If a new owner came in

[villanwesty88]

Let's say a new owner came in at the start of the summer (perhaps wishful thinking). What things would you like to be done differently? 

For me, I'd like to see;

• An emphasis on getting the right people into the right roles who have a proven track record. 
   
• Focus on developing our youth players and hanging on to them until there is absolutely no chance of them making it at our club. For instance with Jordan Graham he should've been sent out on loan this season IMO and not released on a free. How much would he be worth after the season he has had at Wolves and how good would it be to recall him for next season in the Championship? We have let far too many good prospects go for either pennies or free over the years. It has to stop. 
   
• Communication with fans from the top. Simple - an owner who cares, attends games and will speak to the fans how it is. I'm fed up with hearing from Lerner's puppets spinning everything. 
   
• A brand of football that will excite fans and is consistent with our youth teams all the way through to the 1st team. 
   
• When we do need to recruit players, do it wisely and not just rely on statistics. We need some proven players in the side but ones whos careers (and legs) are not finished *cough, Lescott*. 
   
• A culture to win but more importantly a culture of togetherness. Win, lose or draw I want to see the team at least try - Leicester and Bournemouth are great examples of what can be achieved. In defeat I'd like the players to show respect to the fans who pay so much to support them - I love how all the players come to the fans after a match regardless of the result in Germany. Also players who think it is acceptable to post pictures of cars, or make comments that elude to "sod you lot, we've lost but I've got a £3m mansion etc" should be out of the club. 
   
• A vision. Instead of existing the club has to aim for something. For the last 5 years there have been no real aspirations and look what is happened. If we have no aims then we're very likely to end up where we don't want to be and if this continues it could be a slippery slope down to League 1 or worse. 
   
• Fan involvement. I think there ought to be some fan representation on the board that is "one of us". It would keep things honest and open and give us a voice. 

 

What would you like to see happen if/when a new owner comes in? We will get our club back one day and I just hope it happens sooner rather than later. 

[Jareth]

Fox, Reilly and Nzogbia encased inside a wicker effigy of Randy which is then set alight by said new owner in a ceremony of cleansing and healing.

[villa4europe]

Simple for me really - make us relevant to English football again

Doesn't have to be instantly on the pitch and winning stuff, get behind the trends that fans have been asking for and what fans want, remember when we were doing ok and it was villa that had a charity on our shirt, it was villa asking questions about safe standing? That buzz you got from it because it was something every clubs fans wanted but it was us that was making noise about it

Be a driving force in football rather than sat in the shadows watching the sinking ship looking like you don't know what's going on, for example if Tom fox was the face of twentys plenty then I for one wouldn't be calling him a rocket polisher

[AndyBM]

nobody wanted to buy this club whilst we was in the premiership, nobody is definitely going to not want to buy us in the championship, that greedy american is wanting too much, despite the fact hes ruined this club.

~ drop the whole board, hire just an ops manager, give all transfer decisions to the manager, and manager only

[sharkyvilla]

Dare I say it, but do what Randy did to start with only with a more pragmatic manager.  It's the years of clawing back the money that's killed us, so someone who doesn't lose a load of their personal wealth through divorce and recession would be a bonus.

[Supervillan78]

Lerner, Fox, Reilly etc. to be given lifetime ban's from Villa Park!

[sne]

A Nuremberg style trial for crimes against football and Aston Villa maybe?

[Spoony]

1 hour ago, villanwesty88 said:

Let's say a new owner came in at the start of the summer (perhaps wishful thinking). What things would you like to be done differently? 

For me, I'd like to see;

• An emphasis on getting the right people into the right roles who have a proven track record. 
   
• Focus on developing our youth players and hanging on to them until there is absolutely no chance of them making it at our club. For instance with Jordan Graham he should've been sent out on loan this season IMO and not released on a free. How much would he be worth after the season he has had at Wolves and how good would it be to recall him for next season in the Championship? We have let far too many good prospects go for either pennies or free over the years. It has to stop. 
   
• Communication with fans from the top. Simple - an owner who cares, attends games and will speak to the fans how it is. I'm fed up with hearing from Lerner's puppets spinning everything. 
   
• A brand of football that will excite fans and is consistent with our youth teams all the way through to the 1st team. 
   
• When we do need to recruit players, do it wisely and not just rely on statistics. We need some proven players in the side but ones whos careers (and legs) are not finished *cough, Lescott*. 
   
