A number of years ago, the club was heading into the darkness and the abyss as Aston Villa lay in the Championship and fearing for its future.
After losing the Championship play-off final to Fulham in 2018, it was a realistic possibility that we were going to head into administration after key failings and mismanagement of the club from the top.
Yet, when you fast forward to the present, it’s remarkable how far Aston Villa have progressed and back competing in Europe where we belong.
Whilst Unai Emery is an utter genius for helping us here, he can’t do it all on his own and he needs financial help, such as bringing in players via the transfer market and keeping star names inside Bodymoor Heath.
Aston Villa have some of the richest owners in the Premier League – Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens – but because of FFP, you can’t spend as you wish.
Everton have felt the wrath of the Premier League with a points deduction and other teams are fearful to cross the line, hence the lack of spending in January.
Some Aston Villa supporters, and former striker Gabby Agbonlahor on Twitter, think that the club should move out of Villa Park to help with revenue, FFP and the high demand for tickets.
Calls to move out of Villa Park
“Villa Park has so much history,” wrote Agbonlahor. “But maybe the answer is to build a new stadium? So many fans can’t get a ticket!
“So many fans waiting for season tickets! This club is going one way and that’s up, maybe it’s to build a new 70k seater stadium.”
Expand Villa Park
To put it as bluntly as possible, this nonsense needs to stop and talk of moving out of Villa Park simply can’t happen.
We have one of the great stadiums in English football, it’s rich in history, tradition and prestige.
Is money everything in the game? No. Blue Billion pound bottle jobs Chelsea have just proven it and so have Manchester United for the past decade.
Yes, by all means, expand Villa Park which was the original plan. Get the capacity up. But don’t follow in the footsteps of West Ham United by selling your soul!
Spending money and splashing the cash isn’t the be-all and end-all, as long as we have the brains of Emery on the touchline for these coming years, then all will be good!
It’s not pleasing to hear suggestions that we might have to sell a key player to help with FFP. It’s gut-wrenching, but as the sale of Jack Grealish proved, no man is bigger than the club and we can still progress forward.
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