Villa boss sees rich owners as saviours
DEAN SMITH insists Aston Villa’s wealthy owners will shield them from the ‘catastrophe’ of relegation from the Premier League. Villa’s return to the Championship could be confirmed tonight — if they lose to Arsenal and Watford avoid defeat against Manchester City. Chief executive Christian Purslow described the drop as ‘a £200million catastrophe’ in an interview in May but Smith is confident Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens, who bought the club two years ago to save it from possible oblivion, will inject the cash required to protect Villa from the dual effects of the coronavirus pandemic and a substantial loss of television income. The Villa boss said: ‘We are very fortunate as a club that we have two billionaire owners who we are reliant on and have been fantastic for us. ‘Each club is different and if we were to get relegated we are still in a good position in terms of the ownership we have. ‘The short-term future of the club is not in jeopardy at all. We are in great hands with the owners we have got. ‘If we get relegated it’s one of those things we have to deal with but we all want to keep our Premier League status.’ If Villa go down there is likely to be interest in captain Jack Grealish, Scotland international John McGinn, defender Tyrone Mings and midfielder Douglas Luiz. They have looked far more solid since the Premier League restarted last month yet their lack of punch in attack — they have scored only five times in eight games — may mean they fall short. Smith is hoping Arsenal will not have recovered completely from the huge effort required to beat Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final three days ago. He added: ‘We played last Thursday, so we’ve got a couple of days more recovery and hopefully that will hold us in good stead. ‘We had a great performance and result to get through to the League Cup final when we played Leicester in January and then we didn’t perform on the Saturday against Bournemouth, so let’s hope that can happen with Arsenal.’