• A culture to win but more importantly a culture of togetherness. Win, lose or draw I want to see the team at least try - Leicester and Bournemouth are great examples of what can be achieved. In defeat I'd like the players to show respect to the fans who pay so much to support them - I love how all the players come to the fans after a match regardless of the result in Germany. Also players who think it is acceptable to post pictures of cars, or make comments that elude to "sod you lot, we've lost but I've got a £3m mansion etc" should be out of the club. 
   
• A vision. Instead of existing the club has to aim for something. For the last 5 years there have been no real aspirations and look what is happened. If we have no aims then we're very likely to end up where we don't want to be and if this continues it could be a slippery slope down to League 1 or worse. 
   
• Fan involvement. I think there ought to be some fan representation on the board that is "one of us". It would keep things honest and open and give us a voice. 

 

What would you like to see happen if/when a new owner comes in? We will get our club back one day and I just hope it happens sooner rather than later. 

Not quite sure on this one. Us having a good academy is a myth perpetuated by the fans. The academy structure needs an overhaul IMO.

[VillaChris]

We can all say spent a lot of money but we did that under Lerner for the first 4 years. Yes it worked reasonably initally but no long term sustainability at all.

And what caused it? Not having proper football men in the big positions to keep MON under control and stop him being a kid in a sweet shop.

To me the new owner needs to appoint experienced football men in key positions.

I would love someone like Nicola Cortese in as chief exec or football director here, did he ever get involved in another football team after leaving Southampton?

I thought he was mad when he sacked Adkins and appointed Pochettino when they weren't even bottom 3 but what an inspired move that was.

I remember a few articles on him when he was there and it was all relentless drive to get to the top even when they were in league 2. We desperately need someone like that at boardroom level to lift the whole club.

[briny_ear]

1. Appoint a board/senior executive group who have experience of running a football club (successfully of course)

2. Appoint a manager who has experience of getting clubs out of the Championship (up, not down, obvs)

3. Overhaul the youth system so that it goes back to producing decent players again

[chrisp65]

1. Free scarf on seat

2. A free little flag if we get a home draw in a quarter final of a cup

3. Owner to show commitment by having a tattoo

4. Watchable football

[bose]

I would want him/them to take a look at how Southampton managed to go from administration and 7th in League One to a team challenging for Champions League football in 5 years. A real 5 year plan.

Invest and put focus on the academy. We've had some decent players come from our youth system, not many though, in the past like Gabby (2006-2010 at least), Gary Cahill,  Steven Davis and Marc Albrighton (proving us wrong). While Southampton have had players like Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Bale, Shaw, Lallana and Chambers who have all become international players. And some other decent players as well but those are the absolute top. Ridiculous really. I have no idea how Southampton have managed to do that but having done some reading they keep it a bit secretive how they manage the academy although they do put a lot of focus on players off-field development (a bit like La Masia). They also didn't cut back on funds to the academy when they went into administration in 2009, which most clubs would have done.

The single most important thing though is getting the right person to buy the club - someone with excellent business vision, willing to dedicate time to the club and of course willing to spend money. Difficult to see Lerner selling us to the right person.

 

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

i just want someone really rich who will spend a lot of money on good players and let me enjoy football as the meaningless distraction it should be.

[VillaChris]

13 minutes ago, bose said:

I would want him/them to take a look at how Southampton managed to go from administration and 7th in League One to a team challenging for Champions League football in 5 years. A real 5 year plan.

Invest and put focus on the academy. We've had some decent players come from our youth system, not many though, in the past like Gabby (2006-2010 at least), Gary Cahill,  Steven Davis and Marc Albrighton (proving us wrong). While Southampton have had players like Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Bale, Shaw, Lallana and Chambers who have all become international players. And some other decent players as well but those are the absolute top. Ridiculous really. I have no idea how Southampton have managed to do that but having done some reading they keep it a bit secretive how they manage the academy although they do put a lot of focus on players off-field development (a bit like La Masia). They also didn't cut back on funds to the academy when they went into administration in 2009, which most clubs would have done.

The single most important thing though is getting the right person to buy the club - someone with excellent business vision, willing to dedicate time to the club and of course willing to spend money. Difficult to see Lerner selling us to the right person.

 

Might be worth giving this guy a call...I love his drive in the interview and it was backed up by the results Southampton achieved in his reign...

Quote

Nicola Cortese soaks up the Milan sunshine, far from the troubles that ended his reign as Southampton chairman in January, far from the madding crowd.

