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Tony Xia vibes here. Many of our fanbase fell for the "dream" plan, whilst the sensible ones questioned the intent.

They manage 9bn of total assets. That's not their actual money, its money borrowed to them to invest and grow. Football is a notorious cesspit for money.

If they don't get promoted in a season or 2, this could get messy.

I'm not a financial expert by any means - but their portfolio gain is NEGATIVE 85.69 percent and the S&P500 is up 192% 

Even in the last 12 months they've lost 47.45% of their portfolio. Incredible stuff.

Source: Tip Ranks

5 minutes ago, 479Villan said:

Sir, are you insinuating that an American group of ubercapitalists would go into an economically depressed area, buy up public assets and/or other properties at at tremendous discount due to said depressions, collect favourable tax status after tax status upon same based upon promises of development and The Public Good, and then cynically turn those parcels of land into whatever will maximize profits over the well-beings of the town from which they acquired those assets?

I'm sure the competent local council, with an excellent track record of managing finances and protecting public assets has thoroughly investigated this matter. 

3 minutes ago, ender4 said:

£2-3 billion? Really! That's more than Spurs spent, more than Man Utd's new potential stadium, more than Real Madrid' stadium rebuild.    

They only manage around 9 billion in total assets. They are valued at 3 billion. They aren't going spend 30 percent of their portfolio on a football stadium, which will be half empty.

Tony Xia / theme park vibes here.

28 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

The boring truth is that the most important element in their domination of English football *now* is their decision to hire Guardiola as manager. 

The falsifying of commercial arrangements is what took them from a normal "also ran" club to apparently similar commercial revenue to Real Madrid.

They wouldn't have been in a position to get Guardiola / Txiki Begiristain if they didn't cheat to begin with. That's the point.

10 minutes ago, Designer1 said:

I'd rather they went out of business completely and their ground was turned into a Lidl.

I might be going soft in my old age.

17 minutes ago, bobzy said:

It's just a different level of what most teams do, though.  You can be angry about it...

...but then you also need to get angry about the relative purchasing power of Aston Villa.  We've taken Sevilla's best defender, Chicago Fire's main striker, Adelaide United's goalkeeper and they're all just "squad".

It's the financial nature of the Premier League.  Man City have the finances to do it against a higher level of club, but all PL clubs are doing the same thing in varying degrees.

Yes but we and Man United / Bayern do that using revenue within the framework provided. They not only "financially doped", but they used that to degrade other teams as well as elevate themselves.

If they operated within the rules by not falsifying commercial arrangements; then we would probably have Grealish, Leeds keep Philips (and stayed up), Wolves keep Nunes etc as they would be near FFP limits. 

1 hour ago, Pinebro said:

PL is a real farce and is corrupt to the teeth

Agreed. Their punishment should be points for each penalty, spread over the years they cheated or even a Ranger style expulsion to the National League. It's not just "oh they have loads of money", they've used financial doping to derail other teams.

Grealish: our best player, captain, everything to sit on their bench.

Phillips: Leeds best midfielder,  should have stayed up with him.

Ake: Bournemouths best defender to sit on the bench.

Nunes:  Wolves best remaining midfielder to sit on the bench.

Kovacic: Chelseas best midfielder to sit on the bench.

Now Paqueta: West Hams best player, who will ultimately be a squad player.

9 minutes ago, sharkyvilla said:

I'm surprised they've been so generous with the YouTube content.  You can probably see half the show in the clips they've put up.  

They are making a huge deal about "new eras", wresting is cool again etc. Clearly trying to re-engage lapsed audiences who left when it went OTT on the Cena PG stuff (that's when I turned off). 

Looks like they are working closely with TKO / UFC who are quite successful generating interest from Youtube. The press conferences are exactly like Dana White / UFC. Expect some sort of UFC embedded type work in the future

17 hours ago, VillaChris said:

would be like Everton rising from the dead to finish 4th or 5th this season which sounds laughable but Guissary has an amazing season and that's all it's really taken.

We was 4th from bottom 16 months ago.

Tin hat time. But I think you are incredibly naive if you don't believe there is some sort of favouritism in the Premier League. I don't think the refs are "corrupt" but the system behind them definitely is, and ensures biased decisions in favour of the Sky 6.

The Premier League is a business. there's billions and billions of pounds at stake, specifically with the international audiences. More money is made to have the "bigger" teams fighting for trophies and the top 4. Asia and emerging markets like Africa do not care one bit about Aston Villa, Everton, Newcastle, West Ham etc.

If it was us vs West Ham for the PL, hardly no one abroad would tune in or care. However if its Arsenal V Liverpool last day of the season for the PL, half the world tunes in.

Money talks

The tragic state of Ajax does bring into questions the mythical billionaire which seem to prioritise the PL, and not a club like Ajax.

Ajax already have a strong brand, huge fanbase, history, Amsterdam. Their youth academy / scouting network is renowned.

