Ellis 'furious' over reports of players' revolt

Doug Ellis is “furious” about reports that Aston Villa players questioned his ambition after a series of financial cutbacks.

A joint statement, presented as being on behalf of Villa’s first team squad, was issued yesterday and in it players voiced their concerns at cost cutting by Ellis who put the club up for sale last October.

The players, in their statement, said: “If the chairman has got ambition he needs to start showing it”, claimed there had been “a series of cutbacks” at the club including a refusal by Ellis to pay £300 (€436) to water pitches and insisted there was “no investment in the team” and “no positives coming out of the club”.

But Villa hit back with a statement of their own on the club’s website www.avfc.premiumtv.co.uk under the headline ‘Players and chairman unite’.

Villa head of media and communications Phil Mepham said: “The chairman is furious, because he has had no indication from any member of the playing or coaching staff of any dissatisfaction at the training ground. So this has come as a great surprise.

“Once the ’story’ broke, I spoke to several senior members of the first-team squad, all of whom had no knowledge of the statement. All of them were surprised at its content. So to suggest this is a collective statement is ridiculous.”