Paul Faulkner

[PauloBarnesi]

he mentioned the fact that he was at the Wycombe v Chelsea, so maybe he's not just some business man that Lerner champions. He's also a football fan. (Unless he was out in the street selling scarves )

maybe he’s read Wikipedia? Maybe if he came out with the entire 1896 Villa team I would be impressed?

[Moorski]

PF is a young CEO,hopefully he has learnt a thing or two over the last two seasons and now he is starting to get to grips with his role.

The appointment of Lambert is certainly a step in the right driection & he did well at the PC today.

[smetrov]

Faulkner has a lot to prove in my book. I can't fault the appointment of Lambert exactly what we need after the last couple of years.

I don't want to tempt fate, and really hope I am wrong - but I just don't see PF & PL getting along at all - its a ticking time bomb for me. I really hope Gary Karsa does make the switch - as he seems to handle the signing\ negotiating of players contracts - which would leave Faulkner to concentrate on the business side of things.

[AVFCforever1991]

i ahve to be honest, it hought he was excellent at PC. he conducted himself very well. lets hope the big cock ups are over with e.g the unspoken one

You Need to change your sig

[steve_avfc]

Having a silent owner and a silent CEO is not acceptable.

I met PF with PL after the press conference. PF does understand how important fans are. He even remembered me from when I met him with the General two years ago.

He took the time to listen, he is a good CEO for us. We had a good chat, he listened well and I asked him to tell Randy a few things I put to him.

One of the issues I asked him to discuss with Randy is that fans need more communication from him, some fans have not even heard his voice and although Randy don't like communicating to and through the media, he should do so to the fans.

I told PF that Randy could communicate with fans more in various ways :

He could have somthing written in the match day programmes like Doug Ellis used to (the chairmans page).

He could have emails written every so often and get them sent to season ticket holders (and fans registered with avfc), like a certain previous manager did.

He could have something put on the avfc site (OS) every so often.

Hopefully Randy will consider these communication issues and communicate with us.

Also, from the what we said, I can say our bright future is back.

He also told me the General is still involved with the club even though he is busy with his college role as president. I don't think the General did a runner now. PF did not know if the General would return to the forums.

[SikhInTrinity]

Randy did communicate with us last summer to ST holders, but the communication and content got laughed at.

[steve_avfc]

When I was with PF, I kept thinking ''what can I tell him to pass on to Randy''. Hope PF has a good memory to relay the things I said

[srsmithusa]

Seeing that our wages are/were higher than that of Spurs and most other PL clubs, we really need to have someone at the club that is good at valuing and negotiating player contracts.

That would suggest replacing Faulkner, then?

Whilst I'm not here to defend Faulkner as I don't know the man, I would like to give an alternative view on this matter.

Back in the day when Lerner and O'Neill just came to the club there was a wave of optimism along with hundreds of millions of pounds spent, not only on transfer fee's, but on wages and infrastructure amoungst other bits and pieces.

Man City then joined the game, and obviously the goal posts changed. Lerner and his board would of probably have been quite willing to spend even more to try to sustain the 4th place finish for a couple more seasons, however with Man City blowing football inflation out of the water, Lerner and co had to readdress the situation, and the consequences are there for all to see.

Now, lets think of another dimension... Man City didn't join the races and we sustained our challenge at the top. Chelsea have crumbled, Liverpool have crumbled and Man City are no where to be seen. Fourth place, or higher, would have probably have been achieved by now albeit with a set of accounts which show wages as 90% of turnover. However, with the fourth place done, the infrastructure in place to move forward with continued sustained challenges at the top of the table (not Everton style), all of a sudden without having to make any cut backs on wages that 90% figure would have just dropped to a much more reasonable % without compromising anything.

As it stands, Man City blew the flood gates open, Lerner had a wobble, O'Neill sulked and all the cracks which could have been covered for many a year longer with a little bit of CL success are now looking like great big caverns found only in the dark depths of Mars.

Faulkner is taking the blame, he seems to be an easy target, but possibly it isn't quite justified as the guy is obviously very well respected to be voted onto the FA board and at such a young age, he is still developing and likely to make mistakes like the rest of us (though Mcleish is still totally defensible).

An intelligent, articulate, well-considered post. You are clearly on the wrong site.

[steve_avfc]

Randy did communicate with us last summer to ST holders, but the communication and content got laughed at.

Yes, I think it was a letter ?

Once a year is not enough.

[Pez1974]

Faulkner is clearly an intelligent guy, with good business nouse - you don't attract the attention of someone like Randy without a very good skill set. However, and as we all know, his knowledge of football was pretty low when he joined, and his first year or so left an awful lot to be desired.

But.... over recent months you can see how much he has developed.

I have seen a number of interviews with him on the BBC and SSN, so he is getting the fact that the club needs to talk to the fans. And when he does, he is sensible, articulate and professional - unlike a lot os club spokesman you see.

