Keener window-cleaner

Just some common sense perhaps!

Haha I'm sorry ? I meant in the seasons after McGrath, I don't remember who used to play alongside them after (Grayson? Scimeca?)

I remember him playing Hutton in right wing some match, but can't remember 3 at the back, could be that he did at times. It was difficult to tell what the formations were though. Was more like a 9-1-0 (Stephen Ireland being the 1).

With Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer jointly replacing Stephen Clemece as "dressing room" coach.

Fully agree, in principle I'm for taking chances on new managers with little experience/former players. It will be interesting to see how Gerrard and Lampard will do for example.

Henry to me is too much of a gamble. I wasn't impressed by him as a pundit, no idea how he would work as a manager. Being no 2 in Belgium is another thing than being a manager in the Championship. I also think Belgium messed up tactically in the semi final, even if Martinez called the shots, Henry gets part of the blame. To me his part in the France WC 2010 fiasco also leaves a bit of a sour taste. The only real positive for me with Henry is that he probably is quite well connected and could attract young gems from other countries, I guess he could also have a feel-good effect as many will probably want him as a manager because they liked him as a player. Regardless of the new owners coming in, I still regard us being in a state of crisis and think we need stability. Let's make sure we pay our bills, lift the securities on the car park etc, fill up the vacancies at the top and make sure we keep our key players first, then we can consider a new manager taking us forward.

The EFL. And then they give us a fine. It would be obvious that the urinals sponsorship would not be worth £100m, but a way of getting around FFP. But otherwise I agree with you, the FFP rules seems to be sweet music to creative lawyers and owners. And the fines don't seem to be very hefty nevertheless. Personally I'd be more for not trying to dodge the rules too much but try to be on a good foot with the EFL and try to do what's right. I would be ok with adding a sponsor name to Villa Park for a couple of years, some loan-to-buy/buy-back-deals, sell some of the players (except Jack and the kids) have a dialouge with the EFL regarding the situation and the rules, and then see what they say about the numbers in red come next march/may. (And if all that fails, perhaps Xia can give EFL a motivational speech, or they can be invited to sit next to him on a matchday/get free ticets to the theme park)

I'm obviously only guessing here. But I got the impression that Xia was running out of time, had to sell and therefore wasn't in the best bargaining position. The new owners seem to be shrewd businessmen. Why would they - who are the ones that are going to fund the club from now on - give the minority owner a free ride with their money and let him sell his shares at his own discretion. And why would the new owners let him have 45% of the shares and let him be one of the board members on unlimited time, letting him have a huge influence of what happens with the new owners money, especially after previously having run the club to rock bottom. My guess would be that the new owners have an option to buy Xia out in x amount of time with the price being set already with add ons if we are promoted.

Looks like it's a bit of third time lucky for Bruce with the 5-3-2, iirc he has tried it two times before and it failed big time. Now with a whole pre season and some youngsters and others who can be moulded in to this formation it might work. When was the last time we played 5-3-2 prior to Bruce? I have a vague memory of Southgate, Ehiogu and someone else, with Charles and Wright on the wings... was it under John Gregory? I'm not really a fan of it, I think it usually gets too packed in the middle, in attack the wing backs and the three midfielders often being stood in a line congesting the middle of the pitch restricting movement. I also like proper wingers or wide forwards when 3 in attack. But carried out the right way I guess it can be efficient.

I wonder if the new owners were the ones that Mandaric was in contact with.

I wonder if we now have money to loan players, if so I would love to have Snodgrass back. He seems to be with West Ham still and I guess Pellegrini wont have him as first choice.

Three actually, Xia has "rather more" than a billion remember.

If Jack stays I will fly over to Milwaukee and give Wes Edens a big hug and a kiss on the forehead, then I will fly to London and bow down in reverence in front of Nassef Sawiris.

I'm having big hopes for him, he looks like a natural CM, his movement is top class. I love the way he constantly takes up new positions and makes himself available every time he passes the ball. Hopefully he will bulk up a bit and get a run in the side. I thought he looked really promising last pre season too, a bit disappointed that he didn't get more games last season.

Although I don't want Xia to be associated with the club in any way after what he has done, while he is here, perhaps he can be used to promote us in China, building up a fan base there. He can be like our cheerleader in the east ? not interfering with the daily business at the club.

One thing I forgott about in my rush of excitement over our new overlords is what happened to the fit and proper owners test? Did it not have to be conducted as Naz and Wez only bought a minority stake each? Or did the EFL do it in hyper speed time? If so the EFL should get a big thanks (although I'm not sure if that's how we want it to work really). Anyway, after have passed Xia and others I guess this test doesn't mean much, can as well just skip it if it isn't revised. (Sorry if this has already been explained on here)

I think your memory is correct, with the owners being Eggert Magnusson and a consortium backed by the Icelandic bank Landesbanki that later went into liquidation in the wake of the Icelandic financial crisis...

I'm cautiously optimistic about this. From the outset I wouldn't be too fond a billionaire from a dictatorship and a Wall Street private equity broker. Never mind a joint venture of the two. The first I would assume is corrupt and being filthy rich in a dictatorship normally means being dependent of being in good standing with the dictator, with your assets at risk at any time. The second one Wolf of Wall street-type normally cares most about himself, money, power and fame. Being our new owners I will support and welcome them with an open mind though, and not let any of the prejudices above come in the way. Sawaris makes a good impression to me, and I particularly like the links to Adidas, he must have good contacts in sports which should be good for us. Edens hopefully has had his trial and error phase at the Milwaukee Bucks and take all the good experiences back to us, owning a sports club in the US must be quite different to owning us though. This time around I wont get too excited by the nice talk, but rather judge them by their actions. I would demand (wish I could do that) that their desicions are with the long term best of the club in mind, that they are open and transparent with the fans and involves supporter groups. They also need to kick (buy) Xia out of the club as soon as possible for me to fully accept the ownership.

I was wondering the same, there must be thousands of competent sports club owners out there, I wonder how Sawiris and Edens linked up.

This and other posts in this thread is what I just love with this forum. We have a new owner from the other side of the globe and swoosh we have fans living nearby who can give an insight to the rest of us of who he is, thanks a lot! ? Feel free to share any info or opinions you guys have about him.

So we are now owned by these guys It's a bit like the Good, the Bad and the Ugly!

Alright, I guess it's ok to say it now, I think he sounds retarded.

I thought Xia/Recon bought Villa mainly for marketing purposes. I wonder how they feel that has worked out. Anyone fancy buying some Recon products? Or some tasty glutamate from Lotus Health perhaps? If someone offered me a Recon product I would probably not hit the person, but I would for sure let them know what I think of Xia and Recon.