Tom Fox

[CrackpotForeigner]

Paul Faulkner mk2

Errrr, no! Fox knows a little about football, Faulkner was an accountant.

Tom Fox is an expert in marketing and sales, about as qualified as Faulkner on football knowledge but that's his job. Appointing his pal Almstadt as a sporting director was **** ridiculous as Almstadt isn't a football man either. Successful clubs like Milan, Madrid, Barcelona have proper football people in these roles not statiticians

You clearly know Fox and Almstadt and their roles in detail. Care to share any other boardroom secrets?

They don't really fancy each other any more but just get on with it because it's all they know.

 

(Ohhhh. boardroom secrets.)

[MikeMcKenna]

Reference Almstadt, if he was good enough for Wenger, he is hopefully good enough for us and decided he wanted a step up. I know quite a few ex footballers who could pick their noses better than pick talented players. There is so much crap on here at times about "football knowledge". What does it mean exactly? The idea that Fox would purposely jeopardise his own job by employing "his pal" is rubbish. According to the BBC about Almstadt:  "The 40-year-old previously worked at Arsenal with manager Arsene Wenger on areas including scouting, contracts, data analytics and the club's academy." We are a club that hasn't been run professionally for decades and we need more "experts" and to take a more technical approach. The game is increasingly scientific and less about gut "football" instincts. Sherwood had "football knowledge" but picked Gestede and Lescott.

As regards Fox, I think he could be very good and is a professional CEO. He would have been doing very well at Arsenal and taking the Villa job was a big career risk. He acted quickly when it was obviously going tits up with Sherwood who I believe wasn't his first choice. I think he tried to get Garde back in January but Garde had given his word to his family to take a year off. Comments by Houllier suggest he has been talking to Garde for some time about Villa.

Of course Fox and others may be very wrong about Garde and end up getting slaughtered for it, but sticking my neck I think it could be the best managerial appointment Villa have made for over 30 years. This is definitely a risky appointment but if it pays off we may end singing Fox's praises as well. After all it probably came about because of his "old pal" Arsene Wenger :-) 

 

[nick76]

Reference Almstadt, if he was good enough for Wenger, he is hopefully good enough for us and decided he wanted a step up. I know quite a few ex footballers who could pick their noses better than pick talented players. There is so much crap on here at times about "football knowledge". What does it mean exactly? The idea that Fox would purposely jeopardise his own job by employing "his pal" is rubbish. According to the BBC about Almstadt:  "The 40-year-old previously worked at Arsenal with manager Arsene Wenger on areas including scouting, contracts, data analytics and the club's academy." We are a club that hasn't been run professionally for decades and we need more "experts" and to take a more technical approach. The game is increasingly scientific and less about gut "football" instincts. Sherwood had "football knowledge" but picked Gestede and Lescott.

As regards Fox, I think he could be very good and is a professional CEO. He would have been doing very well at Arsenal and taking the Villa job was a big career risk. He acted quickly when it was obviously going tits up with Sherwood who I believe wasn't his first choice. I think he tried to get Garde back in January but Garde had given his word to his family to take a year off. Comments by Houllier suggest he has been talking to Garde for some time about Villa.

Of course Fox and others may be very wrong about Garde and end up getting slaughtered for it, but sticking my neck I think it could be the best managerial appointment Villa have made for over 30 years. This is definitely a risky appointment but if it pays off we may end singing Fox's praises as well. After all it probably came about because of his "old pal" Arsene Wenger :-) 

 

I agree about this football knowledge.  Football pundits who are ex players are always talking about knowing the game can only be achieved by playing the game at that level, it's just rubbish.  You are either good at your job or not and experience helps with that obviously but playing the game is very different from managing the game or being a business person within the game.  They are completely different skill sets.  

 

Most of you work in companies where generally the best individuals get promoted to managers so they get more money.  Being an expert technically doesn't make you the right fit to be a manager and I see that in business all the time.  Companies don't like losing key staff so they promote them to management so they can pay them more. These individuals don't have that skill set, they don't have a business brain and it's causes many problems. 

[hippo]

He s been here well over a year now, Is the club in any way in a better state than when he arrived ?

[BG_Villa_Fan]

He s been here well over a year now, Is the club in any way in a better state than when he arrived ?

