Aston Villa may have suffered one of the darkest seasons in the club's history and now find themselves in the second-tier of English football, but the new owners still have plans for global domination.
Chinese businessman Tony Xia, who is poised to complete his £76m takeover from Randy Lerner, says he wants to expand the club and emulate the Manchester City model in building franchises.
According to "?The Sunday People, Xia is interested in investing in several overseas markets, such as India, America, Australia and China to increase the popularity and financial power of Villa on a global scale.
Tony Xia is poised to complete a £76m takeover of Aston Villa https://t.co/L3Ol9RmUoW pic.twitter.com/JCHdZwyCok
There had been conflicting reports over Xia's wealth but he has since proven to the Premier League that he has enough funds to complete the takeover, passing both the owners and directors test required to assume such a position.
Xia is expected to complete the formalities and sign documents on Monday, thus making him the chairman and owner of Aston Villa football club. When the takeover is complete, Xia will make considerable transfer sums available to new manager Roberto Di Matteo, as he begins his bid to get Villa back up to the top-tier.
Xia previously set out his ambition for Villa and gave the fans a positive message encouraging them to forget about the past and focus on the future.
EXCLUSIVE! Aston Villa takeover by Dr Tony Xia to go through next week https://t.co/w9i6LfKSeZ pic.twitter.com/8jU2CCyOlT
"My ambition is to bring Villa to the top six in less than five years and I hope it can be [one of] the top three in the world "? even the best well known in the world "? in less than 10 years,"? Xia said in one of his first interviews since the deal became public.
"At least [until] now what I have planned [in my career] everything has been achieved. Nobody believed in the beginning but I made it happen no matter how many years it took."?
"Forget the past and think we are going to enter into a new age."?