The new owner of Aston Villa "vowed to transform the recently relegated club into one of the world’s top sides," pumping up to £50M ($73M) into its coffers before next season and "shunning talented but lazy players," according to Tom Phillips of the London GUARDIAN. Xia Jiantong, a 39-year-old millionaire from eastern China who uses the English name Tony Xia, "was unveiled as Villa’s owner on Wednesday." Speaking on Thursday afternoon at his 19th-floor office in Beijing’s financial district, Xia said that "he was preparing to embark on an extensive revamp of the club in an effort to secure immediate promotion back to the Premier League." He said, "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. At least [until] now what I have planned [in my career] everything has been achieved. Nobody believed in the beginning but I made it happen no matter how many years it took." Xia also "wants to find the best manager and confirmed he had held discussions with a number of candidates, including the former Chelsea and West Bromwich Albion manager Roberto Di Matteo and the former Southampton and Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson." Xia said, "We have several very good candidates … I have talked to all of them." He added that the decision "would be made in the next two weeks" (GUARDIAN, 5/19).
SMALL STEPS: REUTERS' Spring & Jourdan wrote Xia said that he "would spend" £30M-£40M "on players for next season." That would be a hefty budget for a team in English football's second tier, but "would be no splurge by the standards of the EPL -- to which he aims to return the club -- where one top player can cost more than that." As a route to success, Xia "cited the example of Leicester City," which won the EPL. Xia: "The club won't take the path of burning money; we are a business, not funded by Arab oil wealth." Xia said that Villa was one of eight clubs "he had considered buying." Xia also said that he "was in talks with various football teams in Spain and Italy for potential acquisitions within three years, and was also in talks in China and India" (REUTERS, 5/19).
ECLECTIC PORTFOLIO: In London, Clover, Hornby & Bland wrote Xia "trained as a landscape architect and runs a large, lossmaking, producer of monosodium glutamate, as well as an eclectic mix of Chinese companies involved in everything from smart city design to small personal loans." On Wednesday, Xia’s first move after his planned acquisition was announced, "was to tweet a picture of Forrest Gump, the dim-witted but athletically gifted film character of the 1990s," at British PM David Cameron. He wrote on Weibo, "Go Villa Go! We will be back." Xia "is the head of Recon Group, a holding company based in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou and in Beijing with a mix of investments." Recon declined to answer questions or make Xia "available for an interview" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 5/19).
