COMMENT
Despite the jubilation and everything that came along with their promotion to the Premier League, the job had only just started for everyone at Aston Villa.
Promotion through the Championship play-offs could have turned out to be the easy part with much needed to be done behind-the-scenes to make sure they enjoy a sustainable return to the top flight.
There were many players at Aston Villa who were earning high salaries while not actually contributing to the cause, including striker, Ross McCormack.
Villa confirmed in a brief statement on Monday that the Scottish international had left the club, which followed the news that another high-earner in Micah Richards had left Dean Smith’s side in the same week.
The Times journalist, Henry Winter praised the business conducted by Villa, picking out the relationship between Smith, Christian Purslow, and the owners – Nassef Sawiris, Wes Edens and Tony Xia – as a major positive, claiming they all know what they want and they’ve completed those things quickly.
Love the way Villa know exactly what they want, players out, players to keep, targets, needing to strengthen while keeping core, Mings, El Ghazi plus building around Grealish. Link between Smith/Purslow/owners ? #avfc
— Henry Winter (@henrywinter) June 3, 2019
Winter is definitely right to praise the smartness of everyone involved at Villa, as they are doing what they need to do quickly to set up a potentially huge transfer window for the club ahead of their return to the top-flight.
The 32-year-old McCormack hadn’t played for Villa since September 2017 and his wages recently increased to £70,000 per-week after promotion – a fee that was inexplicable for a player who had contributed so little.
Getting the high earners and so-called dead wood off the books was a brilliant early move by Villa and the fact it happened so quickly only highlights the positivity surrounding the relationships between board and management.
Their business need not stop there though, with many transfers needing to arrive before they can seriously consider becoming a force once again in the Premier League.