Villa had crashed out of the Premier League after winning only thrice this season, but they will be hopeful of better times ahead under their new owners.
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New Aston Villa owner Dr Tony Jiantong Xia is considering plans to rebrand Villa Park upon completion of his takeover of the club, according to a report in the Beijing Times.
“Seventy-five million pounds is not a big investment”, Xia told Caixin.
Villa’s American owner Randy Lerner, who put the club on the market in 2014, struck the deal after former English champions Villa suffered a miserable season, ending bottom of the EPL, with only half the points of the second worst team.
“Randy Lerner has sought the right new owner for Aston Villa who would take great care of the Club and restore its fortunes”. Aston Villa, the historic English club that was relegated from the English Premier League this season, was one of eight Premier League clubs that Xia considered for acquisition, he said during an interview in Beijing on Thursday. “I think we will add six to seven players in maybe six or seven positions [before the start of the season] and we are going to bring some young talented people from the academy to play in the first squad”, he added.
Talking about the new manager of the team, Xia said that they will decide among six candidates including former Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson and former Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo.
The statement says he became “a fan of Aston Villa many years ago” and “played football as a striker until he finished at college”. The Villa deal, however, with 100 percent ownership, is not just an investment.
Xia, who studied at Harvard University and has a doctorate, took to his official microblog late on Wednesday to wish the club’s fans “health and happiness”.
“We have made lots of preparations at the early stage”.
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Leicester contrast with Championship side Birmingham City, who were bought in 2009 by Hong Kong’s Carson Yeung who was jailed in 2014 for money-laundering, but was freed on bail previous year pending an appeal.
