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thetrees

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Posts posted by thetrees

  1. First Holtby and it now seems Lambert was stopped by Lerner from signing Gareth Barry who according to Charlie Nicholas wanted to and still wants to rejoin Villa

    Any reliable source? Or just something imagined?

  2. I don't think the jet is anything to do with Villa. What I do know 100% is that an arab Prince (can't remember which state) is going to Cov Uni from the summer and he and his entourage are staying in the entire top floor of the Ramada in Cov so maybe the jet was one of his people in to check out the area.

    Just another point.

    People checking stuff out in Coventry/Warwick tend to fly to Coventry airport, not BHX.

  3. I don't think the jet is anything to do with Villa. What I do know 100% is that an arab Prince (can't remember which state) is going to Cov Uni from the summer and he and his entourage are staying in the entire top floor of the Ramada in Cov so maybe the jet was one of his people in to check out the area.

    Dear god, what a place to go to uni!

    Warwick university is in Coventry. Check it out on the university rankings. I'd have thought that's what persuaded him rather the sunny city of cov

    Yep, one of the richest men on Poland's daughter was at Warwick a couple of years ago, and she was always zipping around in one or the other of his private jets.

  4. East Midlands Airport this morning, dropping an elderly aunt off.

    I did my normal 'elderly' routine, parked up, carried her case in, lifted it onto the scale at check in, walked her to departures, gave her a kiss goodbye and then went on a quest for a pay station.

    Lots of big signs all across the expanse of the car park, but none indicating my desired location. Finally i fixed on a sign with an arrow, which led me around to arrivals, to be greeted by three pay stations that were out of order, with a note telling me to use the ones near the car park exits.

    Walked to an exit and, bingo, there was one (with a very small sign!). I pushed the card in and it demanded £2.30. As i didn't fancy the £1.50 surcharge for using my credit card, i scrabbled around and found the necessary change.

    It gave me back the card that would release me from my hell. I got in the car, drove towards the exit with paid card in hand, and before I could even push the window wind button, the barrier opened....

  5. What's the general view on the asking price ? £200-250m ??

    Well the debt is £125 million and he paid £62 million so I would say £190 million is a fair price. I doubt he will get that though...is he willing to take a hit? I doubt it.

    The company is capitalised at £223m, so that is what he has paid.

  6. Someone on the villablog last night seemed to think that the plane  that thetrees mentioned recently was registered in Houston. I'm not sure how he'd know but he I think he said he was a plane geek or something along thouse lines. Of course it could be the case but I guess it's a long shot that it's anything to do with us.

    The plane that thetrees mentioned the other day is operated by Netjets, the largest fractional ownership private jet company in the world. It is actually registered in Utah, probably for tax or bank/finance purposes as there are one or two states where it is advantageous to register aircraft, with Delaware another that springs to mind.

     

    Netjets have thousands of customers/share owners in the US, Europe and the Middle East.

    • Like 1
  7. This is from bellsareringing from a guy who joined and claims that he works with some people who are in some way involved with a potential takeover:

     

     

    I'm told - this is from a colleague rather than something I've heard myself - that there are to be 'discussions' over the weekend and that a 'team' involved on the purchaser's side are flying in this evening.

    This was a casual comment from a colleague so I can not entirely be sure of the veracity.

    It seems strange that this is not a home match weekend but then again it could be out of a requirement for keeping it as low key as possible.

    Can't say any more than that at this point, may know more next week.

     

    Apologies for being so guarded.

     

    Working today thetrees? Any way you could keep an eye out for that private jet you saw the other day or any other plane that you might think may be of consequence?

     

    Though I suppose they might not be flying into BHX if they're going to Palace game.

  8. Take this with a pinch of salt, but it does come from an associate in Liverpool who rarely tells me stuff, but what he does tell me normally comes close to the truth.

    Apparently Gareth Barry will turn down a three year contract at Everton in favour of a 4 year contract at the Villa, with Everton supposedly offering £75k per week.

    Doesn't sound like the new Villa to me, but who knows?

  9. He doesn't need to break FFP rules to sign better than we have over the past 2 years.

    Budgets wouldnt change much though. We're probably skirting close to non compliance with spending as it is over the last 3 years. We need to make more money before we can spend more, no matter who the owner is
    If our current wage bill.is skirting close to the edge then lerner's done worse running this club than I thought.

    Surely there's no way a club like us can only afford to pay the wages we have over the last couple of years.

    You've see the bottom line for the club the last 3 years the same as everyone else, it's been £30-50m a season in losses. The club claims that's balanced now and we're breaking even, but even at breaking even point we can still only add another £15m per season from the owner maximum, and that'd have to cover wages, running the company and transfer fees. It's not as clear cut as it used to be where a guy could come in and throw his personal wealth at it, the club can only spend what the club makes, plus £15m a year from the owner.

    If a new guy comes in, I'd hope the first thing he does is cut the absolute arse out of the non-playing wages, which are phenomenally high and don't seem to be delivering any value for money at all. Our first team squad can't be on more than £40m a season combined, but the company's wage bill is almost double that. Get that sorted and spend the money where it counts instead and we'll have a lot more to play with on the pitch

    The wage bill is £72m, which makes about £63m going out to employees. If the playing/coaching staff amount to 50 people at £40m, then the other £23m goes to the other 1550 staff at an average of £14529 pa. But i imagine that many of those are part time workers on matchday, who wouldn't be making anything like that kind of money.

