Aston Villa supremo Christian Purslow has moved to end rumours about the club struggling to meet Financial Fair Play rules come the end of the campaign.

Some heavy investment over the last few seasons which has failed to yield promotion has led many to believe that the Villans will struggle to meet FFP regulation when the club's parachute payments end at the close of this season, but Purslow is of a different opinion.

“I’m not just confident, I’m highly respectful of the regime,” said Purslow in an interview for the Birmingham Mail.

“It changes nothing. We are determined to support our new management team in improving this squad where needing to do so and can easily do so with the financial resources within the rules.

“We’re moving in the right direction. Thanks to our new majority owners, we have a completely clean balance sheet, the financial problems the club had incurred were all cleared with the investors’ money and we now have a very strong financial base.” added Purslow.

The Villa chief executive will be hoping his confidence is reflected in the end of year statements, and he will also be hoping his appointment of Dean Smith as manager will lead to Premier League football before long.

The Villans have seen performances improve since Smith took over, and despite the loss of Tammy Abraham this month - the striker set to sign for Wolves - the club are still well within the play-off picture if they can put a good enough run together.

The Verdict

This is good new for Villa fans really, who will have been growing increasingly worried about their club's future.

Villa are looking in good enough shape heading into the second half of the season, and a play-off run does look an increasing possibility if they can keep improving and make some big additions in January.