Has Xia Rejected Investment From A European Bidder – Some Villa Fans Are Sceptical But We Have To Be Getting Close To A Sale

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Date: 27th June 2018 at 4:00pm
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A Tweet from Birmingham Mail reporter Gregg Evans certainly got tongues wagging today on social media.

Click the link above for the full report as it makes for interesting reading, as even despite some of the reactions to this apparent development, the reality of our financial situation means that the thrust of the report alone has to be accurate. Dr Tony Xia can’t really believe that we can continue how we are just applying a sticking plaster each month to take care of the bills now due.

A football club can’t operate with such a short-term focus, few businesses can if they expect to continue trading because life guarantees that eventually something unexpected happens and that’s when everything truly hits the fan.

With cash flow problems and a Financial Fair Play hole to deal with, it’s an educated guess that if Xia’s original plan was minority investment leaving him in charge – well that hasn’t worked. The next step is majority investment leaving him involved. If that doesn’t work, then, without a change to his circumstances with the often mentioned Chinese regulation changes, we’re onto a full sale and he has to walk away whether he saves face in the process, or he takes a financial hit given our promotion gamble backfired so spectacularly.

Speculation suggesting a few groups were circling has been on the rumour mill for a few weeks now and the angle was always that they weren’t interested in the minority investment idea on offer. With the season nearing, owed transfer fees coming into the equation (we’ll have cash incoming on that front as well), talk of factoring our next Parachute Payment and proof we have already now factored two players transfer payments – I don’t overly disbelieve the Mail’s claim that an unnamed European bidder/group have fired an opening salvo.

The timing would be right to do so if they had designs on the club and, an educated guess or not, 51% has always sounded more plausible than 49% and with £40million being the go-to in the media for the FFP hole there is a sense in why that would be the opening gambit.

There are plenty of ‘bread crumbs’ in the report to be fair that raise an eyebrow – the vague reference to what I take as either the Jordan Veretout charge but spun as a recent filing that ‘suggests a new buyer or major investor is not far away’ according to what sources have told them etc. It could also simply be a reference to us knowing that the club have opened up an allotment of shares as well, which was known from Xia wanted minority investors and the Keith Wyness developments – so it still doesn’t imply new buyer or major investor on its own really. It does help to build the narrative though obviously, but I can’t dismiss the whole thing as easily as some have.

Irrespective of the specifics claimed, it’s a journey Xia has to be on with his thoughts.