Comment: Why the next few weeks could define the next decade for Aston Villa

For all the understandable positivity surrounding their charge up the Championship, it remains impossible to escape the image of a club at a crossroads.

One road leads to promotion, the reclaiming of Premier League status and a future where owner Tony Xia’s ambitious plans perhaps come to fruition.

The other leads to another campaign in the Championship and a future of increasing financial uncertainty.

A fanbase for too long in the doldrums has every right to get excited about the strides made in recent weeks and months. Confidence and pride, words which had gone missing from the vocabulary of Villa supporters, have been restored.

Yet amid that mood, the release this week of the club’s latest set of accounts served as a reminder of why Steve Bruce and his players must see the job through.

At first glance the figures appeared far healthier than in previous years, with Villa’s overall losses reduced to £14.5million from £81 million just 12 months before. It did not require much closer inspection, however, before the impact of relegation from the Premier League on revenue streams was laid bare, with commercial income more than halved.

Broadcasting revenue dropped by more than a third despite the injection of a hefty parachute payment, while the significantly reduced overall losses could be put down in the main to a £26million profit on player sales.

Already, just one season in, the pattern for a long-term stay in the Championship becomes apparent, with the club forced to cut their cloth more and more as parachute payments and revenue streams decrease, while Financial Fair Play restrictions become ever tighter.

Villa, of course, have already cut considerably – the accounts revealing how their wage bill reducing by more than a third to £61m.

Yet also apparent is the extent to which Villa took a serious dart at returning to the top flight at the first time of asking.

The £88million spent on signings during the first two transfer windows following Xia’s takeover was unprecedented in the Championship. Villa’s net spend was greater last season than in their previous three campaigns in the Premier League.

There are many who subscribe to the view such a policy was needed in order to both revamp a squad not fit for purpose and re-energise the club. There is undoubtedly some merit to that theory.

But the failure to then go and achieve promotion last season has been seen in the drastically reduced sums available to Bruce in the last two transfer windows, while the ripples will be felt ever more strongly the longer Villa remain in the second tier.

It is impossible to say for sure what Villa’s team would look like next season should they still be in the Championship.

It is fair to assume it would not contain John Terry, Sam Johnstone or Robert Snodgrass, while increased financial pressures would likely see the sale of a prized asset or two.

The impact of missing out on promotion would not be cataclysmic. Yet it would be wrong to look at the accounts and form the view the club’s finances are in any way healthy – despite the undoubted progress made by Xia and chief executive Keith Wyness in trying to untangle the mess they inherited.

The good news is the team have given themselves a chance of making any immediate financial fears disappear by winning promotion.

Succeed and the possibilities could be endless. Fail and it could be a long time before Villa are so strongly-equipped to challenge again.