Aston Villa to spend up to £40m on new players

New Aston Villa owner Dr Tony Xia is planning to spend up to £40 million on new players as the club seek an immediate return to the Premier League.

Xia's Recon group agreed a deal to purchase the club – who finished bottom of the Premier League on 2015-16 – from Randy Lerner on Wednesday.

Former Chelsea boss Roberto Di Matteo is odds-on favourite to be named Villa's new manager and he can expect to be backed in the transfer market.

Xia revealed he had been in contact with a total of eight Premier League clubs and spoke of his early plans at Villa.

"Now we plan to spend £30 million to £40 million on new players for the upcoming season to reconstruct the current first team squad," he told Sky Sports.

"We have made lots of preparations at the early stage.

"If Aston Villa can successfully return to the Premier League, the purchase price would be more than £100 million."