    My conclusion is that your £40m estimate is low, as there are no other 'high earners' on the wage bill.

  10. A new billionaire owner taking over would increase profits through gate receipts and merchandising alone. Think how many disillusioned fans will return!

    I think that you will find that most of the really disillusioned ones turn up to each and every home game anyway.

    • Like 1
  11. Look how Manchester City are doing it. Look at PSG. These rules are far from bulletproof.

    Manchester City have a sponsor for the youth complex, and for the new youth complex they're having built. They have a stadium sponsor, they have New York City FC who will pay them a management fee.

    If the likes of Starbucks and Amazon can operate in the UK without paying much tax then the world's wealthiest people can find loopholes in FFP. These people aren't rich by accident.

    Apart from Randy who is rich by an accident of birth ;)

    Indeed, as are Sheikh Mansour and the Qatar people at PSG. Abramovich fares a bit better, he is rich by communism and the blessing of Putin.

    Anyway, any potential suitor for the Villa must have 'self-made' on their CV, otherwise they don't qualify ;)

  12. I could start a rumour because a big expensive private jet arrived at BHX Saturday late morning and departed not long after the game finished. I don't know where it came from, but it departed to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It's owned by a charter company, so no clues there.

    May have been related, may not, who knows?!

     

    This post has got the people on vitalvilla talking hopefully they don't start googling Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for billionaires, bless em.

    I would say 99.9% absolutely no chance.

  13. RBS. The bank we gave billions to when the shit they created hit the fan. Billions which could have been spent on the NHS, saving lives. The bank we own ...but don't really because it will be sold by our government to some rich people for the price of a bag of chips eventually. Look how they're spending our investment. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rbs-in-zero-hours-storm-stateowned-bank-helping-business-draw-up-controversial-contracts-9244652.html

    They're helping companies draw up zero hour contracts. Some thanks.

    If only the NHS wasn't thrown into every left wing argument.

    Billions are spent on the NHS, billions on an organisation where wasteage, fraud, and general thievery are part of the daily routine of some connected with it.

     

    You cannot spend all of the country's money on one organisation.

  14. Villa talk has unrealistic injury expectations.

    I think it is more that it is another angle to have a go at the manager.

    Is 'another angle' really required?

    I would have thought that there is plenty to go on already.

  15. It is somewhat galling that the second biggest team in a city about half the size of Birmingham, playing in a clapped out if somewhat atmospheric ground, owned by a former coronation street actor, can appear to be light years ahead of us. Why and how this occurred could be talked about for hours.

    It just shows the incredible opportunity that was missed by hanging on to O'Neill. The day that we got tanked by Wigan on the season opener was the sign that should have been taken and acted upon. It wasn't, and the rest is sad history.

    Who was the Wigan manager that day?

    • Like 1
  16. Lerner would not take a gamble with a manger from outside the UK. I genuinely think that if we were to sack our manager Lerner's replacement would be a worse manager.

    We all know OGS was his first choice so that is not true.
    Why let the truth get in the way of another rant??

    Lerner interviewed OGS as well as others but as far as it was reported he was never offered the job.

    But hey ho - crack on

    The 'gagging' request that I received from the club at the time suggested that OGS was the first choice.

    Only 'suggested', mind.

    haha the club actually hunted you down and had words?

    In a fashion, yes

  17. I am the last person to stick for employment agencies, but they are a business, and they do have a right to make money.

    Any dispute here is between the employing company and the agency, not you as an individual. You can accept a position, and if your employer refuses to pay whatever they have contractually agreed with the agency, then the agency will presumably pursue your employer for payment.

    Agency fees are extortionate, but that is what we as employers sign up for, and therefore they should be paid. As far as I am can see, the only 'bad guy' in this is your prospective employer. I don't know in what capacity the proposed employment is but remember, down the line, if they will do this to one of their suppliers (an agency), they will have absolutely no qualms in trying to screw over an employee.

    But it's a tough world, and you can't necessarily pick and choose who you go to work for.

    • Like 2
  18.  

    Because I'm daft I just googled Riyadh, Saudi Arabia billionaire and it came up with some guy who was linked with a takeover of Everton lol, I best not get my hopes up.

     

    (Yes I realise thats like googling billionaire The Hamptons New York and coming up with any random name :))

     

     

     

    To be fair my friend, if you are googling for billionaires in the Saudi capital you are, in the nicest possible way, living up to your VT name ;)

    • Like 1
  19.  

    I could start a rumour because a big expensive private jet arrived at BHX Saturday late morning and departed not long after the game finished. I don't know where it came from, but it departed to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It's owned by a charter company, so no clues there.

    May have been related, may not, who knows?!

     

     

     

    What would the rumour be? He came to meet Randy and then realised B6 was the last place he would find him? :)

     

    indeed.Probably just a tyre kicker.......

    • Like 1
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