Comment: Strong leadership and clarity required to guide Aston Villa through growing storm

As the Wembley clock ticked toward the end of Villa’s promotion dream, TV cameras picked out Tony Xia, watching on from the stands.

Villa’s owner wore a look of acute distress, the like of which had never previously been seen in the two years since he purchased the club from Randy Lerner.

Nearly 72 hours on from the final whistle, the pain was still being felt. “Still hurting” Xia, who flew back to China on Sunday night, tweeted yesterday morning.

Yet while fans can more than relate to the chairman’s dismay, ultimately the responsibility lies on his shoulders and he must now show leadership in order to guide the club through increasingly choppy financial waters.

When Xia first walked through the doors of Villa Park in June 2016, he did so with big ambitions, setting the goal of getting back into Europe inside five seasons and winning the Champions League inside 10.

It was a blueprint made even bolder by the fact Villa had just been relegated from the Premier League and Xia also admitted it was ‘really important’ to win promotion back to the top flight at the first time of asking.

Two seasons and now two failures on, we are about to find out what he is really made of.

The financial nightmare now facing Xia and Villa can be traced back to the early weeks of his reign.

Of the £91million splashed out on transfer fees in Xia’s reign to date, two-thirds of it was spent during the summer 2016 window when, in the words of one senior club official at the time, Villa ‘took a punt’ on an instant return to the top flight.

As reckless as that approach might seem now, it is not entirely without logic, given the vastly greater resources relegated clubs boast over the rest of the division thanks to parachute payments.

Get it right, like Newcastle, and it can be deemed a gamble worth taking.

Get it wrong, as Villa did, and the ramifications are severe and long-lasting.

Necessary cost-cutting was already in evidence last summer when the club’s transfer spend totalled just £2.9million.

Another 12 months on and it is understood Villa will need to raise around £40million during the next two windows in order to comply with Financial Fair Play.

Neither does that take into account existing liabilities created by a Premier League wage bill which must now be managed on a Championship budget.

It is why the club will almost certainly be left with no option but to part with star performers like Jack Grealish.

Needless to say, this is not the scenario Xia would have envisaged back in June 2016. Yet it is now the reality and strong, focused leadership is required to guide Villa through the storm.

There are big decisions to be made, most notably over the future of manager Steve Bruce. Neither is time on Villa’s side, with a reduced transfer window and the new season barely two months away.

Most of all, supporters deserve clarity. Xia’s often lively Twitter missives have previously helped keep fans onside but have, in truth, been open to interpretation.

Now, more than ever, is the time for straight talking.