Fight Like Lions

Sadly that’s the modern game in a nutshell. You have to remember that Jacks agent is Jonathan Barnett, the same man who advised Jack to declare for England as it would earn him potentially ‘many millions’ in sponsorship opportunities. He also represents Gareth Bale who he apparently tried to convince to declare for England at 15 and failed. Despite Bale’s success Barnett claims that decision has cost Bale ‘millions and millions of pounds’. We all know Jack loves Villa and would probably be very happy to continue on his current deal but football doesn’t work like that anymore. It’s all agents and advisors behind the scenes arguing over money.

Alderweireld is on £70k and is demanding £180k! Spurs have historically paid lower wages but that is changing as contracts are being renewed. They are currently paying Onomah £20k/week so at the very least Jack would double his wages. They aren’t going to sign him for £30-40m and pay him a sub par salary.

Jack is on £25k/week currently, he will easily get £60-70k at Spurs so if he stays we are going to have improve his current deal.

Surely if he now stays we are going to have to offer him an improved contract, not least because Spurs are prepared to treble his earnings but if he doesn’t go this summer then he will be off for peanuts next summer? I hope he stays but I can’t see it now, if Spurs offer £30m next week then he’ll be off.

Maybe but having watched the 90mins that’s my honest opinion. Burton couldn’t hit a barn door otherwise they would have had at least a couple of goals, possibly more. Pre season isn’t the be all and end all but there wasn’t much creativity on show today at all, with the exception of our 4th goal. Will be interesting to see how we do against a better team in midweek.

I know it’s only preseason but De Laet was the only positive thing in an otherwise boring and frustratingly familiar Villa performance. Our defence looks weak, can’t believe we are considering letting Chester go. Difficult to see where the goals are going to come from once we get into a competitive league season too.

I’m not sure what the truth is either as I read earlier that these were the guys Wyness was trying to line up initially and got the boot for it!

It’s now officially Falafel Friday!

No bid (not even a low ball offer) yet Spurs apparently want Jack on the plane to USA for preseason on Sunday. Stories emerging again that we have another tax bill due on Friday. It’s so obvious to see where this is heading and it’s depressing. It’s no longer about recovering £40m for FFP it’s about putting something in the bank account to pay the immediate bills. Wouldn’t surprise me if Chelsea bid first and he goes on Friday morning for £15m.

Another day and he’s still a Villa player. Does anybody else wish Spurs would just get on with it so we can try and move on?!

He was on £15k/week, he’s taken a pay cut to stay. You aren’t going to find another full back with his experience for any less so it’s an excellent bit of business. Regardless of what people think about his ability, he’s clearly a pro who loves the club and will be a positive influence on the younger members of the squad. The fact the announcement has had most of the squad (plus JT and Snodgrass) congratulating him on social media says it all. First bit of positivity for a couple of weeks!

Not strictly true, regardless of his wages as a free agent he’d be entitled to a decent signing on fee which he is also prepared to forfeit in order to stay here. I don’t understand the criticism, he loves the club, his family are very settled in the area and he works his socks off? We’ve had much worse full backs at the club in recent times and when you consider his wages vs Neil Taylor I’m amazed it’s taking this long to sort him out with a new deal at less than £15k/week!

True but he doesn’t need the money so depends on how keen he would be on such a challenging role as his first managerial appointment. I think his playing days are over and he will retire to take a job in management. Chelsea U18’s job is the other possible route for him.

Maybe he’d be stupid enough to pay us to play ?

Thanks for clarifying. One of the issues raised has been the difficulty in transferring money from China. I don’t see how this amount will be any different? If the money is for Villa then also worrying that a loan was needed as we were led to believe Xia had the funds but he was having trouble getting them to the UK. From what you’ve said it looks as if Xia is struggling in his other companies too and therefore may not be as cash rich as we first thought. Appreciate your input on the thread, the next 2-3 months are going to be very interesting I think!

It’s a £50m loan in sterling so no issue with transferring from China, the money is already in the right currency. We don’t know for certain this is for Villa yet but hopefully it is. Possibly in exchange for some shares if the companies house thing is anything to go by. I’m confused about the company status too because someone posted a link from the FT yesterday suggesting Xia had sold his shares in Recon and was now on his own??? Hopefully @Deisler123 can help us understand the current company structure a bit better.

I’d rather wait a few months and restructure the whole lot when we have an owner in place who knows what he’s doing. Pointless doing it now with Xia in complete control, no CEO and no money.

Absolutely. We’re now talking about a club that’s vastly different to what we saw last season, both on and off the field. The idea of changing the manager when we have no money and players who right now don’t know what’s going on seems staggering to me. Who else are we going to get now? I’m hoping he doesn’t walk and can try and motivate the players left that he has a relationship with until new owners come in and it’s then their decision to make. (Not about being a fan of Bruce btw)

Hardly, we’ll be lucky to get £10-12m now and it’s seems that will only keep us going for about 8 weeks as things stand. The only saviour will be finding a rich investor to buy the club for £1 at Christmas and clear the debts. We have to hope that person has more than good intentions and actually knows what they are doing!

Is any of the money that he’s already put in showing as debt to him (or one of his companies) on our books? IF this new £50m loan is for Villa I presume that would? Would he have the same rights to that money back as any other creditor if so? Can’t help but wondering if he’s managing (perhaps unwittingly, perhaps not) to make it very unattractive for anybody to step in and buy the club at this point in time.

Well I hope they’re wrong but Birmingham Mail reporting this afternoon that a plot of land owned by the club close to Villa Park (Brookvale) is to be sold. Slippery slope once we start this approach.

I’m struggling to see in a world of digital currency like Bitcoin that an intelligent man like Dr Xia can’t find a way to get money out of China. I’m starting to side with people who said he was in this for a short term punt at getting us back to the Premier League. He put the whole house on it and failed and now won’t, or can’t put any more £££ in. I just hope this can be resolved without any risk to VP or the training ground and that any potential new owner doesn’t use us for an asset stripping excercise (if Wyness/Xia hasn’t already started that process themselves).

It’s a real shame we won’t get to reinvest this money because ordinarily I think most people would bite Leicester’s hand off for £40m (plus potential sell on) otherwise. I can’t see them bidding anything near that in reality.

If Jody Morris joins Lampard at Derby as Assistant Manager then I fully expect JT to be offered the U18 Managers job at Chelsea which I can’t see him turning down.

On the basis that he’s not ready to play for a top 6 side yet, I hope he stays with us for next season. If he leaves because we are forced to cash in and he ends up at a Wolves/Leicester/Watford type club then it will be a sad day. We’ll never know what might have been if he’d had a full season this year but hopefully another season in the championship is good for his development. If he can improve the end product then he could take his pick of clubs in a years time and I doubt many people would begrudge him that opportunity.