‘Solutions’ to Aston Villa’s financial crisis emerge

With the current uncertainty surrounding Aston Villa FC, it’s only natural that fans of the club are searching for the shredded threads of hope to cling onto.

The main source of optimism has come through articles from the Birmingham Mail - who have aired a number of articles on the subject today, pushing forward the view from within the club that it’s ‘almost’ business as usual. The club are paying their tax bill off, they will be selling players and assets to meet obligations, but hey - they are moving forward with a reduced budget.

Still, this is rather problematic in itself and could be see as though the Chairman of the club, Dr Tony Xia, is trying to consolidate and remain in charge of the club. Staying his hand like this could give Villa the cash they need to stay alive in the short-term, but there could be a collapse when the assets dry up. After all, Villa only have a finite amount of assets in terms of buildings and playing staff.

However, it’s not the instant doom and gloom expected. After all, this simply could be happening so Dr Tony Xia can buy time to actually sell the club. Either way, you’d have to think that Villa aren’t exactly an asset right now, not in the shape they are in. That being said, at least it’s something of a solution.

Another solution has emerged in the form of Stan Collymore’s radiant brainstorm via Twitter that has seemingly taken off. The former Villa player could have been mistaken for thinking out loud earlier today. However, when his ideas attracted over 6,000 emails, they took a more serious turn. Stan’s idea surrounds the issue of fan ownership, with a consortia of fans approaching the club based on money raised. Collymore’s interest has clearly been piqued further by the ‘credibility’ of the fans approaching him, as he puts it, who feel that the time is right to act on their desire to own a part of the club. His thread is below for the benefit of those who cannot access his Twitter feed.

@stancollymore

@stancollymore

@stancollymore

As you can see, things are moving fast. Unrealistically fast. As the man would put it himself, I’m sceptical. After the Xia experience, I’m naturally going to be sceptical. I’m already quite sceptical of outspoken types in the first place. Collymore isn’t the only person interested in the future of Aston Villa, as he mentions, there are two groups in the running for a takeover. Stan’s fan group would likely be a third group.

To be honest, if that’s truly the case. All power to them. I don’t see many other ways out apart from the potential Peter Freund bid, but even then - I’m sceptical. Why buy Villa in this state when you can simply wait for administration?

This is by no means a solution to the issues of Aston Villa’s current ownership, but it’s something more to question. That’s what we should be doing at this point, anyway - questioning everything.

Up the Villa.