticised Ellis's alleged parsimony and lack of ambition in an interview with a local newspaper.The club immediately dismissed the report as "ridiculous", but it emerged over the following few days that a group of senior players had indeed instigated the move, possibly with O'Leary's backing.