Yahoo News Dr Tony Xia's vision for Aston Villa has materialised eight years later
Aston Villa have diced with liquidation, relegation and have taken decisions to sack managers - but, eight years on from their descent into the Championship and the takeover of Dr Tony Xia which followed, they are back on European football's biggest stage - just like Xia intended!
The disgraced Chinese businessman took over the claret and blue reins from Randy Lerner following relegation from the Premier League in 2016. His two years at the top of the club were a concoction of cryptic tweets, signing hatfuls of players and culminating in play-off misery in 2018. It transpired that Xia had bet it all on Villa to win promotion under Steve Bruce, and all at the club were grateful - and remain so - that Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens stepped in.
NSWE's era has been a defining one in Villa's history, although clearly not without its bumps in the road. Having won promotion in their first season as owners, they echoed Xia's prediction that the club could be back in Europe's premier competition by 2026 - only, they had the finances and resources with which to drive Villa forwards.
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Back in 2016, upon his takeover and having addressed the press with CEO Keith Wyness and new manager Roberto Di Matteo, Xia unashamedly outlined his grand ambitions for the club and demanded promotion back to the top flight at the first attempt from Di Matteo, who lasted a matter of months before being sacked.
“We don’t have a very detailed plan but we have a vision that we will challenge to get back into the Premier League and we will be challenging when we get back,” Xia said at the time. “The aim, not just the hope, is to get back in the European field within five years and I wish we can succeed to get another trophy like we have here in eight or 10 years. That is not an exact number, but we want to win the European Cup.
“It is really important to get promoted in the first season as everybody hopes but all we can do is do our best. We will try everything. That’s what we hope. We hope we can do it and with some luck.”
Villa have gone the long way about it, and not without their fair share of heartache in the meantime, but Tuesday night's result between Tottenham and Manchester City confirmed that Villa couldn't be caught in fourth and that they'd be taking their place amongst the elite next term in the Champions League, which is taking on a new appearance.
It's a world away from Xia's Villa, which posted a mediocre mid-table finish in his first year, despite splashing millions of pounds on the squad, namely on the likes of Jonathan Kodjia, Scott Hogan and James Chester. Under NSWE, Villa have realised their ambition which Xia never truly had the means to fulfil.
