Tony Xia has "stopped the rot" at Aston Villa
Chief executive Keith Wyness claims Villa have successfully “stopped the rot” during the first year of Tony Xia’s reign.
Next Wednesday will mark 12 months since Xia completed his £76.2million buy-out of Randy Lerner.
The Beijing businessman arrived promising to put Villa back among the European elite but his first season at the helm was a disappointment, delivering only a 13th placed finish in the Championship.
Wyness however insists important strides have been made in halting the decline which set in during Lerner’s reign and led to Villa being relegated from the Premier League.
He said: “I spoke to a lot of experienced people in football who thought Villa could easily have dropped another division. That is pretty clear.
“I am not going to say it is a success that we didn’t. We all know what we wanted to do this season.
“But there is an element that we did stop the decline, we have reversed things, and it not only just on the pitch but throughout the whole club.”
Significant changes over the past 12 months has included an overhaul of the club’s scouting network by technical director Steve Round.
“There has been a whole root and branch overhaul of the club, everything on the football side,” added Wyness.
“That has now got the set up to go forward. There was a big danger of going into a spiral of decline. We are now ready to go forward.
“With a bit of stability, getting the best out of the players we have got now, and the three or four additions, that is about right to give us a really good go for it.”