Off the field - absolutely.

[hippo]

He s been here well over a year now, Is the club in any way in a better state than when he arrived ?

Off the field - absolutely.

Explain ?  

[BG_Villa_Fan]

He s been here well over a year now, Is the club in any way in a better state than when he arrived ?

Off the field - absolutely.

Explain ?  

Better structure and less dependent on the current manager, (expected) better financial results, better sponsor contracts, more decisive actions when it comes to getting rid of managers, signs of improving PR - from disastrous 19th century level to early 50s level. 

Edited November 2, 2015 by BG_Villa_Fan

[hippo]

He s been here well over a year now, Is the club in any way in a better state than when he arrived ?

Off the field - absolutely.

Explain ?  

Better structure and less dependent on the current manager, (expected) better financial results, better sponsor contracts, more decisive actions when it comes to getting rid of managers, signs of improving PR - from disastrous 19th century level to early 50s level. 

Well I still think he should acted quicker re Lambert and Sherwood. 

I thought our sponsorship deal was only comparable to what went before

Better financial results - I would say thats almost totally down to the TV money

PR - subjective - he hasn't said much since his false narrative fiasco 

[Rds1983]

Paul Faulkner mk2

Errrr, no! Fox knows a little about football, Faulkner was an accountant.

Tom Fox is an expert in marketing and sales, about as qualified as Faulkner on football knowledge but that's his job. Appointing his pal Almstadt as a sporting director was **** ridiculous as Almstadt isn't a football man either. Successful clubs like Milan, Madrid, Barcelona have proper football people in these roles not statiticians

The people in charge at Barcelona are all businessmen, accountants, lawyers or doctors. Their director in charge of sports (Jordi Masdeu) is not an ex footballer and the only 'football man' they have on the board is Xavier Vilajoana Eduardo who only played for Barca C and other teams of that level. He did however go on and study business at university, something I doubt most 'football men do. The issue is not whether they played football professionally but how much they understand the game and what level of influence they apply within the club. As for buying players it is the same as at Real Madrid and their key players are bought by the President in election campaigns to try and get re-elected and managers are supposedly ordered to play these players.

 

Personally I would however like Villa to have an ex player linked to the club in a stronger/closer way. To help link with the fans, act as a non controversial/embarassing mouthpiece and to offer advice and experience.

Edited November 2, 2015 by Rds1983

[Eames]

Reference Almstadt, if he was good enough for Wenger, he is hopefully good enough for us and decided he wanted a step up. I know quite a few ex footballers who could pick their noses better than pick talented players. There is so much crap on here at times about "football knowledge". What does it mean exactly? The idea that Fox would purposely jeopardise his own job by employing "his pal" is rubbish. According to the BBC about Almstadt:  "The 40-year-old previously worked at Arsenal with manager Arsene Wenger on areas including scouting, contracts, data analytics and the club's academy." We are a club that hasn't been run professionally for decades and we need more "experts" and to take a more technical approach. The game is increasingly scientific and less about gut "football" instincts. Sherwood had "football knowledge" but picked Gestede and Lescott.

As regards Fox, I think he could be very good and is a professional CEO. He would have been doing very well at Arsenal and taking the Villa job was a big career risk. He acted quickly when it was obviously going tits up with Sherwood who I believe wasn't his first choice. I think he tried to get Garde back in January but Garde had given his word to his family to take a year off. Comments by Houllier suggest he has been talking to Garde for some time about Villa.

Of course Fox and others may be very wrong about Garde and end up getting slaughtered for it, but sticking my neck I think it could be the best managerial appointment Villa have made for over 30 years. This is definitely a risky appointment but if it pays off we may end singing Fox's praises as well. After all it probably came about because of his "old pal" Arsene Wenger :-) 

 

I'm not getting into who is right and who is wrong here - but I strongly recommend listening to the latest Aston Villa Review Podcast where Steve interviews an Arsenal fan about Almstadt. 

 

 

[Stevo985]

He s been here well over a year now, Is the club in any way in a better state than when he arrived ?

Off the field - absolutely.

Explain ?  

Better structure and less dependent on the current manager, (expected) better financial results, better sponsor contracts, more decisive actions when it comes to getting rid of managers, signs of improving PR - from disastrous 19th century level to early 50s level. 

