allani

"It seldom ends well for people who puts themselves in front of the club, it usually goes better for the ones who appoints people and let them do their job." What - like Lerner? (Sorry I know you said usually!! :-) ) I have to say that when Lerner took over I thought he was going to be the best owner ever. So I'm definitely in the "once bitten, twice shy" camp when it comes to our new owner. However, I'm far happier about him tweeting away about the club (with the odd cringe here and there over some of the comments - although as someone who has just moved to a new country and who has used words incorrectly to the amusement of the locals it is often difficult to understand some of the hidden meaning of certain phrases) whilst already making good on promises to extend the reach of the club in India (first of many I think). I think it is unfair to judge him based on what other owners have done - he seems to be very much his own man and from a new generation of businessmen. I need more time and more action before I make a judgement but I'd rather have a owner who excelled with action and made the odd verbal **** up - than an owner who excels verbally and ****s up with their actions - or even someone who does nothing on either front. We're yet to see which of those categories Xia falls into...

I hope that means that we are keeping him but that they thought he would be better off spending more time doing fitness training or something. But I might be clutching at straws.

I assume you are referring to this one: "Sorry I didn't mean to imply I know who it is, for clarity I don't. I agree with the above post, I think this is a roll for one of those infamous 'football people' rather than someone like Cortese who I can't really see is needed with the personnel already on board. I think it will be of international standing in the game in a playing and probably managing capacity. I'd assume they will be here to head up scouting networks, coaching and development and be involved building this club network. I'd be very surprised if they are British, more likely to be from Southern Europe or South America I'd assume. It will likely be someone like Sven but hopefully not the man himself. I'm really eager to see who it is."

Awesome news. I love Ian Taylor - demonstrated everything in a player that our squad has lacked for the last 4 or 5 seasons. The more we can get the likes of him and Little around our players and youth teams the better. Hopefully, their enthusiasm will be as infectious as the recent malaise that hamstrung the club was. Trying hard not to get too excited with all the positive vibes that I'm feeling!

"...from what I can see he got 1 goal and 1 assist in 11 appearances in all competitions. 184 minutes in total...." Not disagreeing with any of the other points made at all - but 184 minutes equates to 2 matches. Strikes me that an assist and a goal every other game in a team that would stuggle to score in a brothel is actually pretty damn impressive. I hope that he stays, keeps fit and proves some of his potential to justify selection - because if he replicates those kinds of stats across a full season then we should be doing pretty well! 20 goals from one winger would be incredible. :-)

Wasn't the main part of his initial brief to help with the search for a new manager? (Or am I making that up / misremembering?) With the arrival of RDM and SC I think it is fair to say that he has done his job. Would still like to think that there could be a role for him at the club - maybe working with RDM / SC on player recruitment (?) - as there is no doubting his passion for the club.

Thanks for the translation (and some of the added context). I'm beginning to really like our new owner - sounds like he has a good (and in many ways quite an English / cynical) sense of humour!

I think that is pretty obvious from the league table and the stats in terms of goals scored, goals conceded, chances created, etc. If he hasn't been able to work out that then he is in the wrong job. We scored exactly 50% of the number of points of the second worst team in the division - that should be a BIG clue that the squad is probably not very good (heavy on the sarcasm). Also didn't Adrian Bevington spend two months at the club assessing the playing, coaching staff and helping advice on managerial candidates? You would hope that he would have pulled together a pretty decent dosier with an assessment of each and every member of the First Team Squad, U21s, U18s, etc. I just hope that it is an honest and genuine assessment.

Both of the people we seem to be most heavily linked with have "history" of getting teams promoted from the Championship - this I suspect is the one of the (if not the main) criteria that our advisers have identified when it comes to selecting our next manager. I think Moyes' identification of the fact that we maybe need three different teams to get back to a Top 6 team - may have triggered thoughts about whether we also need three different managers. Moyes and RDM both have experience of competing at the top of the Premiership and in Europe - so may potentially have gained the upper hand with that consideration. However, I think that the new Board will also be considering other non-footballing issues as well. Let's not forget that Xia's aim is to crack the Chinese market - so he is going to want a manager that not only brings results on the pitch - but is also likely to be able to appeal to potential new fans in China. In this respect I do think that maybe RDM and Moyes' demeanours would probably put them ahead of a slightly more combustible Pearson (although I've not really studied their pre/post match interviews so I may be being unfair here). Obviously the main factor has to be getting someone in who can deliver results on the pitch quickly - but I feel that we're also going to need someone who can help with the building of the Villa "brand" (even if it is just showing their interviews on TV, media, etc).

The other option is that he has followed our recent history and realised that one of the issues (but not the only!) was Lerner's unwillingness to talk to either the fans or the press - and that this is something that he feels that he needs to address? Either way I think he is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Give the information and be "guilty" of trying too hard. Don't give the information and be "guilty" of being a shadowy figure. It feels to me that this was more about opening communications and addressing some of the initial concerns that proving one specific point (just so happened that the point he was being specifically asked about was about no-one knowing whether he had any money). As you say all he needs to do is pass the "fit and proper" tests - so this feels more like something he wanted to do. If he doesn't have the cash - then surely presenting "data" to more people than he strictly needs to is more likely to result in someone finding a problem with the data and pointing it out to everyone else (and most importantly to those that do matter and could block the deal)?

I thought that as well - seemed to be a "we thought about him but we have other options that we think might be better". Pure speculation on my part but I'll now be surprised in RDM is our next manager.

To be fair his figures are SO wide ranging that he hasn't really given much away. I suspect that everyone would expect us to spend £20 million minimum - the £50 million is so much higher as to suggest that he will spend what the manager (and I assume others) think we need to spend. I don't think he's opening himself up to being held to ransom - any more than you would expect of a new owner who seems to be loaded.

