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Villa Get A Stay Of Execution From A Casino – Or Something Like That

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To complete off the pitch news from Wednesday, it’s now Thursday and I can’t be alone in hoping it’s the proverbial beginning to a new week after all the latest developments at B6. We don’t need another four days of this nonsense, I can’t speak for anyone else but I’m not sure I can take it!

The BBC wheeled out Mark Ansell on Midlands Today last night to discuss our current plight, and I must say our former Finance Director absolutely nailed our current situation in his summation.

We went to the ‘Casino, rolled the dice and it hasn’t worked’.

I know that suits my view and it certainly suits the standpoint of others, even if we’d use a more colourful analogy.

One piece of good news from late on in the evening was a report from Sky Sports and whilst the report wasn’t a surprise in and of itself given our predicament – sadly winding up orders aren’t unknown of in football but they usually make headlines and then disappear into the background – it’s nice to hear news that the immediate threat we face is being addressed and handled in a timely manner.

The report stated that the current threat of administration had now been ‘staved off’ as following discussions with HMRC an agreement had been struck.

We apparently made an immediate payment of £500,000 on Wednesday and have promised to pay a further £700,000 by the end of the week. Roughly halving the tax bill we owe is said to have been enough for HMRC to shelve plans to issue legal proceedings in the High Court and seek a winding up order.

Obviously, it’s not the end of the current issue but it goes a long way towards solving it and buys us further time to get our buttocks in gear. Part of that agreement has seen us give guarantees that along with the above payments, via a reported loan that Dr Tony Xia has secured, the remaining bill will then be settled promptly.

Doing the figures based on this report, our liability was in the region of £2.4million and not the regularly quoted £4million or even £6million as claimed by the Daily Fail. Then again these days when are the press accurate?

Again not the end of the issue, and seeing ‘no match day income’ used as an excuse by the media for the predicament we find ourselves in grates on me, because in a seasonal business you plan for that – it’s not an excuse – it makes a mockery of being ‘Prepared’.

But then again, when was the last time we seemed ‘Prepared’ for anything?

It’s a first step though and Thursday being the beginning of a new week hopefully brings more good news.

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