Well I still think he should acted quicker re Lambert and Sherwood. 

I thought our sponsorship deal was only comparable to what went before

Better financial results - I would say thats almost totally down to the TV money

PR - subjective - he hasn't said much since his false narrative fiasco 

He sacked Sherwood after 9 games of the season. I think it's harsh to say he could have acted much quicker than that!

Sponsor contracts doesn't include just our shirt sponsor.

The TV money hasn't changed since he's come in. The increase in TV money starts next season.

PR doesn't just mean what Fox says. It means the club as a whole.

FWIW I agree with BG. But the most important thing he needs to get right is managerial appointments. Sherwood was a short term success but a log term disaster. I think he did well getting rid of him so early and not stubbornly sticking with him. I just hope Garde is a better fit. I think it will be, mainly because it's hard to be worse than Sherwood. How good remains to be seen.

[dont_do_it_doug.]

There are still people who think he acted too quickly re Sherwood. I think he should have gone pre Chelsea but that's by the by now, once again when the decision was made he didn't **** around taking action. They gave a clear and concise remit and followed through, within a week of that we have a new manager in place, overcoming whatever hold ups there might have been.

For somebody allegedly not a "football man" he's doing quite an impression of one.

[MikeMcKenna]

He s been here well over a year now, Is the club in any way in a better state than when he arrived ?

Off the field - absolutely.

Explain ?  

Better structure and less dependent on the current manager, (expected) better financial results, better sponsor contracts, more decisive actions when it comes to getting rid of managers, signs of improving PR - from disastrous 19th century level to early 50s level. 

Well I still think he should acted quicker re Lambert and Sherwood. 

I thought our sponsorship deal was only comparable to what went before

Better financial results - I would say thats almost totally down to the TV money

PR - subjective - he hasn't said much since his false narrative fiasco 

With regard to Lambert it's very possible that there was a transitional phase where Lerner was still backing him and that it was Fox who persuaded him that he had to go. As regards Sherwood - it was 9 games in after the guy had been credited with saving us - can't see how he could have acted much quicker and even then he was obviously talking to Garde hence the speed of that deal.

No idea how much the sponsorship will be worth, has it been announced?

The results from his tenure have not yet been published

What "false narrative fiasco"? Show me any club that publicly debates what they are going to do when they have problems with the manager. I agree that AVFC have been poor overall on the PR side for years, but I don't think that can be at Fox's door.

If Garde succeeds in saving us and then starts to turn the club around it will be down to a large extent to Fox. If he doesn't, Fox will have failed and probably pay the price as Faulkner did. 

 

[Mark Albrighton]

I think any delay to the Sherwood sacking was due to that appointment being Fox approved. His first big mis-step but I kinda get the reluctance in letting him go as it was more on him. Fox was taken in by the forthright attitude of Sherwood which was infinitely more appealing than Lambert's mumbled man walking. 

[Stevo985]

There was no delay though. He's been sacked incredibly quickly. 

You could argue he could have gone a game or two early but it's hardly huge. I don't think it woudl have made a big difference anyway apart from potentially missing out on Big Sam. But for all we know they could have explored that option and for whatever reason it wasn't going to happen.

[AntrimBlack]

There was no delay though. He's been sacked incredibly quickly. 

You could argue he could have gone a game or two early but it's hardly huge. I don't think it woudl have made a big difference anyway apart from potentially missing out on Big Sam. But for all we know they could have explored that option and for whatever reason it wasn't going to happen.

I don't think Allardice is the sort of manager they envisage for the club. The times they are a-changing!!!

[AntrimBlack]

I thought Sherwood was a good appointment at the time. And he achieved his remit - to keep us up - the importance of that cannot be underestimated. Also he gave Sherwood a fair crack of the whip this season, and I suspect Sherwood's fate was sealed several weeks back, and the wheels were put in motion at that time.

[NIVillan]

The bloke managing to get Rangers win every game wasn't a Football Man.

As soon as I type that I find out that Rangers lost their first game to Hibs!

[mykeyb]

Its easy being commercial manager at Arsenal when people are looking to throw money at you, I am still waiting to see something which make me think yes he is a big improvement on Faulkner.

[a m ole]

I think not being Paul Faulkner is a good start.