You wouldn't need to spend billions, just stop selling their best players each year. If they kept together De Jong, De Light,  Martinez, Kudos, Timber, Alvarez etc they'd have some team! 

Starting to think Gary O'Neil will be perfect for the Liverpool job. He does an absolute stellar job of being a victim after every game. 

2 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Potter left after 6 games

Yes, so De Zerbi took Potters team that had already picked up 5/6 wins, started on fire and carried on with it.

In his first full season, it appears he will finish in mid table, or even as low as 12-13th. That is a mediocrity , yet he is lauded as some great manager. There was even Athletic podcasts comparing him to Emery. The same Emery that took Gerrards team from 4th bottom to 4th top.

59 minutes ago, bobzy said:

Curious as to how they've regressed?  Under Potter, they finished as high as 9th.  Under De Zerbi, they finished 6th last season and are currently... 9th.  Which part of this is the regression bit?

IIRC the season potter departed (was early season), Brighton had won 5/6 games and were near the top of the table. De Zerbi continued with that, the team Potter had built.

Now in his first full season they are closer to 13th than they are 6th, likely to finish somewhere around 10th.

9 hours ago, VillaChris said:

Everyone slagging them off and they'll probably finish 6th again. I'd back them to beat Chelsea and Man. United at home in the run in with the state those two are in, maybe Newcastle away aswell.

Don't think people are slagging them off. It's this hilarious myth that De Zerbi is a great manager, which Liverpool are hopefully falling for.

Graham Potter built this team, the philosophy and the way they play. They've actually regressed since De Zerbi came in; and could easily finish 10-12th this season

3 hours ago, Mic09 said:

Sure, that is an opinion.

To anyone that says this is the case, why don't man city get rid of Guardiola, save absolute millions, and get Rob Edwards? 

And in similar fashion, considering Man City control most games and don't face many attacks, is Rodri a fraud of a defensive midfielder? 

Horses for courses.

All managers needs to be tactically astute. Managers of the "top clubs" is more about managing egos, or having a stronger character than improving players. Rob Edwards might not be able to manage big ego's. even Unai struggled at PSG with the biggest of egos.

Likewise Pep might not be able to take a team of league 1 players and premier league rejects and improve them to the level where they may stay in the PL.

Unai has taken a relegation level team to the cusp of the CL. Improved every player.

Rob Edwards has taken a league 1 team to the premier league. Improved every player.

Pep has taken unlimited resources, and a stacked team to where they should be. 

With regards to Rodri, if you look at Man City's form without him, i'd hasten to add he is the main reason why they control games.

1 hour ago, HanoiVillan said:

Found myself at the Etihad last night, for the first time in nearly 20 years (pretty sure the last time was back when Stuart Pearce was managing them). I know it's not a novel observation but it is a dead, dead place to watch football. Literally only started singing when they were 3-1 (with the bizarre chant, 'to the library, 3-1') and then only for a minute or two, then again after the fourth but for less time this time, then about 15% of them had left by 82 minutes. What, you don't even want to clap them off the pitch?

Seem to have no songs for any individual, except 'super Jack Grealish'. Nothing for Foden or Rodri.

Silent, boring, utterly dead. It's not just the ground, there was honestly way more atmosphere when they Joey Barton and Sun Jihai in midfield. 

I was there and completely agree. We was all discussing this is the dystopian future "death of football, fans and atmosphere".

As the game kicked off until their first goal it was literally silent, genuinely worst atmosphere in such a beautiful stadium. Same after we equalised.

By the time they went 3:1 their "hardcore fans" near the away section were mainly just trying to taunt the Villa fans, no ground atmosphere at all. They were probably the ones who go away to VP and had the taunting in the reverse fixture (fairs fair).

They are now 90 percent a tourist club. My friend is a Man City Fan (Polish + Wisla fan but decided Man City will be his UK team). We went to the Real Madrid semi final last year as his friend and his son could not make the game. Family to the right of me were Rotheram fans I think, In front was a Leeds fan. Guy behind me was from Miami.

Also worth noting, on X there's a lot of talk of attitude problems at Hull and previously at Villa. His performances dropped severely since his wonder goal and being linked with PL clubs.

Our club aren't daft. We wouldn't sell a player (if he's that good) to then buy a replacement in Rodgers for 15 million.

15 minutes ago, MWARLEY2 said:

But when we talk about buying him back thats when i think we have gone crazy. 29 in September , all of his bravery being coached out of him . A treble on his mantelpiece means his hunger might not be what it was.  3 seasons of playing strictly on the left wing not allowed to do anything off the cuff . Spending the majority of this seasons important games on the bench . All the signs of a player that has reached his peak and is now on a downturn.

Wearing my Claret and Blue tinted glasses, if we could get the old Grealish, on that left hand side attracting 2/3 players. That would open so much space up for Diaby / Bailey on the other side. Unfortunately that guy is gone. Regardless, he's on 300k a week, only those with over inflated commercial income can sustain that type of wage.