Wearing a crisp white shirt, a sharp blue suit and a smile not often seen while he was at St Mary's, he is opening up for the first time since leaving the Premier League club five months ago.

 

I can't blame anyone who criticised me, but I have always felt facts are stronger than words

Nicola Cortese

"I can only look back at things in a positive way, but it is only when you step away that you realise how much you had to sacrifice," says the 45-year-old Italian.

"I am trying to catch up with those things. Some things I will never catch up on, but my children and my wife are happy to have me back."

We meet in a quiet corner of central Milan, a short stroll from the city's spectacular cathedral, a few miles from the footballing mecca of San Siro.

"Southampton became my life," he adds. "I was working seven days a week, 24 hours a day, whether I was in the office or not.

"When you work so intensively like that, you have to readjust your life when you stop. I found it tough for two, three days, but I am not someone who dwells on things. I don't have regrets."

He talks me through the final few days of his time in charge of Southampton. When had he known that the time had come to walk away?

"Christmas," he says. "I knew at Christmas time."

Had the players suspected something was not right? Had the club's manager, Mauricio Pochettino, known?

Mauricio Pochettino has been linked with a move to Tottenham

"Not directly," he says. "I am somebody whose emotions you can read in my face. I was worried that people would recognise something was not right, so I simply did not appear as often at the training ground.

"I kept my distance; I did not get as close, but doing that raised some question marks of its own."

The courtyard garden in which we meet hums to a soundtrack of impassioned chatter that all but drowns out the clinks of glass and cutlery as well as the nearby rumble of renovation work.

Cortese looks relaxed and content, but when I raise the subject of Southampton owner Katharina Liebherr, his answers become more carefully worded, more thoughtful.

He talks around the subject, never mentioning Liebherr by name, refusing to be drawn into criticism of her.

 

For any business, especially a football club, if you don't have progression and you are standing still, you risk failure. We had to move on

Cortese

"I could not see a way forward together," he says. "As simple as that."

Cortese had helped to buy Saints for Katharina's father, Markus, in 2009, but when he died of a heart attack in August 2010, his daughter took control.

When I ask whether he could have done more to repair a working relationship that broke down irrevocably over a period of six months and more, he responds: "That is not a question for me to answer.

"I think I proved enough over five years. There wasn't anyone doubting what else we could have achieved."

Had he felt emotion at the way it ended? "I never allowed myself to be led by emotion," he says. "The emotions came afterwards."

Would he ever go back? "Never."

Since his departure, Cortese has been accused of leaving the club with £27m of unpaid transfer fees. Did he leave a financial mess behind? "I don't know what changed. Because on the day I left the financial situation looked quite brilliant. Everything we had done had been budgeted for."

What of Pochettino? Was there a moment on 15 January, the day he left, when he thought the manager might follow him out of the club?

"No," he says. "There was never any doubt about his future.

"There was no doubt in his mind as well. First of all, he was contractually bound, but he had a duty to stay."

Former Espanyol boss Pochettino had arrived 12 months earlier as the little-known Argentine to replace Nigel Adkins, a decision that attracted widespread scorn.

"I can't blame anyone who criticised me, but I have always felt that facts are stronger than words," says Cortese.

"The facts now prove that it was the right move.

"I didn't consider it to be a risk, even though everyone said it was going to be meltdown, that we were going to be relegated. I expected criticism.

"I replaced an English manager who gave us two promotions with someone no-one had heard of and who didn't speak English.

"Nigel did a good job. It was just that we weren't progressing further. For any business, especially a football club, if you don't have progression and you are standing still, you risk failure. We had to move on."

Cortese explains what he had to do.

"As a club, we had a clear philosophy set, how we believed we could be successful in the Premier League, the way we wanted to play," he says.

 

I am a perfectionist; I always believed that little things made a big difference

Cortese

"That wasn't set the day Mauricio came in - that was set in April 2012. That made it easier for me because I knew what I was looking for when we made the change.

"When I spoke to Mauricio, I was 100% convinced it was going to work."

Decisions such as the one to sack Adkins prompted some to describe Cortese as a ruthless chairman who did not understand the game.

"There were some critics who were characterising me as something I wasn't," he says. "You always think that might affect your family.

"While I was somehow a public person, I didn't like being a public person. I wasn't constantly in the press telling people about what we were doing, the way we were doing things.

"I put all my energy to what we were doing within, not outside. In the future, I may be more open but it is not natural for me."

Another criticism was that he was too powerful.

"Maybe," he says. "But when I joined the club I had to do that to convince people to follow me.

