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Aston Villa's director of football Steve Round has departed the west Midlands club, according to a statement released by the Championship side.

The brief statement simply states that Round had left the club, and that Aston Villa thanked him for his time and services for the club.

However, reports from the Mirror suggest the director of football was in fact sacked on Wednesday morning by the club's chief commercial officer Luke Organ - and one of the members of the current four-man committee running the club - as part of a major re-organisation going on at Villa Park.

A meeting was reportedly held on Wednesday morning with Organ, Round and Rongtian He - who serves as owner Dr Tony Xia's eyes and ears at the club.

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It was during that meeting, at the Championship side's Recon Training facility, that the decision was made over Round's departure.

The sacking of Round is the latest in a series of high profile departures from Villa Park in recent weeks, as the club seeks to drastically reorganise itself in the wake of severe cash problems and a failure to reach the Premier League.

Chief executive Keith Wyness has already left the club, and with Round leaving now too there is a clear signal of sweeping changes set to come into effect at Villa shortly.

A four person committee has taken over the club in the place of Wyness, though as reported late last week, the Football League is now probing a possible investigation into the group over concerns they do not have the football know-how to run a cash-strapped club.

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Manager Steve Bruce's future is also understood to be unclear following Round's departure.

Reports from earlier in the month have suggested there has been little communication between the manager and the board, with Bruce still in the dark over possible transfer budgets for next season despite pre-season beginning this week.