Hands-on Xia making his presence felt at Villa
Fans refreshed as owner Tony opens lines of communication
THINK back to those dark days during the Randy Lerner era. The fans were revolting in the stands, stewards were wrestling banners of discontent from their hands.
The boos were constant, and the silence from Lerner was deafening.
On Sunday the stark contrast between the US tycoon and the man he handed the Villa Park keys to, could not have been more evident.
Chinese businessman Dr Tony Xia posed for pictures with fans at the ground, and even with a young fan outside a Burger King at the M6 services.
The days of the Villa hierarchy being a mystical gathering are long gone, the lines of communication are wide open and Xia wants to reunite the fans with the club.
His ethos has been none more apparent than on Twitter in recent weeks, speaking out on transfers, catering, broken links on the website, and even meeting fans for beer.
Yesterday, for instance, he revealed the club are closing in on a midfield signing this week.
There have been times when he must have turned a few heads of hair grey in the Villa boardroom by stating which players were coming and going and how much would be spent.
Of course you wouldn’t have seen Randy behaving like this, but it’s not just an approach that is unfamiliar at Villa, you won’t find any other owner acting like this either.
It’s not common, and in many ways it’s just not seen as the done thing.
There have been frowns aplenty from fans, some telling him to get off social media, many simply believing it’s not him.
From the outside looking in, it’s actually exactly what Villa need, the unconventional and often humorous tweets from the owner have helped to start to mend a seriously fractured football club.
The gleeful enthusiasm is balanced with a firm understanding of how badly the club has let the fans down.
The more cynical amongst you may think that here at the Post we welcome the Doctor’s comments because they are easy stories and great for headlines.
That’s true, they are, but we welcome them first and foremost because there is a transparency Villa now that is to be admired.
It has created a wave of optimism and given the fans a real sense of having someone to target their frustrations at.
What he has actually done is exploded the shroud of secrecy that surrounds football and replaced with frank, honest feedback and interaction.
The worst thing about being a football fan is when you feel undervalued, when you feel that the men in suits are just taking the money and not caring about the people paying at the turnstiles.
That is how the claret and blue at army have felt in recent years, the relationship has disintegrated and the trust has eroded.
The fans aren’t stupid, they know and Xia knows that the only place for action is on the pitch.
The key thing is though that this open and honest approach needs to spiral downwards, if Roberto Di Matteo and his men can act with the same determination and integrity that the owner clearly does, it won’t be a bad season.
Xia has brought unity to the claret and blue faithful, and if that is done through the power of social media, then we say ‘carry on tweeting Doctor X!’