The Birmingham Mail understands that Aston Villa must raise funds by tomorrow in order to pay this month’s tax bill. Owner Dr Tony Xia has supposedly ‘exhausted’ his loan options, meaning that a player sale might need to be sanctioned in the coming hours.
Clearly the club have some sellable assets in the form of James Chester and Jack Grealish, who continue to be linked with summer moves to Stoke City and Tottenham Hotspur respectively. Steve Bruce will have known big names were to move on, but that prospect is now set to become a very stark reality for Aston Villa Football Club.
As things stand, the club are losing £5million every month. They continue to pay the price for failing to win promotion last season, where they spent big to try and regain their Premier League status. Fulham are the ones preparing for the top flight, whilst Villa begin their Sky Bet Championship campaign in a few weeks’ time. Despite the clear financial issues, entering administration is still ‘unlikely’ but Xia is having big issues in trying to secure additional investment. He flew into London at the weekend to discuss all possibilities to try and improve the situation in the short-term.
Whilst Aston Villa have looked strong on the pitch during their pre-season friendly matches so far, their troubles off it continue to dampen their hopes of mounting a serious promotion push. Nevertheless, Bruce is hopeful he can still guide them towards the top of the table, but it certainly won’t be easy.
