

Aston Villa owner Tony Xia has made a friend of Twitter. The successful businessman is keen to connect with fans and has found a perfect way to do it directly.

In the early hours of Thursday morning, after the madness of the transfer window had ended, Xia used Twitter to announce the arrival of Steve Round as technical director.

I’m very happy2announce Steve Round is appointed as Technical Director.I believe he’ll bring great value to our aim 2a modern football club. — Dr. Tony Xia (@Dr_TonyXia) August 31, 2016

Round worked with David Moyes, most notably at Everton, but also at Manchester United, and the coach had been waiting for a new opportunity to come his way.

Round is no stranger to Aston Villa, he almost joined the club in 2015, when Remi Garde was manager of the now Championship club.

Round didn’t take the job at the time, and was quoted by the Birmingham Mail as saying: “I met Remi Garde and his staff and I was impressed with what he is trying to do, it’s innovative.

“He already had his own staff and assistant on board though and what I was being offered we both saw as being more of a junior role that was not really right for me.

“I was disappointed, Villa are a big club.

“I do want to get into management though and the deal just wasn’t right for either of us.

“I wish Villa luck and I hope they get out of it.”