He was more direct, however, on the subject of Villa’s head of recruitment, Paddy Riley, and his scouting team, who have been widely blamed for a dismal season which saw only three games won by the ­Premier League’s bottom club.

“I think a lot of Villa fans will agree that one thing we have to make much stronger is the scouting team,” he said.

“I think, more or less, the scouting team they had before, they have to take a lot of responsibility.” Asked whether the Villa Park scouts would be dismissed, he replied that there would be “new ones”. Xia also said that he had no plans to rename Villa Park, and strongly denied reports that he was to name it after one of his companies.