Aston Villa FC is a club soccer team located in Birmingham, England. They were one of the original founders of the Football League in 1888 and of the newer Premier League in 1992. They have a decorated history, being one of only 5 English teams to lift a European Cup (now called the UEFA Champions League). They have won the top flight and FA Cup 7 times each, in addition to 5 League Cups. Recently, however, the club has been in a bit of a rough patch, though they appear to be coming out of it.
Aston Villa FC is a club soccer team located in Birmingham, England. They were one of the original founders of the Football League in 1888 and of the newer Premier League in 1992. They have a decorated history, being one of only 5 English teams to lift a European Cup (now called the UEFA Champions League). They have won the top flight and FA Cup 7 times each, in addition to 5 League Cups. Recently, however, the club has been in a bit of a rough patch, though they appear to be coming out of it.
In 2016 the club was sold to Chinese businessman Xia Jiantong, but this didn’t last very long. The club was in the second division in England, the EFL Championship. Although they came close to promotion to the Premier League in 2018, Villa fell short and looked for more financial influx opportunities. This is where the NSWE group comes into the picture. This is a company co-owned by two billionaires, Egyptian Nassef Sawiris and American Wes Edens. The group bought a 55% share of Villa, with the former becoming the chairman.
They had an immediate impact on the club. Aston Villa signed 12 players, all under 10 million euros, with most of them being loans from other clubs. Of these players were a mix of some experienced players and some young and promising ones. For example, Yannick Bolasie and Tyrone Mings each had a substantial amount of Premier League minutes on their resumes, while Tammy Abraham and John McGinn proved to provide offensive power in their breakthrough roles. Villa finished 5th in the Championship that year and won the Promotion Playoffs to advance to the Premier League. After a couple of seasons in the Premier League, Villa is doing very well, currently sitting 9th in the league table, playing beautifully. What are the next steps to continue growing? How will they try to compete with the English giants like Manchester City and Liverpool?
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When rich owners take over for clubs such as Aston Villa and in more recent history Newcastle United, you can see an almost immediate impact on the transfer market. Often times when a club is struggling it can be attributed to the lack of talent in their academy program or the lack of ambition in the transfer market. You can see the impact signing new faces can have for clubs, for example Newcastle United moved from one place out of relegation to climbing to almost mid-table following a successful transfer window under new ownership. The next steps for Aston Villa would be to continue building adding pieces in their 11 under manager Steven Gerrard's vision, as well as continuing to put focus into their academy program.
ReplyDeleteAston Villas is one of my favorite clubs in the EPL. There jerseys and decorated history are very interesting. Their rise from relegation is for something great for EPL and football. This also shows that you don't need to spend huge money to improve a football club. Loan transfers and finding young talent is critical for football clubs. I miss seeing Jack Grealish on Aston Villa as this was his boyhood club and it was cool to see him play on there.
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