He faces a tough first task though, as he bids to return Villa to the Premier League at the first time of asking following a dismal campaign in which they were relegated to the Championship with just 17 points.
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Aston Villa’s Chinese owner Tony Xia has pledged to restore the relegated Premier League club to their former glory as soon as possible.
However, former Schalke assistant boss Attilio Lombardo will not be joining Di Matteo’s backroom staff at Villa Park after he confirmed he would be joining up with Sinisa Mihajlovic at his next club.
“My ambition is to bring Villa to the top six in less than five years and I hope it can be (one of) the top three in the world – even the best well known in the world – in less than 10 years”, Xia said in an interview with the Guardian.
As for the Aston Villa fans although Di Matteo is not their first choice replacement for Garde there is no disputing that he is a born victor and having that type of mentality in the dressing room can only help the club as they look to forget the torrid time they have had this season.
“As we visited together, and had some unrushed time to discuss his plans, Tony’s excitement to develop Villa Park shone through”, he added. “The most critical thing now is to get the right manager”.
The Chinese businessman, 39, this week bought Villa from Amercian Randy Lerner, who had been looking to sell since 2014.
Xia said yesterday that Villa were one of eight EPL clubs he had considered buying. “We need to figure out how to reorganise the team”.
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In the statement, Villa said Xia developed his love of the game after playing as a striker whilst at college – and that he had become a fan of Villa “many years ago”. “I hope we can do it”.
