The 2016 Takeover Thread

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

2 minutes ago, Fairy In Boots said:

renaming a great cathedral of English football after a brand is never okay, it devalues the stadium and the history of it. I feared this and I doubt any of the other buyers would have been different, we've as a nation of football fans really let ourselves down if we believe trading off bits of our cultural identity for a bit of cash is fine. Villa Park is not some soulless bowl the council own it's a proper football stadium and focal point generations of fans have treasured and enjoyed. I shudder to think of it being called Lotus Villa park, why can't you buy the naming rights for x amount of cash and call it Villa park, if I had billions I would, 1bn to call it Villa Park for 10 years.

This is the step on the ladder to daytrippers, £500 tickets, Prawn sandwiches, feeder clubs and generally everything I've grown to despise in the modern game. If you speak to real Chelsea fans the club they had is no more, we'll be like Arsenal fans soon enough filming cup wins on ipads in the ground. I can't help but think some our soul will die as a result and I question the desperation of some who're seemingly willing to accept it. 

We could always drop down to the nationwide and keep our soul and tradition. I also don't follow, on how, or why someone would pay millions, to call the stadium what it is already called? :/

[Daweii]

Call it **** Banana Lotus Dinosaur Parade Park for all I care, it's clear he's trying to get past FFP and there no doubt that the adding one word which just so happens to be a company he owns will come with a sizeable price attached to it. History is one thing but I don't know about some of you opposed to this but I don't want this club to drop any lower and I actually want us to be competitive. History and sentimentality get you jack shit in this era of football.

[VillanousOne]

I wonder if we'll do a Man City, i.e. get a ludicrous sponsorship deal of a company owned or part owned by the club owners.

cue £500 mil Lotus sponsor shirt deal

[sidcow]

11 hours ago, mjmooney said:

Yeah, I accept that that's the way it is. I understand that it's not going to change, and that you can't go back. But I don't have to like it. 

I sympathize with a lot of what you have said over this but time and the world has moved on. Personally I am more gutted that I can't stand on the Holte End Terraces than anything else about modern football. I literally shed a tear when showing my son some photos of the proper Holte before and during demolition a couple of years ago

In terms of ownership etc that is the way is.  Someone has always owned Aston Villa and usually they were ultimately in it to make money it's just that the money was much smaller and the owners were more local, but still businessmen running a business.  Give me a choice and I take Chinese or American or Russian ownership and Sky and Friday night football but lament the loss of my Holte End (immediately left of the divide second pen from the top right up against the barrier)  that's the only football thing I bemoan 

Edited May 19, 2016 by sidcow

[mjmooney]

I admit it, I'm a fossil. I remember back in the 80s, seeing contintal teams with sponsor logos on their shirts. Naïvely, I confidently asserted that It Couldn't Happen Here. No English club's fans would ever tolerate such a crass outrage as an advert on the sacred shirt. Of course, I was a fool, and utterly wrong. That was merely the thin end of the wedge. It turns out that English fans will tolerate pretty much ANYTHING. 

Sheep. 

[sne]

I hope we exploit every available loophole to put money into the club.

 

FFP is only in place to keep the already wealthy and powerful in just that position.

Edited May 19, 2016 by sne

[mjmooney]

Actually, I hope he moves the club out of VP - preferably out of Birmingham - and changes the name and the colours. It will make it easier to consign to the bin of memories. 

But hey, they'll probably win trophies, so that's all right. 

[sidcow]

15 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

I admit it, I'm a fossil. I remember back in the 80s, seeing contintal teams with sponsor logos on their shirts. Naïvely, I confidently asserted that It Couldn't Happen Here. No English club's fans would ever tolerate such a crass outrage as an advert on the sacred shirt. Of course, I was a fool, and utterly wrong. That was merely the thin end of the wedge. It turns out that English fans will tolerate pretty much ANYTHING. 

Sheep. 

