Villa transformed by duo’s generous backing
In less than two years, Sawiris and Edens have spent £250m on the club, writes John Percy
Less than two years after rescuing Aston Villa from the brink of financial oblivion, Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens are making trips to Wembley an annual event. Sawiris and Edens will both attend tomorrow’s Carabao Cup final, along with Villa supporter the Duke of Cambridge, and the transformation under the billionaire businessmen so far has been remarkable.
It is still early into the NSWE group’s five-year plan, and relegation to the Championship this season remains a serious prospect, but this is a world away from the turmoil of May 2018 when one of English football’s founder members was on the verge of administration.
Villa are now back competing in the Premier League, with a waiting list for season tickets of 7,000, and the financial picture is healthy with a clear strategy and ambition to keep the club moving forward.
Sawiris and Edens have made an encouraging start towards delivering on their promise to “bring sustainable success to the club, building on its rich history while respecting its loyal fan base and unique culture”.
Whatever happens against Carabao Cup holders Manchester City – who have beaten Villa twice in the league this season, with an aggregate score of 9-1 – there is optimism over the future and a sense of stability off the field.
“The owners have invested a lot of their own money to set this club on a good footing so we can go and compete at the highest level in the Premier League,” said Dean Smith, Villa’s head coach.
“We need to go and retain our status as a Premier League club this season but we are also in a domestic cup final as well. As well as the players, a lot of credit goes to the owners with their investment and vision for the club.
“They are exceptional businessmen and the partnership works in a really good way.”
There was a grim reminder of the club’s troubled past yesterday, when Villa reported losses of just under £69million in their financial accounts. That included a £30million payment to former owner Randy Lerner, with the cheque written by NSWE, as Tony Xia, who passed the club on to the current owners, failed to pay up.
Indeed, it is easy to forget just how perilous the situation was after Villa’s defeat by Fulham in the 2018 Championship play-off final.
The day before that game, there was a warning from HM Revenue and Customs that the club would be wound up unless they paid a £4.2million tax bill.
Six weeks of financial crisis followed, with administration appearing inevitable, until NSWE chose its moment, with Villa at the lowest ebb in their recent history.
Edens, in particular, had been desperate to acquire a club in the Premier League after falling in love with football at the 1994 World Cup, which was held in his native United States.
A co-owner of basketball team Milwaukee Bucks, Edens once held talks with David Beckham over potential investment in Inter Miami but his ambition was always to buy an English club with a proud history.
Sawiris, reportedly Egypt’s richest man with a fortune of $7.2 billion (£5.65billion), had the same vision and their arrival was confirmed in July 2018. Christian Purslow, who has vast previous experience with Liverpool and Chelsea, was appointed as chief executive a few months later to effectively run the club on a daily basis.
Since Xia’s three-year association was formally ended in August 2018, over £250 million has been injected into the club by NSWE.
Following promotion from the Championship via the play-offs, when the club had only 11 contracted players on the books, £127 million was spent in the summer to bring in new recruits.
Admittedly, not all of those signings have worked out, but this was a club starting from scratch and those accusations over “doing a Fulham” (also known as “promotion followed by a trolleydash”) continue to frustrate Villa officials.
Relegation back to the Championship remains the elephant in the room, and this week many Villa fans have been debating whether they would favour silverware over survival.
The future of captain Jack Grealish is also uncertain, probably regardless of their Premier League fate. One thing is for sure: Villa’s owners do not need the money.
‘They have set this club up on a good footing so we can compete at the top level’