The 2016 Takeover Thread

[romavillan]

5 minutes ago, PieFacE said:

If it's all a government front then why don't they just say that?  

Then it wouldn't be a front would it, it would be a transparent, a window, a non front.

[Richard]

2 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

That's not going to happen, though, is it?

This and others in similar vein.  potentially no we wont hear about it.  They only thing we can do is look for indicators,  one of which would be the appointment of a manager.

[bobzy]

11 minutes ago, Richard said:

I care about as much for his opinion as I guess he cares for mine.

You just often state yours as fact, I guess  

[Gary Thomas]

200 pages and still going strong !!!!!

[Kingman]

[gaffmaster]

I CAN'T BELIEVE WE'VE BEEN SOLD!
Sorry... it's only just sinking in.

[meme]

[dont_do_it_doug.]

26 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

That's not going to happen, though, is it?

Good point. But you would *think* it would rear it's head, sooner rather than later. 

[AntrimBlack]

32 minutes ago, Richard said:

This and others in similar vein.  potentially no we wont hear about it.  They only thing we can do is look for indicators,  one of which would be the appointment of a manager.

Do you mean if the new manager is high profile and expensive?

[Richard]

Just now, AntrimBlack said:

Do you mean if the new manager is high profile and expensive?

Well it would be an indication if the appointment was not made in the next ten days,  I am meaning speed of appointment rather than quality.  Although if it is Neil Warnock I will be more concerned !

[blandy]

1 hour ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

People seem to be confused regarding the due diligence Hollis would have carried out. 

The ONLY due diligence he would have carried out would be to discovery whether Dr T could afford the asking price. He even said so himself in his Tom Ross interview yesterday. 

Hollis works for Randy Lerner, not us.

One aside to this is that I believe that Randy and Hollis genuinely wish for the buyer to be the best person possible not just in tems of getting the money, but in terms of "looking after" the club into the future. So with that in mind, the due dilligence aspect might have been more than "show us proof of the money" and "will you be nice to VIlla, please?" - in other words a degree of effort will have been put into investigating the suitability of the proposed buyers.

56 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

I think there was always going to be a number of questions/things that don't appear on the face of it to add up when getting an owner from China as things aren't as open in that part of the world it seems and information on individuals/companies as readily available.

I don't think just because Hollis thinks the club faces a fantastic future under this new owner we should feel reassured. The bottom line for Hollis was selling the club and whilst he would I am sure like it to go to safe hands that could bring us success that wasn't his priority.

Only time will tell what we are getting here.

Agreed. One thing which seemed odd to me was Xia saying he was going to move to Brum for a while. It seems kind of odd that someone would do that, if they had their fingers in so many other pies and businesses. Maybe it was just PR, but it struck me as strange.

Ultimately though the way I look at it is we're a relegated club that's in a mess and needs an owner who will make good decisions. Money's not the issue for me, it's having a responsible committed and wise person in charge of us. I don't think all these alarms and concerns will go away until or unless we get a person(s) in charge who demonstrate good judgement. WHile things are up in the air, and little information is available sanity is best kept by not going with too much speculation.

[AntrimBlack]

13 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

Good point. But you would *think* it would rear it's head, sooner rather than later. 

I suspect it will only ever be conjecture. At that level it will be watertight.

[meme]

2 minutes ago, blandy said:

Agreed. One thing which seemed odd to me was Xia saying he was going to move to Brum for a while. It seems kind of odd that someone would do that, if they had their fingers in so many other pies and businesses. Maybe it was just PR, but it struck me as strange.

To be fair, if Xia and the 'Recon Group' want Villa to be the cornerstone of one of their many divisions, and the Chinese government want to invest heavily into European football via Villa, I think Xia knows the club is too much of a shambles to sit back in China and run it from there.

Besides, if he's learnt anything from Lerner, it's to actually GO to games.

[flamingsombrero]

[Lerner's Driver]

From Beijing AP (via Yahoo news)

"BEIJING (AP) — The little-known businessman who bought Aston Villa is hoping to improve both the English club and Chinese soccer in general.

