Reading the T-Leaves on the Chairman’s Transfer Tweet

Dr Tony Xia this afternoon added his voice to a chorus of Aston Villa rumour mongering going the rounds of social media.

The Daily Mail barely updated previous reports of a loan deal for West Ham’s Robert Snodgrass with the only new information provided being that Villa are now in the lead to bring the right winger in on loan leading to a number of comments on Twitter yet again.

Previously we’d commented on this story and of Snodgrass’s fit with the club, but rumours were rather quickly shot down by Xia. However, his most recent comment lends credence that some kindling is behind this smoke.

Putting on a bit of a tinfoil hat here, it’s this writers opinion that Dr Tony finding the need to mention that the discussions with this player have been going on for only one week point to his two week old denial of the Snograss link and that this could speak to a temporary breakdown in communication between he and manager Steve Bruce.

It seems passing likely that with Bruce’s stated need for replacement up top, Bruce was in touch with a former player of his and discussed, maybe privately, bringing him to Villa. If we’re taking it a step further, Snodgrass, who has reportedly been unhappy with his time in West Ham, could have made it known through the media that Villa were interested in him in order to get the Irons to strike. Dr Tony may not have known about this informal contact and struck the rumour down.

Today’s tweet would therefore be an attempt for the Villa owner to save face about giving the previous report the kibosh.