It was on Friday 25 May, the day before Aston Villa’s Championship play-off final against Fulham last year, when the scale of their financial crisis really hit home.

A letter from HMRC had arrived at Villa’s offices, warning that the club would be wound up unless they paid a £4.2million tax bill, 24 hours before the most crucial game of the season.

Those monetary worries would have disappeared if Villa had won at Wembley, but a 1-0 defeat plunged them deeper into trouble and facing the very real threat of administration.

A compromise was frantically agreed with HMRC, yet the dire cash-flow issues of Dr Tony Xia remained. The future of one of English football’s founder members was uncertain, perhaps even in doubt.

Twelve months later, the picture could not be more different. Villa are preparing for another shootout in the play-off final, yet the financial outlook is now healthy and whatever happens at Wembley on Monday afternoon, the future is bright.

Since the £50million majority takeover by Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens in July – when 40 accountants were holed up at Villa Park poring over the books to complete the deal – stability has returned.