The 2016 Takeover Thread

[TRO]

6 minutes ago, sidcowans21 said:

This really is the 'in' phrase at the moment isn't it

Yep 'cause its apt.

we have all seen too many false dawns.....remember - "fools rush in where angels fear to tread"

[S-Platt]

5 minutes ago, TRO said:

Yep 'cause its apt.

we have all seen too many false dawns.....remember - "fools rush in where angels fear to tread"

So tempted to go into Young Ones mode.

[TRO]

That parting Letter got me.....If ever there was a squidgen of doubt about Lerner or the slightest flicker of a flame of sympathy.

That Letter just about extinguished it all.

I know this won't go down well.....but I actually feel sorry for him......more for us of course.

He is like a little boy in a big business mans world.....and I genuinely think he means well....he just hasn't got a scoobie with sport.

Edited May 19, 2016 by TRO

[AntrimBlack]

5 hours ago, chrisp65 said:

I'm as pleased as punch that Lerner has gone. I suspect there must be more than just incompetence to this last sad few years and those bizarre postings on the official website.

'We want our Villa back. We want our Villa back.' Well, that didn't happen. It got sold to a guy we know next to nothing about that may or may not be ridiculously rich and may or may not be an arm of the Chinese state. Either directly, or in a more subtle indirect soft power way. But you don't get to be an international billionaire player based in China, if the Chinese state don't approve of you. I guess if we are morally ok with our underpants and phones coming from China, what's the difference. It's not that different to being owned by an american recluse that puts up a military general as a spokesman and only communicates when the pain killers have kicked in.

It might be a good thing or it might be a bad thing, we can't know. I'm more happy than worried right now, but I'm very aware that I personally didn't want to be a supporter of the next Man City or Chelsea. But I also accept that the days of the local owner, the holiday shop entrepreneur are long gone if you want your club live on Sky in HD. We've got non league for all that emotional nourishment stuff. Villa are the marketing and entertainments arm of...well, we don't really know what of yet do we.

So I'm chuffed, I'm at the party, but I'm at the back, cautious about the new guy in the waistcoat that may or may not be from Stark Industries and that we know nothing about. I'm really hoping this goes well, but I'm always careful what I wish for.

Good post. I particularly liked the highlighted bit.

[terrytini]

12 hours ago, sexbelowsound said:

Why spend 150 when you can spend 60? He isn't thick.

I have known 2 millionaires (one of them a millionaire many times over) - I know that's a very small sample size (!) but they both had one thing in common.

Tight with money.  You don't become fabulously wealthy throwing money around when you don't need to  - that is for us plebs.

Now, that doesn't mean he IS loaded, but I can certainly see why he'd rather buy a Championship Club for half the price of a bottom half Premier League Club.

[VillaJ100]

Can you imagine if we are the 3rd biggest club in the world. Aston Villa. Premier League and Europa League double 2018-19. FA Cup and Champions League double 2019-2020. Second Premier League in 2020-2021. Treble in 2021-2022,and first team to retain CL in 2022-2023.

 

Thats befitting the world's 3rd biggest club huh?

[meme]

7 minutes ago, VillaJ100 said:

Can you imagine if we are the 3rd biggest club in the world. Aston Villa. Premier League and Europa League double 2018-19. FA Cup and Champions League double 2019-2020. Second Premier League in 2020-2021. Treble in 2021-2022,and first team to retain CL in 2022-2023.

 

Thats befitting the world's 3rd biggest club huh?

Not the Europa League... Anything but the Europa League!