And falling over at the slightest touch screaming rolling over instead of shrugging it off and carrying on. Cheating b@st@rds.  Some of them had the temerity to have grass on the pitch as well. Funny how you get used to things. Imagine one of the current poncy PL "stars" playing on Terry Butcher style covered in blood?

[VillanousOne]

2 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

Actually, I hope he moves the club out of VP - preferably out of Birmingham - and changes the name and the colours. It will make it easier to consign to the bin of memories. 

But hey, they'll probably win trophies, so that's all right. 

MK Villa

Aston Kingston Upon Thames

[mjmooney]

1 minute ago, VillanousOne said:

MK Villa

Aston Kingston Upon Thames

Think "it couldn't happen here"? 

[VillaJ100]

i thought it might be something like 'Recon Arena @ Villa Park'. But FFP needs to be got around.

[Fairy In Boots]

22 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

We could always drop down to the nationwide and keep our soul and tradition. I also don't follow, on how, or why someone would pay millions, to call the stadium what it is already called? :/

to protect the legacy.

And I'd still be a Villa fan in the conference mate, form is temporary class is permanent and all that. Seems we're happy to trade off a bit of what makes us the club we are for a quick buck, that to me is a shame. I'd rather be relegated than City mark 2.0 i'd romanticized the idea of us one day making it to the top the proper way, now it's just greed by the fans to look at it. I for one won't be going to a stadium named after pharmaceutical brands given the morality of pharmaceuticals, it's about principle in essence. I love my Club we're the club that gave the Nazi's two fingers, employed local kids to run a great restaurant, dropped a shirt sponsorship for a charity, I want to still be that, I don't want to be the club named after a company that tests on cancer riddled chimps and overcharges on health treatment to millions of poor people (need to really google Lotus but I bet i'm not far wrong).

I guess it comes down to footballing ethos, me i'm a footballing communist I'd have wage caps across the board, £10 tickets, standing areas, local player quotas, shirts made locally at affordable prices, Saturday 3pm Kick offs, Subsidized away travel, free tickets and coaching for local schools, football could be so much more. Instead it's a dick measuring exercise for the filthy rich and some fans poor scorn on any who have a fault with that, I pity those fans they'll never know how good it could be and they get what they deserve, an  inferior game.

Edited May 19, 2016 by Fairy In Boots

[villa4europe]

Actually, I hope he moves the club out of VP - preferably out of Birmingham - and changes the name and the colours. It will make it easier to consign to the bin of memories. 

But hey, they'll probably win trophies, so that's all right. 

I hope he's eyeing up the city, everything is in place for major investment here, well everything other than the reputation according to outsiders looking in...

I hope he's looking at villa and looking at Birmingham and thinking neither are where they should be despite great infrastructure and history as well as the population

[Deisler123]

hmm i'd like to share an interview that Xia had with Xinhua net (like BBC in China). The interview is done in Chinese. I will try to translate as much as I can here (my first language is Chinese but it is always difficult to translate from Chinese to English, much easier another way around lol):

'We did not target only on Villa'

'we signed the deal a long time ago, when I was there watching a game of villa. it was some approval process (this is vague in Chinese but I try to be accurate) involved so we waited till yesterday to announce this'

'we paid 75mil pounds as the first installment. Once the club back to PL, another 40M will be paid. for sure there will other things involved'

'we will decide on the managerial choice in 2 weeks. they have their opinion on manager and players (which mean who to buy)'

'we have 6 managers to choose from, including Di Mateo and Perrson. We know reduce the number to three. the manager has to have experience with Championship, but will need to have european leagues ambition and experience'

'we have clauses in the contract with manager. anytime the club is not within the first 6 positions of the league, we can sack him'

'we will recommend a few talents chinese youth players to the club, but the coach has final decision. We will not just send them to the club '

'my plan is to take Villa back to PL as soon as possible', he then pointed the shirt that the journalist wears (Arsenal), 'like this club, I want to see my club to stay in Champions league every season'.

