hooter

What date is payroll day fellas ?

At the risk of once again being accused of ghoul-like behaviour, it does seem like some don't quite get the **** nightmare you are potentially walking into. It isn't a case of what you can get in a fee for a player. It is simply an exercise in kicking the can down the road. Player A. Worth in normal circumstances 10 million. Current wage 30k a week "Buyer" knows you are **** to a stump. "We'll give you £5 mill up front to keep your lights on, but you pay us 15k a week for the next 2 years towards his wages" "Where do I sign ??" Once the world knows you are short of cash, this is what happens, and what means Bruce was I assume merely doing the Dr's bidding and putting the entire squad up for sale. There really is no other sensible explanation for what he said, given precedents.

As I said on the other thread, from experience it is the hope that kills you. I remember when we found ourselves letting Danny Mills, England full back, go to man City for a nominal fee which saw us pay a chunk of his wages for a year or two, Viduka to Boro similar. You are left wondering how the **** it came to this, the answer, hand to mouth economics leaves no real room for negotiation. What terms these guys leave on (if disclosed) will tell you whether the shit you are in is bollock high or nostril high.

Out of interest, what of the stuff in brackets do you think will have escaped even the most basic of scouting networks ?

It's the hope (however ridiculous) that kills you...

They eventually banned him once he had a live (ie unspent) conviction in Italy, even then the appeals process can see it drag on for many, many months. Unless you can find a criminal record, for a crime above a certain threshold, I don't think you'll get much help from that prick Harvey.

No commitment to the cause...?

As @WaccoeOnline said, if folk on here genuinely want some advice, then it is probable that the fellas who did the really innovative legwork at Leeds might be willing to give a few hints, either of us can certainly ask. The TimeToGoMassimo campaign became an art form, loads of viral social media stuff I don't begin to understand, they had EastEnders actors doing vids and all sorts, way beyond me. The Bates Out one was less social media, more toe to toe "**** you, you bastard", as a 50 something that was one I felt more able to contribute to. ? Fact is it took until about 2009 for our fanbase to start to fight back, and we spent the next 7/8 years doing it. Now I'm hopeful the guy we now have is honest, whether he is good enough time will tell, but for the first time in a decade I'm willing to give him a chance. Our experience would certainly suggest to me you fellas need to organise, and fight for your club, our support waited too long, and bates was playing much smaller numbers, the damage if you don't remove Xia will be potentially eye-watering.

Well, a good first port of call is to do al you can to heap shame upon him. Our Arab crooks hated that, as did bates and Cellino, I'm sure Xia will too. You need a group of folk willing to organise, in full knowledge they'll get shit from those who are blind to what is happening. Then you need to raise a bit of money, get someone in your support to design some damning posters, rent the billboards around VP and have your posters up for the first few weeks, nothing at all Xia or the club can do. Local press will be all over it, so you've free publicity. After that the world is your oyster depending how well you can galvanise support. Be innovative and do stuff the Birmingham mail will cover (tip them off), it'll then go notional, and social media will take it to Xia.

Bates was an object lesson in "creative loans", largely because most banks had no interest in lending to him. Debt accrued to strange unidentifiable BVI-based vehicles, and latterly all manner of "pay day loans for corporate entities" companies when hocking future ticket and catering income. GFH were if anything worse, they just loaded the club with punitive debt owed to them, if the club "owes" Xia as well as others it obviously explains why a. he won't sell yet , and b. he'll sell anything or anyone he can, at any half decent price, if he gets cash up front to keep the club running whilst it simultaneously sells other assets to "repay it's debt to him". Once the virus is embedded in a football club, the lack of clarity and "delayed accountability" that companies house rules allow mean it is a bastard of a task to work out what damage is being done before it is too late, with an eye to our many scars I'd suggest assume the worst until he can prove you wrong, and do anything you can to unsettle and eventually remove him. Sadly you'll find loads of your fanbase just won't or can't understand what is happening, and the battle is to get them onside so as you have strength in numbers.

It brings me out in a cold sweat just remembering some of the details, scum the lot of them.

I think VP is classed as an asset of community value, our Trust managed to get the same status for Elland Road. If so, my understanding is it gives partial protection, it can't be sold on without "the community" (in our case I believe that means the Supporters trust) being given 6 months (I think ) to try and come up with a bid to buy it. I don't think there is any obligation to accept that bid, even if it matches any other, but the long and short of it is you'd get plenty of notice if there was a plan to sell the ground, whereas ours just passed into the hands of an unknown BVI entity almost overnight back in the day.