[terrytini]

10 hours ago, mjmooney said:

I'm not condemning him, but I'm massively uncomfortable with this. I see our government closing down the British steel industry in the rush to suck up to a country that seems to be gearing up to control the world economy. Now I see the Chinese have decided to dominate world football. Well, fine, I lost interest in world football many years ago. The money aspect of the game, the Sky hegemony, ticket prices out of reach of the average punter, players' wages that are frankly disgusting, English clubs owned by Arab sheikhs and Russian oligarchs. It stinks. All I had was Aston Villa, Birmingham's proudest. I thought we were better than that. This is the club whose players refused to salute Hitler. We knew that the worst thing that could happen wasn't playing in the third division, it was losing the soul of the club. That process has sadly been accelerating since the birth of the Premier League. All I see on this thread is hysteria about money. Money, and shut your eyes to everything else. Rename Villa Park? Sure, think of the money. This used to be Aston Villa. Now it it seems it's just another PLC. I'm not celebrating this morning, I'm sad, very sad. I'm not saying I'm walking away from it all, I'll follow what happens with interest, and no doubt I'll be pleased if we can start winning games, but it's not MY Aston Villa any more. 

Well a lot of what I would say in response to this has been said - I really don't know if you have just got out of a time machine but really, it has been like this for a long long long time.

But as you mention specifically a connection which makes you uncomfortable between closing down steel and the nationality of our new owner I feel bound to say that neither this government, nor the one before, nor any of them going back to the early seventies, needed either the Chinese or any other country as an excuse to shut down our steel industry. 

And what is the difference between Chinese money holding sway over football and Sunderland was it the Thirties, , when they were the 'Bank Of England' Club, or Liverpool via the Moores in the seventies, or Chelsea, or Real Madrid since the fifties with government money, and so on ? Money has always ruled football at the higher levels, what on earth difference does it make where it is from ?

We are no less the real Aston Villa today than we were, well, for a great many years. 

[Holtern8]

To be fair any new owner who takes over a semi-big club comes out with the old "top club in the world statement" we'd need to win 10 European cups to be considered in that vein and that's not going to happen.

Also £20 billion turnover over 5 companies isn't THAT much especially if you know the difference between turnover and profit.

The finances are all a bit vague but it's suffice to say he's not short of cash and Chinese don't mess about when it comes to spending it either.

The main running theme I can see though is the references to a new Villa and his construction links.

I think his plan is to get us back in the Premier League then build lots of new and exciting things, including probably/possibly a new ground.

We all love VP but nobody stays in the same ground forever, they become dated eventually.

Edited May 19, 2016 by Holtern8

[Rugeley Villa]

4 minutes ago, Holtern8 said:

 

We all love VP but nobody stays in the same ground forever, they become dated eventually.

do i not like that. we have one of the finest and traditional grounds in the world,we also have room to expand if need be. all this new stadium talk does not sit well with me. id rather keep our tradition and identity whilst moving forward as a club,we can do both.

[terrytini]

2 hours ago, Villanun said:

If you're over the moon at this then good for you. It's been a crap few years, and Villa fans deserve a little excitement. But I remember literally jumping for joy when Lerner took over because I thought the good times were about to roll in and we all know how that turned out. I'm just going to wait and see what happens.

In the words of George W Bush: "Fool me once, shame on, shame on you. Fool me... you can't get fooled again."

(Well, Bush mangled it up far better than that.)

I've seen this a few times.  But we DID have good times under Randy.... 4 good years under MON.  Yes, the 'goodness' of them depended on your view to some extent of the type of football etc, but it WAS good, and we nearly cracked Champions League.  And we are pretty much all agreed it was Randys persona, absence, and lack of acumen that then ruined it.

I somehow feel that in a backwards logic way the more guarded and pessimistic people are actually the ones who want the greatest success.  And yes, if one is genuinely hoping to be a world force then one would be right to be guarded.  But theres plenty reason to think we could get what we got under Lerner initially.

 

So given that hardly anyone is saying good= winning the League, and most of us would take top 6 and good Cup efforts why should the RL experience necessarily cause us to worry ?

I mean. whether you are Man United or us, or anyone, football is like political careers, eventually it ends in failure, so last time we had 4 good years then crap.  Why not 6 good years this time - it'd be a great start.

[Gary Thomas]

19 minutes ago, Holtern8 said:

To be fair any new owner who takes over a semi-big club comes out with the old "top club in the world statement" we'd need to win 10 European cups to be considered in that vein and that's not going to happen.

