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Are players aware of the history? Can they sit down and watch the heroes of yesterday?

I think that’s a great observation. It’s a double-edged sword. We do pile the pressure on them and teach them about the history of the club. There was a great DVD made by David Bradley about the history and heritage of the club. Certainly Brian (Little) is around the training ground a lot. It’s difficult putting that sort of pressure on them and expecting them to take it on board and understand it. We are doing a lot of psychological work with the players now. Villa Park is a huge arena and we need to make sure the players are comfortable with that and understand it.

How will we be financially stable if we have to remain in the Championship?

Very good question. We are nowhere near £70million. The one good thing we found when we inherited the club was that there was a lot of wage reductions in the contracts. There’s no doubt we do have a high wage bill and we have to manage financial fair play. We know what we have to do in the next season and the season after to avoid FFP penalties.

How does it affect summer window?

Money has never been the key factor. We want to get the right squad balance. We did a lot more work in January than we expected to. The summer is going to be relatively quiet. There will be ins and outs but nowhere near as many as we have in the last two windows.

What is the situation with Steve Bruce?

There is absolutely no question that we are sticking with Steve. We’ve been really happy with the way he’s shaking things up at Bodymoor. The way he’s trying to get out of this rut shows the character of the man.

Lack of stability the problem?

We’ve had five managers who have had one transfer window. Each manager has tried to change things. We saw when Steve came in that there was a run starting to happen. He’ll admit himself that maybe we moved too quick to try and get better. In terms of the new formation, I think we tried to move too many players in too quickly and he may admit that himself. We recognise we are Aston Villa and that we have to move on and try and get better.

Will Tony Xia lose interest?

Tony is in love with the club. He really cares. He’s been a fantastic owner and cares constructively about the club. He isn’t just barking orders from Beijing. We are in this for the long haul to get back to where we deserve to be.

What is Steve Bruce like behind the scenes?

There is no doubt he has got the hairdryer. If they cross him, they will be out. Steve is a great man manager. We are less tolerant than we would have been before, I think.

Roberto Di Matteo - what went wrong?

Tony was keen to pick Roberto pretty quickly. The second appointment, there was a lot more work behind the scenes. Tony was quick to appoint Roberto and was under pressure at the time and wanted a manager pretty quickly. He had the burden of expectation and trying to blend players together. We all wanted instant results. This time, we are determined that after the proper research, Steve has got the skill set to get us out of this.

Did you see the youth team on Wednesday? They fought like lions…

I was there Wednesday night and I was so impressed with the way the team fought. I spoke to Dave Hughes and thanked his team for showing the real Villa spirit.

How will Xia’s Hollywood purchase influence Villa?

That’s only going to be good for us being part of the sport entertainment scene. There will be some exciting things coming from that.

‘Villa Park’ - is the name untouchable?

No, that won’t change. People have to realise that the heritage and history is what these Chinese businessmen are buying.

Will the club’s crest revert back to what it was?

There’s no plans at the moment. It is something that we would look at. It would have to be a fan consultation-led process. I’m going to leave it to the commercial team.