Gotcha.

So your plan is to just sit it out and let Xia do as he wishes ? When you've a proper word removed owning you, then believe me, you really do need to get your act together. I'm not talking Ellis or Bendall, but you might realise now there is a degree more urgency re this Xia fella. You need to **** shape up, or you'll be in shit up to your eyeballs before you know it.

Would you buy a used car from a bloke called "Luke Organ" ? Really ?

No level of loss is impossible when you are owned by a crook, GFH charged us over £20 million in "management fees" over less than 12 months. If you have no cash left, then the entire wage bill, and anything else you owe, are your shortfall as things stand.

As has been said, you need a couple of hundred folk to agree to annoy the bloke beyond belief, then it'll grow. Billboards around the ground are a really cheap effective start, get some supporters to design biting (but legal) parodies of Xia, and post them around VP a week before the first game. Get them all over twitter, you'll be surprised how easy it is to get right under the skin of the fake billionaires....

You scared our lad , you've had it coming... https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/122235/How-a-scared-player-ghosted-past-defenders-and-hotel-staff-to-escape-tomb-service You scare Leeds, we'll be back. ?

*impending* we had loads of these. They don't help.

Try "only five/six/seven/eight years ago they were Champions league semi-finalists". I hear you. But the only way we've ever shifted the bastards that owned us was eventually by some occasionally innovative positive action, largely organised online. One lot in particular were very sensitive to negative PR. Maybe Xia is. You might want to find out who owns the advertising hoardings bordering the ground for instance, because Villa won't. We had a very resourceful group of fellas crowdfunded for this... https://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fi.dailymail.co.uk%2Fi%2Fpix%2F2016%2F02%2F15%2F19%2F313DEF9F00000578-0-image-a-65_1455563317064.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Fsport%2Ffootball%2Farticle-3448294%2FLeeds-fans-project-messages-slamming-Massimo-Cellino-Elland-Road-stadium-bid-unwanted-owner-out.html&docid=QoR5WJCsbDPGQM&tbnid=HQKWIXQhJ9HZ0M%3A&vet=10ahUKEwjtkpiPt4vcAhXLAsAKHRO3BnkQMwg8KAQwBA..i&w=636&h=382&bih=837&biw=1670&q=cellino out&ved=0ahUKEwjtkpiPt4vcAhXLAsAKHRO3BnkQMwg8KAQwBA&iact=mrc&uact=8

Maybe so. But if someone is only offering one hand to drag me out of a river, I'm likely to take it. ?

Well you could take one of two views I guess. There may be ways in which our experience might help you broaden the knowledge amongst your fan base that your club is being wrecked. Or, we might just be popping by for a cyber version of a Zinger and chips. Your call Mr Sensitive. ?

I can't speak for him, but I'll speak for myself. Growing up in Erdington in the early 80s as my mates went to Rotterdam and I went to Plymouth to get hammered 6-2 wasn't fun, I took a lot of stick, but we're all big boys, and as we all know, once you have a team, you have a team. I worked at Villa for a couple of years stocking the bars etc, worked Villa home games, used the money to go to Leeds games the week after. I've loads of mates who support Villa, yes you've had the upper hand for 15 years, yes, I enjoy a giggle back, but here's the rub. We've seen shit owners on a level you can't begin to imagine, shit criminals who nearly ended our club. For all I want to get promoted before you, I've no interest in seeing Villa crushed as a club, and be in no **** doubt that is your potential fate as it stands. As far as it is possible to calculate, you are way deeper in the shit than we were, because we hadn't the leverage that PL money provided you. I know the poster you quoted, and I honestly think, in a dispassionate fashion, he is telling you to get your heads out of your arses and start to accept the level of trouble you may face. FWIW my view is you probably need to pray for admin quickly, a friendly if not loaded buyer and a few years to re-build. If this Xia fella hangs around the hole only gets bigger. We tried all sorts to unsettle the words removed who owned us, opinion is divided how much effect it had, but it is better than doing nowt, right ?

It really is straight out of the Kenneth William Bates book of lies, chapter 1.

We've a couple of fellas who became adept at picking apart loans until they were eventually traced to the BVI, at which point sadly they become invisible. The fact he said "bank loans" rather than "debt" should be a mighty alarm call fellas.