Matt Maher: Billionaire Aston Villa owners entering a critical phase
Through more than five-and-a-half years at the helm of Villa, Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens have been men best defined by actions rather than words.
There have been precious few of the latter, the billionaire duo having kept interviews to a minimum. On the rare occasions they have spoken, the word “sustainable” has regularly cropped up. It was there in their first interview, following the dramatic July 2018 buy-out of the beleaguered Tony Xia. It was present again this week, in the club statement explaining Villa’s latest financial results.
“The owners of Aston Villa remain committed to the long-term and sustainable development of the club, and we look forward to continued progress on the delivery of our strategic plan,” it read.
That is quite the claim to make, in a statement revealing Villa had made a club record £119.6million loss. In a pure business sense, things look about as far from sustainable as it is possible to get.
