Steven Hollis

[Dr_Pangloss]

I do not like the cut of this mans jib at all, in fact, based on my first few impressions, I'd go as far as to say that Steven Hollis is a total word removed. Naturally the problems run much, much deeper than him, but he's going to be a fun punching bag, that's for sure. 

Edited January 24, 2016 by Dr_Pangloss

[jacketspuds]

The real test for us will be how Hollis deals with other clubs. We need a Chairman who has a clue about football, someone like Levy at Spurs. A proper bellend but a bellend who gets the best for his club. Hollis seems to know nothing about football and wants to turn this club into a business. Referring to the fans as "customers" is **** disgraceful. I'm currently not confident that this guy will bring anything but embarrassment to this club. The truth is we are already a laughing stock and somehow this will make things even more unbearable.

[HanoiVillan]

2 hours ago, ROTTERDAM1982 said:

Hes annoying me already, an accountant who is completely out of his depth.

1) We are not "customers", we are supporters.

2)Even if you think we are down, you don't say it.You could argue that a new striker, and a goal scoring midfielder, then we would have had at least 2 more wins in the last 4 lwague games.

3) How does RG feel.Says there is not enough quality in the team, and yet he and Fox say he is happy with the squad.

4) Even if you expect to go down, there are still plenty of better players out there who would improve us, and be happy to play for a club like Villa, and more importantly get 6 months in the Prem.

 

 Hes a poor manager Hollis, and i'm pissed off with him already.

Leaving everything else to one side for a minute, this 'meme' is rubbish. He was clearly talking about previous businesses he'd worked in, in the context of the sentence, and when one guy got all mad about it anyway, Hollis apologised and explained what he'd meant. Just looking for stuff to get annoyed about at this point. 

[BOF]

[thabucks]

He needs media training, as I think in that respect he is out of his depth when dealing with the press in footballing matters. Just keep quiet now and give us actions not sound bites & buzz word*

i think that's why one of those mythical football men we here so much about might come in handy. 

*(I know he has only just joined and hasn't had time yet to implement change I mean moving forward) 

[Stevo985]

2 hours ago, ROTTERDAM1982 said:

Hes annoying me already, an accountant who is completely out of his depth.

1) We are not "customers", we are supporters.

2)Even if you think we are down, you don't say it.You could argue that a new striker, and a goal scoring midfielder, then we would have had at least 2 more wins in the last 4 lwague games.

3) How does RG feel.Says there is not enough quality in the team, and yet he and Fox say he is happy with the squad.

4) Even if you expect to go down, there are still plenty of better players out there who would improve us, and be happy to play for a club like Villa, and more importantly get 6 months in the Prem.

 

 Hes a poor manager Hollis, and i'm pissed off with him already.

1) He didn't call us customers

2) He didn't say we were down

3) I'm pretty sure he didn't say that

4) No arguments from me.

[dont_do_it_doug.]

Though I agree with Stevo above that almost all of these quotes have been taken out of context, he does have an alarming habit of putting his foot in his mouth. So far he's spent most of his time here doing so.

Surely part of his remit will be to keep the fans onside. He's doing a terrible job of that so far.

Leave the press to Fox, at least people think he's a word removed for saying what they want to hear rather than thinking he's a massive word removed because he can't say anything right.

[blandy]

52 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

1) He didn't call us customers

2) He didn't say we were down

3) I'm pretty sure he didn't say that

4) No arguments from me.

Agreed. I think the problem is that he's come from a world where talking in these buzzword phrases is the norm. Then he's suddenly in a world where people want to have a clear, free from jargon, honest, straightforward message and assessment of things. He doesn't set out to offend, or to talk gibberish - it's just a different culture and he needs to get out of the habit of talking in corporate bolo-speak. It's annoying enough when people do it at work, but when people do it about "our" football club it's treble annoying. None of this means he is or isn't going to be any good at his role. But he really needs to stop with the jargon and start saying things in English.

Instead of saying "we're not going to waste a good crisis", which anyway is someone else's phraseology he's borrowed, just say "look, the problems we have, have starkly exposed a number of things which need to be sorted out, and we'll do that so that they don't continue to drag the club down" (or something). 

[TRO]

On 23 January 2016 at 16:54, VillaCas said:

Remi Garde's coat had R.G on the chest. It should read either R.G. or RG

Aren't these exactly the kind of infrastructural flaws that Hollis was bought in to sort out?

Pull your finger out Hollis!

"Bang on the dot"

Edited January 24, 2016 by TRO

[TRO]

When there are so many aspects to being a good chairman or executive, I think it is a bit judgmental to be so critical so early.

It could be the early adverse comments prove to be right, time will tell.

But,Lets see if he can do a bit of good for us.

There will be good time for the lynch party and lighted torches.

 

 

 

[tomaspg]

22 minutes ago, TRO said:

When there are so many aspects to being a good chairman or executive, I think it is a bit judgmental to be so critical so early.

It could be the early adverse comments prove to be right, time will tell.

But,Lets see if he can do a bit of good for us.

There will be good time for the lynch party and lighted torches.

 

 

 

it is early indeed to be judgemental and critical, but most villa fans are in a bad place right now and board members, chairman, executives and all the other people with fancy titles are an easy target. him putting his foot in his mouth almost everyday is making it very hard not to pounce on him(for me atleast)

[sne]

If one of his main jobs is to absorb critique that would otherwise have been directed at Lerner, he seem to have gotten of to a smashing start as he has already rubbed quite a few people the wrong way.

