Neil

We can probably get away with saying just how it is, and giving him a public lambaste...but setting about to make it impossible for him to ply his trade isn't going to go down well and that could definitely rise to disharmony within the rest of the team.

As long as what was said is fair enough, and we do everything we can to allow him to leave on an amicable footing there isn't much to shout about.  The key is letting him leave, we can't outright treat him with total contempt and ruin what left he has of his career.

Of course if there was any justice, he'd get his just deserves...but going over and above to make life difficult for him will definitely not look good.

47 minutes ago, Richard said:

Do you not see the irony?

In addition i would just suggest that him "rotting" could have the knock on affect of ruining the atmosphere at the club,  letting a bad apple ruin the rest as it were

I can see some sense in this.

Begrudgingly, allowing him to leave and sign on for a free transfer is the "amicle" way that suits all parties.  Yes Gabby will be "getting away with it", but who really cares - protecting AVFC interests is paramount and seeing off a player with a pay off and the best possible chance to ply his trade somewhere else sends messages that we don't deal players a bad deal after all.

2 minutes ago, Richard said:

Surely his position at the club is now untenable

Water off a ducks back, it's been untenable for some time it would seem - just shrugs it off and gets out the shisha pipe and "hippy crack".

Just now, Mammoth10 said:

Yeah I know just wasn't sure how long you could effectively enforce that for?

Dunno really, my point was you can give people gardening leave at any other business so I'm sure it could translate to football.  I'm not sure 5 months is  a great deal of time either.

Fundamentally it's the same issue, you give gardening leave to protect your business whilst still entitling the worker to full enumeration.  I was given it once when I handed in my notice, at the exit interview I gave all the reasons in full about my boss - he got really heated and the company felt it was best to place me on gardening leave than have me see out my notice.

I wasn't supposed to work for anyone else, though I had already a job lined up (hence why I was leaving) who were happy to take me on earlier.  Double bubble.

I'm sure the same principles would apply, we need to protect the business as we have a disgruntled player on our hands who could effectively sabotage the business by spreading his influence.

2 minutes ago, Mammoth10 said:

If it's possible in contract law ( I've no idea) I'd pay him off the remainder of his two years but on the basis he can't sign another contract with anyone else until the original contract expiry date, or he can take a much reduced pay off to become a free agent, his decision would be an indication of his true colours, and I know which one I  could see him making. Offer nothing whatsoever to this club now, bar the potential to be a bad influence. 

It's called gardening leave anywhere else.

18 minutes ago, jimcohen said:

because this stuff is normally kept in house as it may upset other players. Players stick together and some may think "what if Tony tweets bad stuff about me now?" 

 

Not that I disagree with the tweet, I love it. Gabby and all the players need to know their is a new sheriff in town!

Got a whole new room of players in that won't have already made the "clique" and so can't be influenced by these factors.

Now is a good time, and you might be suprised the players might quite agree with Xia when they see the attitude and disregard being shown by Gabby.  I know if I'm pulled into a new team, and I see a bunch of wasters who're letting the collective effort down I immediately don't subscribe to their hidden agendas.

If there was any justice in the world, Tony should have him strung up and publicly floured/egged by any willing Villa fans with Timmy Mallet constantly boshing him over the head.

Whole thing streamed lived on social media.

Glad this has come out like this, gabby needs a smack down to earth.  He sneakily tries to pull a bluff that he's a fan whilst not even putting in just an ounce of effort.

He's disrespectful to the real fans who would do everything in their power to do the best they can for the club.

Give him he'll Tony.

1 hour ago, Villanun said:

Despite all the signings and the positivity he's generated, I still won't support Xia until I know what colour his fridge is. Orange or GTFO.

Orange fridges, don't tell the wife..she already has me transitioning from black to silver on all white goods...

1 minute ago, LakotaDakota said:

we will have to wait until jan for loans, There is no loan window anymore, everything has to be done in the next 30 mins unless you are in the conference north/south or below

Yah, that was my thinking - why I was asking really.

So we might actually see some loans in by tonight, reading between the lines...it's a little ambiguous

That tweet suggests getting loans in before January, and a couple more buys in January.

So can we get more loans in after tonight, or is he talking about loans coming tonight? 

Interesting that they seem to have wanted more but couldn't nail em, from what I can make out of his tweet.