Xia Jiantong, who goes by the English name Tony, told The Associated Press he intends to use cutting-edge management theory and sports science to bring Villa to the pinnacle of the European game — and then bring those lessons back to China.

"In China's going-out strategy, it's been proven that buying foreign firms with know-how and then bringing that back to the domestic industry has been the most efficient route," Xia said, adding that he would establish extensive programs for Chinese players to train at Aston Villa.

Improving Chinese soccer, he said, "is actually our biggest objective."
Xia bought Aston Villa, which was relegated from the Premier League after a dismal season in which they finished last, for $87 million. He denied that the deal involved any government or corporate backers aside from his business conglomerate, the Recon Group.

Chinese President Xi Jinping recently urged the country to become a global soccer superpower and several high-profile firms have bought stakes in clubs, including Atletico Madrid and Manchester City. But until now, no one had acquired entire clubs.

To help improve the game in China, Xia said he is already in talks to bring junior high and high school players to train in Birmingham this summer.

A soft-spoken businessman who studied at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Xia heads the Recon Group, which owns Lotus Health Group, the world's second largest maker of the food additive monosodium glutamate. Lotus lost $78 million last year, according to Shanghai stock exchange filings. Another subsidiary produces digital hardware for urban infrastructure.

Xia said he considered eight prospective clubs, including teams in Spain and Italy, before settling on Villa, which he said attracted him with its "mature" academy system.

He said he pledged to deploy better technology to monitor players' on-field performance, track statistics and gauge physical workloads to minimize injuries — areas in which he said other clubs he visited performed better than Villa. He also intended to use data to award financial bonuses to players.

"This isn't different from management science," Xia said in one of several allusions to his business experience.

He compared Aston Villa to an undervalued business suffering from "several years of substandard management" and could achieve its potential with better direction from the top.

Questioned about his lack of soccer credentials, Xia said he has looked into the business for 10 years and has diligently studied the second-tier English Championship, the league in which Aston Villa will compete in next season.

"I actually think I have better foundation in football than other business areas we've recently entered," Xia said.

He targeted a swift return to the Premier League but ruled out "burning money" to bring success like Manchester City, whose Qatari owners have pumped in millions. Although he has publicly stated he would spend 50 to 60 million pounds on player transfers, Xia backed away from the figures on Friday, saying he would consult with the new coach he was in the process of hiring.

"We want Villa in its genes to be sustainable and healthy, including in academy development," Xia said. "If you look at all the money-burning clubs they're showing problems right now. On the international level, Spain and Germany couldn't sustain their success with just one superstar."

Xia said he is now down to three final coaching candidates — one of whom is believed to be former Chelsea manager Robert Di Matteo — but declined to comment, saying he would announce the selection next week.

After hiring someone, Xia said his first order of business will be to fix the atmosphere around the relegated club.

"This year, Spurs were so good until they lost the chance for the title and lost to a relegated team," he said. "So in sport, it's crucial to consider spirit, psychology, leaders' attitudes. Especially for Villa now, the biggest priority for us is to fix everyone's confidence, from the players to the coaches."

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/villa-owner-wants-team-promoted-help-soccer-china-161607563.html

[Jareth]

2 minutes ago, Lerner's Driver said:

From Beijing AP (via Yahoo news)

"BEIJING (AP) — The little-known businessman who bought Aston Villa is hoping to improve both the English club and Chinese soccer in general.

Xia Jiantong, who goes by the English name Tony, told The Associated Press he intends to use cutting-edge management theory and sports science to bring Villa to the pinnacle of the European game — and then bring those lessons back to China.
 

Sounds like a man with a plan...

[mikeyp102]

So what news today has made people question Our Tony? 

[Phumfeinz]

He's not Randy Lerner, and right now for me that's enough. 

[AshVilla]

I liked everything i read in that article

[mjmooney]

1 minute ago, AshVilla said:

I liked everything i read in that article

"Improving Chinese soccer, he said, "is actually our biggest objective".