 

[Stevo985]

6 hours ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

Though I agree with Stevo above that almost all of these quotes have been taken out of context, he does have an alarming habit of putting his foot in his mouth. So far he's spent most of his time here doing so.

Surely part of his remit will be to keep the fans onside. He's doing a terrible job of that so far.

Leave the press to Fox, at least people think he's a word removed for saying what they want to hear rather than thinking he's a massive word removed because he can't say anything right.

I agree. But putting your foot in your mouth isn't calls for some of the abuse he's suffered in here which continues to baffle me.

 

[terrytini]

2 hours ago, TRO said:

When there are so many aspects to being a good chairman or executive, I think it is a bit judgmental to be so critical so early.

It could be the early adverse comments prove to be right, time will tell.

But,Lets see if he can do a bit of good for us.

There will be good time for the lynch party and lighted torches.

 

 

 

I'm suprised you (or anyone really) feel this way to be honest.

Do you not think that however many other things he gets right, his view on spending money (clearly sanctioned or requested by the owner) is what will define him (negatively) in the short, medium, and long term ?

It does for me.

[ferguson1]

Actions speak louder then words for me, that's what we have to judge him on surely! So in the short to medium term let's see if he can improve things around the place and perhaps he should occasionally tell us, as improvements are not always visible!! 

[briny_ear]

7 hours ago, TRO said:

When there are so many aspects to being a good chairman or executive, I think it is a bit judgmental to be so critical so early.

It could be the early adverse comments prove to be right, time will tell.

But,Lets see if he can do a bit of good for us.

There will be good time for the lynch party and lighted torches.

 

 

 

He riled me mainly through his duplicitous and slithery talk about the investment there has been during Lerner's reign, trying to make it seem much more substantive and effective than has actually - and very obviously - been the case.

Don't really need any time to make that judgment. He came into our midst spouting bullshit and has received a deserved backlash.

[mykeyb]

If we get one or two loan signings in and manage to stay up by the skin of our teeth does anybody else share the opinion that Hollis would only sanction a NET spend similar to this summer?

[TRO]

16 hours ago, terrytini said:

I'm suprised you (or anyone really) feel this way to be honest.

Do you not think that however many other things he gets right, his view on spending money (clearly sanctioned or requested by the owner) is what will define him (negatively) in the short, medium, and long term ?

It does for me.

Terry, believe me I have gone way past, being p***** off but , I'm now in the zone where I am looking for the crocusses to appear.....a point where we can start to turn this Ocean liner around.

FWIW  I agree with Hollis....I don't think that Money alone will fix it....bury me if you want....but thats what I think.

However, I do think in the "here and now" we need to buy our way out of this mess.

I hear you say that sounds contradictory....not quite.

What I am saying is we simply cannot afford to buy any more players that are not going to work.....we have had our unfair share of them.

We MUST get the next bunch of signings ..right.

Ps However paradoxically.....if I thought we had someone at the club that could spot talent and bring it in......I think money alone would fix it.

Edited January 25, 2016 by TRO

[Richard]

29 minutes ago, TRO said:

Terry, believe me I have gone way past, being p***** off but , I'm now in the zone where I am looking for the crocusses to appear.....a point where we can start to turn this Ocean liner around.

I'm past pissed off

I looked for crocuses and found none only trampled ground where they used to appear

I'm past looking for crocuses

I;m now in depressed resignation of our fate as a club

[terrytini]

Yeah I think I'm with Richard, I think the only realistic approach is to have completely abandoned hope.....I think Lerners position is clear enough, and it doesn't include selling or investing.

There's that great bit in Band Of Brothers when the 'fearless' Corporal explains why the others are scared and he isn't..."It's because they still hope they can get through this.....if they accepted they were already dead they would find it easier to be brave"...I think that's all I have left !! (plus a tiny sliver of hope that we've found a Manger who will end up fixing it all by himself, but I'm not close to thinking that yet !).

But my real point was that Hollis didn't say money alone won't "fix it", (we would all agree with that) he said "This is not about spending money. That is not the reason why the club is not doing well. Other things need to be fixed before we go out and spend big money."

What I am saying is that it really doesn't make a scrap of difference what 'non-money' things he changes (which, by the way, are notoriously vague things anyway) if he holds (or has been told to hold ) this view.

Money IS the (main) reason the Club is not doing well.  There are many ways of putting it, but one simple one is how close to Spurs (for example) do we think we want to be/should be ?  Now look at their spending compared to ours.  It dwarves it.

Just because one or two Clubs are holding their own, or having good seasons, without having spent as much as us, doesn't mean that what we spent and the resulting position shows its not about money !

I've seen many of your Posts talking about finding gems, good scouting, good coaching, getting the right characters,and all the rest (and I agree with them)....but lots of Clubs can (and do) do that, but the Clubs getting success (I don't mean a one season wonder like Leicester) spend significant money, both on Fees and Salaries.  Theye always have, always will, everywhere in the World.

To rephrase what he said, "If we really went out and spent BIG money (well), the 'other things' that need fixing would quietly recede into the background."

As I said, to me, those 3 sentences of his are, barring some miracles from Garde, the last nail in the coffin for the forseeable future in my view.