‘Chris Heck leaves Aston Villa after leaving fans raging and falling £30m short’
Aston Villa president of business operations Chris Heck will leave the club in the coming weeks after two years in the job.
The business head, who is set to take up a role at LIV Golf, helped Villa post a club-record revenue last season as turnover increased from £217.7million in the 2022-23 campaign to £275.7million.
Heck promised last summer (2024) that he would drive revenue levels up to £400million by 2027 but will not see out the course with the Midlands giants.
Villa’s revenue will be boosted this season due to their participation in the Champions League – where they were eliminated by Paris Saint-Germain at the quarter-final stage.
Nevertheless, Aston Villa’s former chief Keith Wyness – who served as CEO at Villa Park between 2016 and 2018 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – insisted Heck is still set to fall “£25-30million” short of his goal in his final season.
Heck can’t take credit for Aston Villa revolution, says Wyness
Wyness has already told Football Insider (9 May) that Villa’s next business chief must must pay a lot more respect to the club’s fans.
Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, Wyness insisted Heck cannot take credit for improvements on the football side of the club.
| Position | Team | Played | Points | GD |
| 5 | Chelsea | 35 | 63 | 21 |
| 6 | Nottingham Forest | 35 | 61 | 12 |
| 7 | Aston Villa | 35 | 60 | 6 |
| 8 | Bournemouth | 35 | 53 | 13 |
| 9 | Brentford | 35 | 52 | 9 |
He told Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast: “Heck’s own goal was to try and get to £400million in revenue.
“At the moment, he’s going to fall about £25-30million short of that.
“When you look at it, a lot of that revenue has been made up of prize money from the Champions League.
“If it hadn’t been for the football side, he wouldn’t have got anywhere near that goal.
“He wasn’t involved in the football side, so I don’t think he can take credit for that.
“We won’t see if he made big strides until the numbers from this season are released, but I don’t think he’s got near that target.
“He made improvements and he deserves some credit for being tough – but there are other ways to do it.
“Villa fans didn’t like him, didn’t like his attitude.
“He’s done two years, the numbers are improved, and Villa are going in the right direction.
“The development at Villa Park will have been something he was involved in, so he’s left his footprints.”
Arsenal plan to reignite Watkins move
Meanwhile, star man Ollie Watkins could be one player Aston Villa are ready to sell in the upcoming summer window.
Football Insider revealed on 2 May that Arsenal are planning to reignite their bid to sign Watkins this summer.
Villa knocked back a £50million offer from the London giants for their star striker, 29, in the January transfer window.
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