Have Aston Villa been bought on the cheap by Dr Tony Xia?
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Compared to the cost of certain high-profile footballers, the purchase of Aston Villa for £60m by Dr Tony Xia immediately seems like a bargain.
The likes of Luis Suarez and Gareth Bale effectively cost more than the 1982 European Cup winners, while star striker Christian Benteke moved to Liverpool for more than half the fee of the entire club last summer.
Of course, Villa will ultimately cost much more than £60m, once transfer budgets and possible debts and liabilities are taken into account.
However, Randy Lerner bought Villa ahead of the 2006/07 Premier League season for £62.6m and the amount of money in English football is much more substantial now than it was then.
Granted, Dr Xia is buying the club as a Championship outfit, without the obvious perks of the new TV deal which is anticipated to be worth close to £100m to all top-flight sides next season.
But, the parachute payments awarded to relegated clubs mean the new owner can virtually expect to make his money back even if Villa fail to gain promotion back to the Premier League in the next three years.
In year one, Villa would be given 55% of the broadcast revenue given to Premier League clubs, in year two this would drop to 40% and in year three 20%. This would be an overall sum nearer £70m than £60m.
Promotion in the next three years would obviously net Villa much greater TV sums.
Meanwhile, Villa Park has a capacity of 42,785, the Bodymoor Heath training ground is advanced and the club have some talented youngsters waiting for the opportunity to make a splash in the first team.
Everton may still have Premier League football, but not the same infrastructure as Villa. They would certainly benefit from a new and modern stadium. Yet, the deal that saw Farhad Moshiri buy 49.9% of the Toffees in March valued the club at £175m
Shahid Khan paid somewhere in the region of £150m for Fulham at the start of the 2013/14 season before they were relegated and Leicester were a play-off pushing Championship club when they were bought by Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha from Milan Mandaric for £39m in 2010.
It may require plenty more investment for Dr Xiu to make Villa a Premier League force again, but he has aspirations to make the club one of the top three in the world in the next 10 years.
Even if he needs to spend £50m to secure promotion in the 2016/17 campaign, this outlay of £110m will be returned in parachute payments and TV money alone.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
