New Aston Villa chairman Steven Hollis has claimed that Villa's American owner Randy Lerner is passionate about the club and wants them to become a Premier League power.

Lerner had previously put Villa up for sale in 2014, but after struggling to find a buyer he now intends to keep the Midlands club.

He has suffered a strong backlash from the club's fans following the disappointing results this season and recently put local businessman Hollis and chief executive Tom Fox in charge while opting to take a back seat himself.

Of Lerner's plans for the club, Hollis said: "Technically any asset in the world is for sale at the right price. But Randy is pretty passionate about this place.

"He wants it to go to whoever takes it on in the right state and he was pretty blunt in his press statement that it's not in the right state at the moment.

"He did say last May that if he can't sell it he would put a structure in it to make it the right state. He wants to make this club one of the best-run in the Premier League."

"That outburst of raw emotion from the fans in that FA Cup game is more than understandable when you think of what the fans have been through.

"I'm learning, that is football. It's a very emotion-driven game."