The commercial side of the club has clearly improved under his stewardship.

And finally, the appointment process of the new manager is a huge improvement on the debacle of a year ago - not only in the person appointed, but in the way it was conducted.

Overall, although I would still like to see a football man at the top of the club to provide him with any assistance he needs, and preferably a Villa man, I think we now have a young(ish), talented, and committed man at the top, who will continue to improve the way the club is run, and provides a vital link to the man who owns the club.

[DamsonwoodVillan]

He's recovered his position with me to a degree with the appointment of PL.

But I'll reserve judgement until I've seen exactly how much backing they've given Lambert on September 1st.

[smetrov]

Given that Faulkner is UK based - and Lerner isn't. I would say Faulkner runs the club on a day to day basis - with Randy making the big decisions.

When someone as inoffensive as Graham Taylor calls Faulkner 'One of the most naive men in football' - you now your up against it. He was rumoured to be against the appointment of Lambert at the time, I often wonder if that is festering away between them

[jacketspuds]

Surely Faulkner isn't a football CEO though. Any CEO in his right mind would tell Lerner that the current plan will see us relegated. No CEO would look at how Lerner is running the club and not be concerned. Faulkner just seems to do what he is told and not really act like a CEO at all.

[villaajax]

Paul Faulkner the easiest target piossible. His job is to get business deals for the club and e.g. he got a better deal off Macron than NIke were paying

Nike don't need our business where as Macron, who nobody had ever heard of were desperate for a 'big' English team and so were happy to pay us a load for the privilege of making our shoddy kits.

[PieFacE]

I've asked similar questions over the past year on this forum and have never got a decent reply. I've always asked people who criticize Faulkner why they are doing so? What does Faulkner do on a day to day basis? What is his job? Then it gets ignored. He's just an easy target. But at the end of the day, he's a bloke who's doing his job, he's doing what Randy has asked him too. If he was doing that job poorly then Randy would have sacked him, he's obviously doing his job well and I get the impression he works well alongside Randy. But at the end of the day, every decision this club makes (apart from who to buy) is down to Randy. If Randy isn't up to it he should have hired a team to do it for him. But he hasn't, he has total control, he takes complete blame.

[villadude]

RL is set upon running the club his way, that is without any football experience at a high level.

I think you mean 'any' level, let alone a high level.

[tinker]

We need a director of football or a managing director of the Daniel Levy type. They would not have allowed the signing of Ireland, we had no manager at the time and he would not have allowed AM to sign N'Zogbia. We already knew he was was a problem with him and the blues situation, anyone with an ounce of football knowledge would have known the issues surrounding these type of toxic players.

Managers come and go, a Managing director stays and overseas the financial side of the football business.

[PieFacE]

Well he seems to be doing alright lately eh?

 

Been a pretty decent window for us so far, can't help but feel that the two Pauls work together quite well as a team. 

 

I didn't want to give any abuse to Faulkner when things were not so good as I had no idea what he did on a daily basis, so I'm not going to give him too much praise either. But I do find it slightly annoying that when things are crap he gets a lot of abuse on here, but when things have been good like this window, he barely gets a mention. 

[TRO]

The way it appears to me is that Randy TRUSTS Paul Faulkner over and above anything else....and that is the key.

I would suspect Randy would accept the fact that Paul Faulkner is short on Football Nous but trades that off against his overall academic knowledge of business in General. I would suspect Randy himself would say he too can learn the detail of the football industry as he goes along and he will gain in confidence and stature too....much like our young players are doing.

also,from what I can gather there is a healthy respect between Paul Faulkner and Paul Lambert and future success will only get that bond stronger...They too will learn together.

On the subject Of Randy IMO Attitude/Persona scores more than ability. Ability in football can be learnt over a period of time, Attitude is more difficult to change ( i.e HDE)

I see a healthy relationship between RL/PF/PL the ability like the players will get better and stronger as the experience grows.

....many mistakes have been made, but essentially its Randy's money and if he thinks in general that the mistakes are a learning curve as opposed to anything else he may well just accept that in the relative short term.

Daniel Levy...no thanks. Its one thing having the nous its another trying to be too clever for you own good.

[TRO]

Well he seems to be doing alright lately eh?

 

Been a pretty decent window for us so far, can't help but feel that the two Pauls work together quite well as a team. 

 

I didn't want to give any abuse to Faulkner when things were not so good as I had no idea what he did on a daily basis, so I'm not going to give him too much praise either. But I do find it slightly annoying that when things are crap he gets a lot of abuse on here, but when things have been good like this window, he barely gets a mention.

I'm always reluctant to criticise someone when I'm unsure of the facts....To me Paul Faulkner is a developing Football CEO, not a fully fledged finished article. Much Like Karen Brady in the sense that the owner has given him/her their wings. She has gone on to make a name for herself( don't like her, but respect her ability) I would suspect Paul will too.