As long as they now enable VillaTalk....:-)

If I was an agent I'd want to sell the players on my books for as much money as possible as often as possible. I think I'd still be aiming for a high(ish) release clause so that I get a decent cut - I'd rather get my cut of £10m initial sale, my cut on the players new bumper wages, then get another cut on another £10m sale the next year. It's not in my interest to negotiate a stupidly low release clause of say £5m. I'd be backing my ability to be able to persuade another club that my player is worth signing post relegation - certainly for a lot more than 50% of what he was bought for 12 months before - after all the club only got relegated because the other 10 players were **** and no-one can keep winning points on their own. Even if I had negotiated a 50% release clause I'd not be making that public knowledge until late August and would instead be hoping that buying clubs would value the player more and put in an offer well above the release clause and / or would be trying to trigger a bidding war (I don't think this is illegal?). Unless of course I knew that the player was **** and was only worth £5m to start with - in which case maybe I'd be thinking of grabbing the cash and running. Agents are looking after themselves not the players they have on their books.

I'm going for the 1890 kit - you get a belt with that one as well!

Long run in the Championship I assume you mean. He's doing such a fantastic job in Spain.

Thank **** for that.

so basically, last seasons player of the season Clark gets bumped down the pecking order to facilitate a 33 year old ? i'm still of the opinion that (when fit) Okore & Clark should be our CB pairing as they look a far better 'pairing' than Richards & Clark, and Richards would move to LB giving the whole back four a better feel (IMHO) Richards - Okore - Clark - Amavi not sure how Clark will react if dropped, could be another Cahill situation all over again. If you think that Clark was PotS last year then no wonder we only just avoided relegation. I can't see him as being anything better than a Premier relegation / top of the table Championship player. Lescott for a season is an improvement and hopefully we can buy a longer term solution either next summer or the one after.

£55m would put us 5th in the league. If I go to a bar, buy a pint using a £50 note and get £46.50 change, it doesn't mean I've spent £50. If I sell my bike to my brother for £50 and then go to the pub and buy drinks for all my mates and the bill comes to £55 - I have still spent £55.

Allani Newcastle 1-1 Arsenal Villa 2-0 Sunderland Bournemouth 1-0 Leicester Chelsea 2-0 Palace Liverpool 0-0 WestHam ManCity 5-0 Watford Stoke 1-0 WestBrom Spurs 1-0 Everton Southampton 2-0 Norwich Swansea 0-2 ManUtd GW2

Presumably we haven't bothered doing a Gabby one either... :-)

Allani ManUtd 3 0 Newcastle Palace 1 2 Villa Leicester 1 1 Spurs Norwich 1 2 Stoke Sunderland 2 1 Swansea WestHam 2 0 Bournemouth WestBrom 0 5 Chelsea Everton 1 1 ManCity Watford 1 0 Southampton Arsenal 3 2 Liverpool GWs=1

?????? Running our defence at the moment.

I think a lot of people have a very short memory to think that the club has not improved under Lerner. Villa was all about one person before Lerner arrived - everything began and ended with Ellis. If a hypothetical situation arose where there were two mutually exclusive options of (a) something being good for the club and fans or ( something being good for Ellis - then there would only be one outcome. When Lerner arrived he made huge efforts to understand what the fans wanted and tried to act on those that he could. Admittedly he has made some howlers along the way but we now have people advising him who seem to know how to run a club. Off the pitch we are beginning to resemble a proper football club - something that would never have happened under Ellis. Just a shame that Lerner didn't get this lot in when he started as we could have avoided a lot of the shit that has happened along the way. That is not to say that I want him to stay or that the last few seasons of on the pitch performances have been acceptable but if he left tomorrow then the new owners would be taking on a better club than the one that Lerner purchased. All in my humble opinion obviously!!!! Only the post you are responding too doesn't say we haven't improved since Ellis, it's says we are back in the same position and it's correct we are. Hopefully we might not be come the end of the season. Nobody in their right mind would argue we were better off/better run under Ellis or that he was a better owner. But the problem is that relative to all the other teams in the league we are no better now than we were when Lerner arrived in fact it could argued the gap between us and the top 7 or 8 has only increased. That isn't entirely Lerner's fault, far from it but that is the reality and so it's hardly surprising people are reluctant to heap praise on him. Kind of agree but the biggest reason that the gap has increased is because of the extra money in the Champion's League and then the big boys introducing FFP to stop anyone else from being able to compete on a level playing field. It is very difficult to come up with any plan to close the gap on the top 4 or 5 when they are practically guaranteed to earn £50 million more each season and have implemented a scam that prevents other clubs from finding other ways of "generating" that type of income. I guess that I just struggle to get over the fact that Ellis took "the best team in Europe" and dismantled it entirely because he hadn't created it. Maybe I just need to let it go now....after all it has been over 30 years.....

I think a lot of people have a very short memory to think that the club has not improved under Lerner. Villa was all about one person before Lerner arrived - everything began and ended with Ellis. If a hypothetical situation arose where there were two mutually exclusive options of (a) something being good for the club and fans or ( something being good for Ellis - then there would only be one outcome. When Lerner arrived he made huge efforts to understand what the fans wanted and tried to act on those that he could. Admittedly he has made some howlers along the way but we now have people advising him who seem to know how to run a club. Off the pitch we are beginning to resemble a proper football club - something that would never have happened under Ellis. Just a shame that Lerner didn't get this lot in when he started as we could have avoided a lot of the shit that has happened along the way. That is not to say that I want him to stay or that the last few seasons of on the pitch performances have been acceptable but if he left tomorrow then the new owners would be taking on a better club than the one that Lerner purchased. All in my humble opinion obviously!!!!