Aston Villa: Has Dr. Tony Xia changed his transfer strategy?

How has this changed under Dr. Tony?

Under Dr. Tony Xia, the club has indeed changed its stance. Unwanted players are being shifted quickly. The vast majority of the squad that was relegated have now left the club. Only Alan Hutton, Jed Steer, Gabby Agbonlahor and Micah Richards still at the club (Carles Gil hasn’t yet moved permanently).

Of the 19 players bought under Lerner that have left the club under Xia, the club has failed to receive a fee for 8 players (3 at the end of their contracts). The 5 that left before the end of their contracts (Guzan, Bennett, Okore, Lescott and Crespo), were all either in or entering their final year and therefore where their value to Villa was minimal.

More interesting though are the players sold for a fee. Of those players, we actually made a profit in accounting terms on all but 1.

For example, Jordan Veretout (currently earning rave reviews at Fiorentina), was sold 2 years into his contract for around £6.25m. Villa bought him for around £9m – so 2 years into his 5-year deal, he was theoretically worth around £5.4m. It’s a similar case for all of those players – from Traore to Gestede. The deals for Ashley Westwood and Jordan Amavi end up looking like decent business.

The exception is Jordan Ayew, where the transfer included Neil Taylor coming the other way. In circumstances such as those, Villa would have had to agree a nominal value for Taylor to contribute towards the deal.