Found this on another forum
Villa player release a statement
VILLA PLAYERS BLAST ELLIS OVER SPENDING
By John Curtis, PA Sport
Aston Villa players have questioned the ambition of chairman Doug Ellis after
a series of financial cutbacks.
The first team squad took the unprecedented step of issuing a joint statement
voicing their concerns at the stance being taken by Ellis who put the club up
for sale last October.
But attempts to find a buyer for the midlands club have floundered and the
players are unhappy at the extent Ellis has tightened the purse strings.
The players, in a statement, said: "People talk about Aston Villa being a big
club and winning the European Cup in 1982.
"We feel it should be a big club but if the chairman has got ambition, he
needs to start showing it. It has to come from the top.
"So many other clubs are doing so much to show their ambition apart from us.
As players we're all ambitious and we want to improve on last season.
"The chairman should be behind the club and not working against what we're
trying to achieve. There have been a series of cutbacks and we feel we have to
mention this because they are now starting to affect us.
"At the end of last season, the chairman refused to pay #300 for the pitches
to be watered. The training ground development, which we were all looking
forward to working in, has stopped.
"Now we have lost a masseur because the club refuse to pay for one and are
clubbing together to pay for our own.
"We have also heard that the physio, who was on his way to see Martin
Laursen, could not claim back for a cup of coffee at the airport.
"We've had no explanation for the cutbacks and we feel if the manager (David
O'Leary) can't get one, then we have no chance.
"Maybe the chairman thought he would have left by now because of the
takeover. Supporters are concerned with what happens on the pitch and rightly
so.
"But we feel with all the cutbacks, it is difficult to attain the targets we
all share.
"In the second half of last season, there was no investment in the team, a
loan player - Eirik Bakke - was sent back to Leeds, and now we're unable to sign
James Milner from Newcastle.
"There are no positives coming out of the club. We need to see a plan where
the club is going and all the players feel the same. Every penny is being
watched."
I wonder what price Villa are to go down?
