When Chinese Businessman, Tony Xia, bought Aston Villa back in June, he immediately declared that he had big plans for the club that he has supported since his childhood. The first decision he made as our new owner was to hire Roberto Di Matteo as our manager.
Xia’s immediate, and obvious, aim is to see us promoted back to the Premier League at the first time of asking. He has already gone some way to setting this plan in motion by giving Di Matteo £30-40 million to spend during the summer Transfer Window.
As we know, Di Matteo has been busy these past few weeks and has used some of this budget to bring in three promising and talented signings.
Once we are back in the Premier League, where we belong, Xia hopes to make us a top six club within five years, and then, one of the top three clubs in the world by 2026.
His final aim is to make Villa the most famous football club in his native China and, by doing so, dramatically increase our fan base around the world. The Premier League is becoming very popular in China and if Xia was to succeed in making us the most popular team in China, this would guarantee a major growth in income through hefty sponsorship and television deals as well as merchandise sales.
It seems that later on today, Xia is set to take his first small step towards trying to make Villa the most well-known club in China. The Birmingham Mail reported last Friday, that Di Matteo will be attending ‘a press conference in Beijing on Monday (18th July), alongside Villa owner Tony Xia and chief executive Keith Wyness.’
Whilst becoming one of the top three clubs in the world and the most popular club in China might seem pretty laughable from where we are sitting as a club at the moment, it is finally nice to have an owner who has some ambition and drive. Long may it continue!
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