Nigel Adkins was sacked to make way for Pochettino despite guiding Saints to two promotions

"After we got to the Premier League, I could have said anything and the staff would have followed me, but until then there was no evidence."

So what was the future for a club that he joined in the lower reaches of League One?

"Once we got promoted to the Premier League in 2012, we started a new five-year plan," he says.

"We were 18 months into that. We had an exciting team, not only this season but for next season.

"The question for us was not if we could win the Premier League but how."

He adds: "If you don't think of winning the league, you will never even get close or get close to getting into the Champions League.

"I am a believer that it is not the money alone that makes the difference. We didn't have the resources that other clubs have. We had to be smarter, find different ways."

Attention to detail and marginal gains were one such way.

"It is about perception," says Cortese. "It is about what people see every day when they come to work. Is the road wiped? Is it clean? Or do they have to walk through mud or a construction site?

"I am a perfectionist; I always believed that little things made a big difference."

Would he ever be able to transplant his success at Southampton to another club?

"I don't think there is another Southampton to be done, but there are opportunities at every club," he says.

"I know I will get into running a football club. I can't tell you the details at this moment. I am in Milan because I like Milan, but everyone who knows me knows I am most interested in the Premier League."

So can we expect to see him back in football soon? "Maybe," he says with a smile. When I suggest he looks like he knows something, he simply responds "maybe".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/27498644

We desperately need a senior executive with that sort of drive to grab the club round the neck and give it a good throttle. 

[TheAuthority]

20 minutes ago, bose said:

I would want him/them to take a look at how Southampton managed to go from administration and 7th in League One to a team challenging for Champions League football in 5 years. A real 5 year plan.

Invest and put focus on the academy. We've had some decent players come from our youth system, not many though, in the past like Gabby (2006-2010 at least), Gary Cahill,  Steven Davis and Marc Albrighton (proving us wrong). While Southampton have had players like Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Bale, Shaw, Lallana and Chambers who have all become international players. And some other decent players as well but those are the absolute top. Ridiculous really. I have no idea how Southampton have managed to do that but having done some reading they keep it a bit secretive how they manage the academy although they do put a lot of focus on players off-field development (a bit like La Masia). They also didn't cut back on funds to the academy when they went into administration in 2009, which most clubs would have done.

The single most important thing though is getting the right person to buy the club - someone with excellent business vision, willing to dedicate time to the club and of course willing to spend money. Difficult to see Lerner selling us to the right person.

 

Nicola Cortese was instrumental in a lot of Southampton's rise of course coupled with having an owner willing to actually invest. Cortese ran everything at the club and if there was a criticism of him it was that he micro-managed things. 

If Lerner really just wanted to leave Villa to run itself I don't know why he didn't break the bank to get Cortese or someone like him - pay him 10 million a year! Surely that's got to be less expensive than what he's about to face with relegation.

Same thing as this past January - pay Remy 1 million a month until the end of the season FFS - if he gets 10 goals and you stay up it's got to be worth it for the 100 million you get next year from the Premier League     

Edited March 2, 2016 by TheAuthority

[TheAuthority]

7 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Might be worth giving this guy a call...I love his drive in the interview and it was backed up by the results Southampton achieved in his reign...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/27498644

We desperately need a senior executive with that sort of drive to grab the club round the neck and give it a good throttle. 

Ha I was justing posted about Cortese! you beat me to it!

Edited March 2, 2016 by TheAuthority

[VillaChris]

I have to say I completely forgot about him until someone mentioned Southampton...2 years since he left them and surprised he hasn't been involved at another club since. It's worth a call for any new owner I reckon.

I just love reading those words from him...instead we get the grim reaper Hollis who'll be hacking away at anything sellable this summer. I dread to think what stuff him and Fox will be coming out with when relegation is finally confirmed.

[Shaw_nuff]

New owner out.

[villanwesty88]

18 hours ago, Spoony said:

Not quite sure on this one. Us having a good academy is a myth perpetuated by the fans. The academy structure needs an overhaul IMO.

Agree that the academy isn't as good as it is made out to be. I think it has to be improved. I was mainly trying to get at prolonging keeping players on the books so they have more chances to prove themselves on loan spells and spend time around (hopefully) good players at Bodymoor. Then they either get to the first team or we sell, instead of releasing and they turn out to be a player that is worth something - I'm thinking Graham probably worth a couple of million based on his performances this season at least and Albrighton probably £10m. 

[Pilchard]

Something that will get me excited about the club again.