Aston Villa owner Tony Xia admits: "I could quit Twitter"

Xia has regularly communicated with supporters via the social media service since his £76.2million buy-out of Randy Lerner 18 months ago.

The Beijing businessman has become notorious for cryptic transfer-related tweets and also used Twitter to take on the club’s critics.

But Xia claims an increasingly busy schedule means he now has less time to interact with supporters and admits he could one day leave social media for good.

“One day, if the club is running perfectly and is really healthy and they don’t think they really need me to talk too much, I think that would be good! It would be time for me to escape,” he said, during an interview with Villa’s official website.

“I like interacting with people. And I certainly like interacting with our fans. I have been trying my best to get more time to communicate with them.

“But honestly, practically, it is getting harder and harder. I just don’t have enough time to do it as much as I can. Fans might have to expect that I can’t tweet as much as I usually do.

“When I first started, I thought it was vital to communicate with fans and try my best to tell them that we’re doing everything we can to turn the club around. I am hoping they can see those changes a little bit now.”

Xia took the reigns after Villa were relegated from the Premier League in May 2016. He has vowed to get the club back into the Premier League and has a vision of them one day competing in the Champions League.

He added: “I wanted also to re-engage the passion and help fans believe in this magnificent club again. They had gone through a lot before!

“Last year, I did much more tweeting. And, If I get more time, I will keep doing it.

“But everybody, I hope, can understand I might not be able to do so frequently as I did before.”