Steve Hollis: Aston Villa won't fall into ruin

With Villa eight points adrift at the bottom of the Premier League, that looks increasingly likely to be the Championship.

But Hollis insists they are still planning for every eventuality. Accounts released last week revealed the club made a £27.3million loss in the last financial year yet.

However, after several seasons of struggle, the chairman believes they will be well placed to rebuild.

He said: "The plan is that whatever division we're in next season, we will have a much better decision-making machine.

"If we are in the Championship we will be one of the biggest clubs in the Championship. We will certainly have the strongest balance sheet in the Championship.

"We will be in the best position to actually, as I have said before, use that as the opportunity to rebuild.

"We will have the best chance of actually bouncing back if we make the right decisions.

"If we are still in the Premier League there is a plan that addresses the issues so, hopefully, we don't go through another round of bouncing around at the bottom next season.

"We are scenario-planning. Whatever happens to this place, we have the financials covered.

"We are building the business plans and strategies so we can best serve whatever division this club is in next season."

The past week has seen a huge shake-up at boardroom level with the departures of chief executive Tom Fox and sporting director Hendrik Almstadt.

Former Manchester City and FA chairman David Bernstein has meanwhile been appointed a director and will head up a new football board, which will include Brian Little.

Hollis said: "I didn't know David before. I met him and explained the journey the board was on and he said 'look I want to be part of it.'

"It took about half an hour over a pleasant lunch. Now David is fully engaged. If you look at David's history, he has a distinguished business career.

"I think Aston Villa is in really good shape with a breadth of talent and we now need to do the things we need to do to get the club back to where it needs to be."

Fox resigned on Thursday evening, citing a change to his role as being behind his decision.

Hollis said: "Tom said himself in the press release that the decision was made based on the model that is now changing. The model that Tom led has changed as we've built a new board.

"Tom came to the decision that actually that model wasn't something he wanted to work with. So he decided to step down."