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Press Ramp Up Pressure On Aston Villa As Financial Concerns Continue

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I’m not sure Aston Villa fans should get overly worried about today’s developments in media-land as it pertains to our financial issues.

Some are calling for a statement of clarity from the club and, in particular, for Dr Tony Xia to remember where he’s hidden his phone so he can give us an update in these darker days, given he enjoyed the adulation of social media when spirits were far higher.

Others are covering yesterday’s development:

Xia’s Kingdom For A Loan – Finally A Proper Financial Update Of Sorts

Today’s instalment really should’ve been expected as the press step up to the next phase of covering our financial snafu. Cash flow and our Financial Fair Play hole have been done to death, along with ongoing player sale speculation. We all know the speculation won’t go anywhere until the transfer window shuts and then we might get a day off before it starts again for January.

Anyhoo, with short-term and FFP issues well covered, it’s only natural to eventually look towards what else gets caught in the crossfire and that’s exactly what the Bristol Post did this morning.

Leaning on our purchase of Jonathan Kodjia from Bristol City, they are apparently due the next instalment this summer – along with a few other clubs – and naturally, they have sources within Ashton Gate that have confirmed they are watching our situation with interest.

The Times reported at the beginning of the month we still owed £11million to clubs for transfers, we owe Fulham £6million for Ross McCormack and West Bromwich Albion £2million for James Chester – those payments are final instalments. Brentford are owed £3million with a further instalment to come in January.

Now clearly, with no mention of Kodjia their sums and claims are a little off, but probably close enough to be believed.

All of this would be known to the club anyway, and to those fans who caught the Times’ report, so we’re not suddenly in an even worse position as whatever is going on behind the scenes, these payments will have been factored into whatever plans (hopes?) we have.

What fans really want to know is a concrete update on what our plans actually are.

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