Aston Villa centre-back James Chester has insisted that the ambition of the club and its players to reach the Premier League remains the same, he said in an interview with the club. 

After their play-off final defeat to Fulham, Villa's money troubles were revealed and they look set to massively influence the club's summer.

Promotion to the Premier League and the financial benefits that would have brought were meant to solve the problems, but the failure to get promoted has left them in a tricky position this summer.

Despite this, Chester is insistant that the players still have the fight to win promotion.

"Regardless of what's happening, it's up to us as professionals to continue to try and achieve it," he told the club's official website.

"You owe it to your team-mates and the supporters of the club to do your best."

One of the main features of this summer will be Villa's need to sell off some of their highest earning players in order to balance the books.

This has got the fans speculating about just how poor the season could turn out to be, but Chester has urged the fans to keep behind the team.

"My message to the fans is to try and stay positive.

"They're the most loyal people involved with the club and they will be there through thick and thin.

"Hopefully they'll continue to do that. We've not achieved our goal yet and we'll carry on trying."

So far this summer the only arrivals have been players returning from loan spells, whilst the sales of Jordan Amavi and Pierluigi Gollini have raised around £14million between them.

The verdict 

It is good to hear that the Villa squad still have the hunger to try and win promotion.

As long as a team retains its winning mentality then who knows what can happen.

As soon as they accept that they will have a poor season that is when the fans need to start to worry more.