'in 8-10 years i want Villa back to its best time - to become one of the best clubs in europe'

'I beleive in Villa- they have the best fan base - if we exploit it well - it will form the base of the best club of the world (he didnt use 'one of the best' in this sentence)'

PS: Sorry for not including the source reference. Didnt think it was necessary as it was in Chinese. 

Find it here: http://news.xinhuanet.com/sports/2016-05/19/c_128998839.htm

Note: I only translated what Xia has said.

Edited May 20, 2016 by Deisler123

[Deisler123]

'we have clauses in the contract with manager. anytime the club is not within the first 6 positions of the league, we can sack him'

I got to say I laughed there lol..... So watch out the new manager, if you lose the first match, you are sacked!!!!

[LoughboroughLion]

3 minutes ago, Deisler123 said:

hmm i'd like to share an interview that Xia had with Xinhua net (like BBC in China). The interview is done in Chinese. I will try to translate as much as I can here (my first language is Chinese but it is always difficult to translate from Chinese to English, much easier another way around lol):

'We did not target only on Villa'

'we signed the deal a long time ago, when I was there watching a game of villa. it was some approval process (this is vague in Chinese but I try to be accurate) involved so we waited till yesterday to announce this'

'we paid 75mil pounds as the first installment. Once the club back to PL, another 40M will be paid. for sure there will other things involved'

'we will decide on the managerial choice in 2 weeks. they have their opinion on manager and players (which mean who to buy)'

'we have 6 managers to choose from, including Di Mateo and Perrson. We know reduce the number to three. the manager has to have experience with Championship, but will need to have european leagues ambition and experience'

'we have clauses in the contract with manager. anytime the club is not within the first 6 positions of the league, we can sack him'

'we will recommend a few talents chinese youth players to the club, but the coach has final decision. We will not just send them to the club '

'my plan is to take Villa back to PL as soon as possible', he then pointed the shirt that the journalist wears (Arsenal), 'like this club, I want to see my club to stay in Champions league every season'.

'in 8-10 years i want Villa back to its best time - to become one of the best clubs in europe'

'I beleive in Villa- they have the best fan base - if we exploit it well - it will form the base of the best club of the world (he didnt use 'one of the best' in this sentence)'

 

thank for the insight!

do you have a link / screenshot?

Edited May 19, 2016 by VERB27

[sidcow]

9 hours ago, jon_c said:

With new apparent mega rich owners, are the job losses still going ahead?

Yes the mega rich owners probably ordered the cull of unnecessary staff to be taken before the takeover was announced so it's not their bad. I did a post about this in the thread about redundancies. We are and have been for years MASSIVELY overstaffed.  Compared to our peers and bigger clubs we have far more employees. It's one of the many things which has made us such a basket case of a club. 

This deal has clearly been going through for some time and I am sure the current regime have taken the flak for the new regime over this and I am OK with that because it is something which is sad but had to happen to get Aston Villa back on track. 

[sne]

I don't wan't us to be the next Man City. but I also don't wan't us to become another Nottingham Forrest just so we can be crap but still retain a moral high ground.

Yes I know Forrest have new(ish) foreign owners.

[Chicken Field]

About renaming the stadium: he is only doing it so that we can spend more money (which we can't complain about) and he changes it as little as possible so that FFP doesn't get involved (Which we must also be thankful for). If he changed the name to Lotus Park or something like that I would care a bit, but no one is going to call the stadium Lotus Villa Park, it's too long and is a hazzle to pronounce this is only giving us a better chance to return to the top. 

Edit: this is barely a name change, more of putting a sponsor infront of the name whilst keeping our name

Edited May 19, 2016 by Chicken Field

[villa4europe]

I'd add it to the list of things against why they didn't buy us last year...things that need to happen are still happening, the cull of the staff is sadly still one of those things