Good that they didn't panic buy, and stick to some that they wanted and seemingly walked away with after failing on a couple more.

Just now, Mjvilla said:

Scratched out... By one of their 8 fingers?

Painted long nails.

12 minutes ago, TheStagMan said:

I'm sorry. I cannot take criticism seriously when it is sent by people who use a pink forum.

Not to mention they're bickering like a right pair of Jessie's, handbags at dawn man...stand back you might get your eyes scratched out.

7 minutes ago, Woodytom said:

I think it was a time for stability and keeping things simple. I look at the team and it still lacks balance. We have 4/5 strikers. I've no idea where any of them play up front. 

Just seem to be throwing money at it with very little direction. 

Dunno, I guess the manager wanted players and Xia sought to approve all he wanted...so he's backing the managers "plan" I would hope.

We're supposed to be creating the most chances in the league, just not putting them away.  Hopefully that is an analyzed situation because if we could start going 2-nil up before half time instead of just 1-nil up it could change the 2nd half syndrome quite quickly.  Presumably he's looking to bolster our scoring options + backup.

Just now, Nigel said:

Its not about absorbing costs, its about growing the business, something Learner was pathetic at.

He just never Learned did he?

5 minutes ago, Woodytom said:

Which only further raises the question why not many of us show concerns at the time when the money is being spent in such a ridiculous way.

It really rather depends if Xia has a backup plan should we fail to reach promotion in the first few years.

That is to say, Lerners entire plan was reaching the Champions League and that was the measure of his financial clout.  Failure to reach the Champions League had everything come tumbling down like a tonne of bricks.

Hopefully, failure to reach promotion isn't Xia's one trick Pony and pulls the plug based on that failure.  Lerner was a crappy chancer really, gambled and lost.  Hopefully Xia can absorb costs for longer.

7 minutes ago, Woodytom said:

It doesn't matter if the scenarios are different. We can't pick and choose the moments in which we take the attitude of 'its not our money' imo.

I do think the situation is rather different from Lerner, we're a club in massive decline and gasping for air.

We're at the point of "go for broke"...go down trying everything we can to get bacckk, otherwise we're banished to lower league obscurity for a long time anyway.  Irresponsible spending isn't going to add much to the final penalty if it doens't work out either way so I'd prefer to give it the best shot, regardless of the financial cost.

Wonder if they would put things are off, just to back up their original on claim...they wouldn't do that would they?

I sense a lot of bullshit in the air, mainly emanating from Twatter.

19 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

Xia is a lot better than Lerner, therefore we should sit down, and shut the **** up, basically? 

Ok, I'm done here.

Fixed.

2 minutes ago, useless said:

Telegraph reporting that our striker search has failed and as a consequence Agbonlahor is going to be called back to first team training.

Oh dear, oh dear oh dear...

1 minute ago, Davkaus said:

Your bosses presumably wouldn't tell you publicly via social media.

I'd expect that I would already know, as they've already told me...leaking over to the public domain would not change the situation for me.

2 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

You don't think the owner of the club should be held to a higher standard, and should guard his words, slightly more than some random jackass on a forum?

You're correct, I don't.

Tiptoeing around the rot in our club has been our problem.  About time these Donna's are told how it is, if I'm shit at my job my bosses would tell me so.

3 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

I don't want to get in to debating the merits of Bennett's performances for us, but he spent years here, he no doubt has mates in the squad, probably still talks to a few of them, and I imagine they're equally unimpressed with the owner publicly mouthing off about details that are usually confidential.

The Holloway tweets, today's 'liking' a tweet that we need a new keeper. We're 5 games in, I dread to think what this dude is going to be saying publicly after a few more losses. He needs the PR team to filter this shit, he shouldn't be posting things in the heat of the moment, and based on the frequency with which he deletes his posts, he realises this to some degree.

Saying nothing many other fans and pundits aren't already saying in the public domain.

I'm not focusing on one person's performances, but generally those "insulted" will be guilty of the dross on the pitch so good ridden.

17 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

Rightly or wrongly, Bennett commented on Xia's tweets (admittedly, he later posted a fairly unconvincing retraction), and said he considered them disrespectful.

I'd be amazed if there aren't others in the squad who think the same.

Xia needs to wind his neck in.

What's disrespectful is taking all that money and serving the 2nd half tripe they have been.  I hope he rustles feathers and gets the shit out.