In a rather surprising move, former Birmingham City man Barry Fry has taken a swipe at current Aston Villa owner Dr. Tony Xia.

Fry, of course, has also got big connections with Peterborough United - who Villa face in the FA Cup this weekend - and he has decided to try and stoke some tensions with his latest comments.

Indeed, he feels that the Chinese owner is lacking ambition for the club at the moment - with him quoted by the Birmingham Mail as saying:

“Villa have been in turmoil since Martin O’Neill left in my opinion. What I am amazed at is the lack of ambition shown by the Villa owner – why buy Villa if you don’t want to take them back to the Premier League?"

Since Xia came in at Villa he has seen the shoring up of things at the club after a pretty woeful struggle in the Premier League.

And, of course, it is not yet the finished job with them still outside the top flight but you surely cannot say Xia lacks ambition.

He has done well to tighten things up for Villa financially and clearly wants to get Villa in to the Premier League so it's a bit of a puzzle as to where Fry is exactly coming from.

The Verdict

Villa are looking good once more after a poor Christmas break and they'll look to continue against the Posh.

Fry's comments certainly don't seem to be that fair towards Xia, too, and it'll be interesting to see what bearing they have on the club's performance.

Thoughts, Villa fans? Let us know below!