Republic of Ireland defender Ciaran Clark has signed a new three-year contract at Aston Villa. The new deal will tie him to Villa Park until the summer of 2016.

Clark, 23, had been in contract talks since last season after manager Paul Lambert earmarked him to be a key man in Villa's long-term future.

Clark, who has captained Villa teams from youth to first team level, is now looking forward to the start of the new season, with Villa opening their campaign against Arsenal next month. “Everyone’s at the stage now where we just want to get out and play and the competition for places is tougher than it’s been these past few seasons, no doubt about that,” he said.

“The players who have come in have integrated into the squad really well with the training camp in Germany helping immensely in terms of bonding and getting down to work. Everyone’s really keen to really get on with it now. We’re looking forward to giving our all and fighting for our spot in the team. There’s definitely a vibrant feeling within the camp and a real desire to push on and keep building.

“We feel like we have very strong foundations in place. The last couple of seasons we’ve had some ups and downs and we’ve always stuck together and supported one another, whatever’s happened. We’ll continue to do that and that’s what will continue to help us to progress together as a team.”

Clark, who is fully fit again after a foot injury forced him to miss the end of last season and the Republic's four summer internationals, becomes the fourth Irishman to sign a new deal at Villa Park this summer. Lambert handed two-year deals Ireland youth internationals Graham Burke, Michael Drennan and Samir Carruthers.