Not defending this top three in the world statement but he could be thinking about fan base, rather than winning European cups.  If they push the Villa brand hard enough, and IF we start to get some success, he probably thinks he can leverage the brand in China now we have a strong Chinese connection.  China's population is over double that of the entire European Union - gives you some idea of the growth potential.

 

[TheStagMan]

Have to say, he is saying ALL the right things, and if only half of them come off, then I will be very happy.....

 

- Villa fan - hmmmm, we will see. Plausible story about why, but time will tell

- Recognises that the situation could not be worse at the moment - CHECK [emoji2]

- Immediate promotion back to the premier league - CHECK [emoji2]

- Top six in the next five years.... uh oh! A five year plan [emoji32]

- Top three in the world - Unlikely, but why not aim high [emoji23]  LOL

- Favourite club in China - Could well be - and that could be a lot of revenue

- Invest in the stadium - OK - not a priority, but go ahead

- Has held discussions with managers - good - we are not starting from scratch as we feared and plans are in place

- Funds of up to £50m for next season

- Bring through academy players - CHECK [emoji2]

- a good coach who knows the championship - CHECK [emoji2]

- Will be a better communicator - CHECK [emoji2]  (although difficult to be worse....)

- Will buy a house in the area and spend a lot of time here

- Will return to Birmingham in the next two weeks to begin the rebuilding process - CHECK [emoji2]

- Little patience with overpaid players who are not pulling their weight - CHECK [emoji2]  DING DING DING ABSO-******-LUTELY!

 

So, if all this is true, it is like all our dreams and wishes have been granted and we have a fairy godmother/father. As a Villa fan, I will forever be sceptical until I see results on the pitch and positive actions off it. 

 

The only thing I am concerned with is the buying of a house here, moving his wife and daughter over - how does this sit with the rest of his business empire? Is he going to delegate that and play at football manager for a year or two? How can a man in charge of such a large and important empire just up sticks and move to Birmingham?

 

That said, so far, despite reservations this is looking fantastic for us. This man is clearly not stupid, he seems affable, as down to earth as someone with his money/power can be, and seems to know where all the problems are and has a plan to fix them. 

 

So, Welcome Dr Xia Jiantong, If you can deliver even half of what you are promising you will become a Villa legend 

[Marley the Bognor Villan]

Too many people on here gonna burst my bubble so I'm outta here until the transfer thread looks lively....

 

 

 

[The Fun Factory]

1 hour ago, TRO said:

The simple fact is .....The hope has returned, nothing more at this stage.

It was stagnant before and getting worse.

I think celebrate is a strong word.....I would say cautiously optimistic.

buy hey, celebrate if you like.

I that sums it up. Villa have pressed the reset button.

Edited May 19, 2016 by The Fun Factory

[meme]

7 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said:

I that sums it up. Villa have pressed the reset button.

Hopefully we remembered to put some Doctor-X brand batteries in. We don't want our GameBoy to corrupt our Aston Villa Rollercoaster Tycoon!

[StanBalaban]

4 hours ago, BOF said:

My comment wasn't specific to you, but now that I've read your comment, it still fits.  The bit where you say it "all seems pretty familiar.  Hmmm." is precisely the specious leap of logic that my Balaban comment was referring to.

 

[VillaJ100]

What I'd give for the first event at Villa Park to be Xia taking out Gabby, Lescott and Bacuna with kung fu skills

[Rugeley Villa]

38 minutes ago, Gary Thomas said:

Not defending this top three in the world statement but he could be thinking about fan base, rather than winning European cups.  If they push the Villa brand hard enough, and IF we start to get some success, he probably thinks he can leverage the brand in China now we have a strong Chinese connection.  China's population is over double that of the entire European Union - gives you some idea of the growth potential.

 

in 2014 we were the 12th most popular european club in china. we have been shit since 2011 so imagine if we become a good prem side again, id imagine our fanbase over there would rocket. the fact we are the 12th most popular team now says something. im not bigging aston villa up here,but make no mistakes about it we are a big club with the potential to be very big.

[lapal_fan]

Are we sold yet?