Simon Jordan has boldly claimed that if Aston Villa’s new owners are serious enough, they can take the West Midlands club to a Premier League title.
Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens took charge of Villa in the summer with the club on the verge of financial crisis under Tony Xia, but so far have struggled to help the club improve on results under the Chinese businessman.
Villa are 13th in the Championship table, eight points away from the top six, with it looking inevitable that they will have to spend yet another year in the second-tier of English football.
However Jordan believes that if enough money is spent by the Sawiris and Edens then they can do what Man City did and rise from the ashes to win the Premier League title.
“It depends how serious these two billionaires are,” Jordan said on talkSPORT on Wednesday morning [11:15am] when asked by Jim White if Villa will win the Premier League within his lifetime.
“Manchester City won the Premier League because people came along and changed the direction of travel.
“David Bernstein was the Man City chairman, they went back through the leagues, in come [Thaksin] Shinawatra … then you came in with Sheikh Mansour.
“Man City have gone back through the pyramid and won the Premier League.
“So the answer to your question is if Aston Villa’s owners are as serious as Sheikh Mansour, yes there’s a possibility Aston Villa can win the Premier League in the same way that Man City did because quite frankly, Aston Villa are a bigger club than Manchester City.”
OPINION
Jordan always talks highly about Aston Villa, but there is no way that they will be able to do what Manchester City did. Financial Fair Play is making it hard for them to get out of the Championship, let alone mount a title challenge in the Premier League. Look at how many teams have had these kind of aspirations in the past when they have been bought by big-money owners, Man City are an anomaly. Other than them, all of the Premier League’s top-six have been in the top-flight since it’s rebrand in 1992. Everton are the only other ones who have been Premier League ever-presents, but they have come nowhere near to a title. The gap between the top-six and the rest is massive and that probably won’t change for at least another decade or two. In that time Villa will surely have come under new ownership, one or two times. There’s more chance of them being in League One in the coming decades rather than topping the Premier League.