Aston Villa fans have taken to Twitter to tear into club chairman Tony Xia after he finally broke his silence on Twitter over the crisis at Villa Park.
Villa were served with a winding-up order by HMRC over an unpaid tax payment of £4.2million in May, sparking worries that the West Midlands club is spiralling into a financial blackhole.
Cash-flow issues from China are preventing Xia from investing more money into the club while CEO Keith Wyness has also been suspended.
Villa are at crisis point after their Championship play-off final last month and their worries over breaking Financial Fair Play rules are now looking like a mere drop in the ocean with an actual threat of liquidation being made to the historic club.
Xia has remained silent up until recently, when he posted a message to fans on his personal Twitter account on Thursday that really offered nothing noteworthy.
It has been very difficult 2weeks as I hinted earlier I was almost heartbroken by something.Tried my best to keep beloved AV move forward. Thanks for all ppl standing together going through the difficult time. It was all supporters’ encouraging words to keep me/us stronger. #UTV
— Dr. Tony Xia (@Dr_TonyXia) June 7, 2018
And understandably, Villa fans are furious with the Chinese businessman, who bought the club off Randy Lerner for £76million two years ago.
One fan claimed that the chairman has been spewing out “repetitive garbage”.
Here is a selection of their tweets:
https://twitter.com/MrPBateman84/status/1004665560293101568
https://twitter.com/VillaFansUnited/status/1004665654375604224
Dad – this is a shambles mate. Don't give me blag, tell me what you're going to do about it?
— ???? ?? (@hot_diggity_d) June 7, 2018
Just tell us what’s going on…
— Jake Bonfield (@ElwoodBonfield) June 7, 2018
https://twitter.com/GuyBradley/status/1004667172692594688
https://twitter.com/bekkah_r/status/1004668965422010369
We are talking about one of the most storied clubs in the world, your heartbreak is your business,Aston Villa is OUR business. You appear to be passing the buck. Not interested. You are in charge, you are responsible for our most precious AVFC. You now need to do the right thing
— Vital Villa (@VitalVilla) June 7, 2018
https://twitter.com/adammcauliffe1/status/1004668316135419904
Villa are now facing a massive period of uncertainty.
Selling off key players like Jack Grealish may help in the short-term, but there’s a fear that it could just be delaying the inevitable.