As per usual lately, you lot are well ahead of me when it comes to the latest news and even though you’ve already been commenting on it, this has to be good news and is worthy of an article.
So, just as I was always fairly confident that Dr Tony Xia would get to take us over, so even my thinking didn’t go without a slight wobble, with the FT questioning his validity.
Whatever, it’s now looking like it’s a done deal.
I’ve seen quotes where Xia will arrive in the UK on Monday for talks with the Premier and Football leagues for a face-to-face interview and the deal should be ratified on Wednesday.
But what’s more interesting and frankly bloody exciting to me, if the reports are true, is that Xia has proven that he has £500 million on deposit in British bank accounts.
Why so exciting?
Well, remember that big cheque that Xia showed the media? That was worth around £430 million, so that is actually on top of the money he’s paid for the club.
Now Randy Lerner was a billionaire, but I’ll bet whatever you like that there was no way he could ever have placed that sort of money in a bank account, as it would have been too tied up.
This is the level we’re talking about and if it’s actually Xia’s own personal wealth, or as I suspect, money that belongs to higher powers, it matters not and it’s there, in black and white.
Of course, it doesn’t mean it will be spent, but the point is it proves the backing and clout is there.
Consider our local rivals (and it’s not a point I’m going to dwell on, as I want all Midland clubs competing) are going to be taken over with a promise to provide £10-11 million, but only a two-year commitment, so we can see how good our new owner looks on the face of things. It at least puts things in perspective, in my opinion.
All that said, I’m a Villa fan, where I’m now also incredibly cautious after all the rubbish we’ve gone through.
So, of course it could all end in tears.
But we should see things move pretty rapidly now and it’s encouraging.
We’ve just got rid of our Chief marketing executive, another seeming waster and now we’re talking gravy, because it looks like Reily will be replaced by a new “Premier league” Director of footy; someone who knows what he’s doing.
Unfortunately, I suspect this has Comoli written all over it.
And I’m not so sure about him.
Happy days for me, all in all though and I’m looking forward to us, as a bare minimum, winning some games and hopefully making at least a challenge.
