Aston Villa were so strapped for cash in the lead up to the Play-Off Final, that they refused to pay out £20,000 for player’s suits, according to Sky Sports journalist Rob Dorsett.
The shocking news, that was tweeted on Thursday afternoon, details that Villa also persuaded Burnley to make an early payment on one Ashley Westwood instalment so the club could pay its staff and players.
Understand #avfc bosses refused to pay £20k for squad suits for Play Off Final at Wembley coz of financial worries. Also persuaded #burnley to make an early payment on an Ashley Westwood instalment that was due, so that they could pay May’s wages for staff and players. See #ssn
— Rob Dorsett (@RobDorsettSky) June 7, 2018
This is just the latest shocking news to come to light, following the threat of a winding-up order by the HMRC on Tuesday afternoon.
It is widely thought that the Villa bosses now face an uphill battle to settle their outstanding HMRC debts, as well as balance the books as far as financial fair play is concerned.
The Midlands club do possess a lot of talent that they could offload to gather some funding, however, it was brought to light earlier that Steve Bruce’s outfit will not be selling Jack Grealish on the cheap.
OPINION
I saw an interesting anecdote on Wednesday that Aston Villa boss Tony Xia and ‘gambled’ with his money last season and lost, and now this seems to be true. Xia, and Villa, were desperate to secure themselves as Championship promotion winners, to ensure they got a share of the Premier League TV licensing money, but they fell short at the final hurdle, losing to Fulham in the final. Should they have won that game, they would more than likely have been fine in a financial sense, but the fact that the club could not commit to pay £20,000 for suits highlights how strapped the team really are. One positive thing to take away from the morbid situation is that Villa have now agreed to a payment plan with HMRC, so there could be a light at the end of the tunnel, but one gets the feeling that this is the latest in a string of shocking details that will come to light before the situation is resolved.