Keener window-cleaner Posted August 29, 2016 Share Posted August 29, 2016 I dislike not being able to follow the VT threads during working hours... tips on how to produce as expected and follow VT at the same time anyone? On Xia, I don't think I have fully grasped how extraordinary it is to get so much info on what's going on at the club. Even though I think he has gone too far a couple of times and some tweets have sent chills down my spine, it's just so darn interesting to get this info. It's not just the message in the short tweets, but it gives such an unusual insight in the role and the work of the owner, the relation to the players and the manager, how transfer dealings are conducted etc. I think one thing that confuses me a bit is that the tweets on the one hand can be seen as official press releases from the club, and on the other hand as just emotional expressions from the person Tony Xia. It's a difficult equation and I guess it requires the reader to distinguish between the two roles when you read the tweets. It makes the nickname Tony two phones even more suitable though! All in all at the moment I enjoy getting so much info! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VILLAMARV Posted August 29, 2016 Share Posted August 29, 2016 wouldn't it be awful if all this transparency caught on and the clubs wrestled a bit of power back from the players and their agents 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted August 29, 2016 Share Posted August 29, 2016 42 minutes ago, peterms said: I would say three things. First, find out more about who he is and Recon are and where the money actually comes from - the story so far is unconvincing. Depending on the answers to that, further action might or might not be needed. Second, lobby for changes in the law to prevent football clubs being bought and sold like they were stocks and shares - they are part of the common good, their worth and value comes from what supporters have done to build up the clubs over more than a hundred years, not from some fancy spreadsheet work or whizzy deal. Ownership must recognise, respect and reflect that; in other words, clubs are not to be traded like commodities, they are to be safeguarded and protected like in more enlightened countries that haven't sold their soul to the devil for a quick buck. Third, prepare for that change by developing, funding and educating supporters trusts. These are not sequential. First, I am unsure what is to gained by the ongoing delving in to the background of tony's Empire.....surely his funding of players to possibly improve the team is all we should be concerned with.....We have had 2 football authorities check out his credibility, and are satisfied.......is that not enough? secondly, In over one hundred years we have rode the waves in terms of football and business ownership, we are an institution that would not be easy to eradicate for many, many reasons. Don't feel as concerned as you do, I suspect there are over 40,000 of us that are more concerned with the team now , than our existence overall. Third, The plans are fanciful, it is alluding to supporter buy out, which in todays world of high finance is pie in the sky.....further more ,decisions by committee or by group will not work in football ......you need one leader. Aston Villa will always be in existence.......The only thing threatening that , is results like last Saturday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted August 29, 2016 Share Posted August 29, 2016 2 hours ago, peterms said: The twitter stuff is the least of my concerns. The future of the club is the bigger issue. Why would we want to be involved with someone whose speciality is secrecy jurisdictions? And why did we have on the board a vet with some dissolved companies behind him, who was working with Harris against the Portsmouth fans? The same Harris who worked with Yeoung and Shinawatra, helping them get control of clubs? Why would having these people on the board be in the best interests of our club? The view of the Portsmouth fans was that these people very much did not have the interests of the club at heart. Are they still involved with us in any capacity at all, I wonder? Non-ideal, as you say. Other expressions might come to mind. Sorry, Bristol City 3 Aston Villa 1 is the biggest threat to our future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dante_Lockhart Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 Hopefully Tony's quiet spell is because it's been non stop behind the scenes in regards to getting some more guys in. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villarocker Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 Hopefully the Doctor is busy working on some big deals for us. Let's face it, he owes us for not giving us a world class number 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheStagMan Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 12 minutes ago, villarocker said: Hopefully the Doctor is busy working on some big deals for us. Let's face it, he owes us for not giving us a world class number 9 yet... ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 He's back in China now i believe... so he's probably catching up on his other businesses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 16 hours ago, VILLAMARV said: wouldn't it be awful if all this transparency caught on and the clubs wrestled a bit of power back from the players and their agents well, it has also limited the chinese whispers at football clubs and the ITK's are redundant.....pardon the pun. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seat68 Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 (edited) Tony has tweeted, striker announced in the next hour. That was at 14.42 Just confirmed its Kodija. Edited August 30, 2016 by Seat68 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoubtGin Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PieFacE Posted August 30, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted August 30, 2016 1 minute ago, DoubtGin said: Eh? He almost signed for another club, what's the perims about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nath_s91 Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 i'm guessing he meant including prem clubs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 fantastic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daweii Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 I guess the Prem club he means is Hull.. The club we were all hoping he would go to as that in "theory" would have freed up Hernandez. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingman Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 I'm getting nervous on who our new world class No9 striker could be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daweii Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 2 minutes ago, Kingman said: I'm getting nervous on who our new world class No9 striker could be? It was Hernandez but the deal fell through because Hull are apparently awkward as **** to deal with right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 7 minutes ago, Daweii said: It was Hernandez but the deal fell through because Hull are apparently awkward as **** to deal with right now. It sounds like we spent a week negotiating daft figures with hull, finally had something accepted only to have the player ask for some even dafter and we walked away people can moan about the kodija money if they want but it sounds like we walked away from figures we weren't willing to pay Hernandez 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villaphan04 Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Richard Posted August 30, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted August 30, 2016 So we are approaching end of the window. The point at which those who were skeptical about Xia were told to wait until before making a judgement. Well to be frank I’m not sure a judgement on his overall “brilliance” can even be made yet. Far too soon to say whether he will be a success or not for us, we have not even achieved two competitive wins as a club under his stewardship so far too early to call. And as the window doesn’t close until tomorrow I feel at liberty to change this post at anytime ;-) What can be done is that an objective opinion on his initial period can be made but accepting that it is constantly up for review, no end point had or can be reached. So in terms of being objective I’d like to offer my opinion on 3 key areas of where I see an owner can benefit a football club. It is really what they should concentrate on, from a high level, in my opinion anyway. I could go on about people that have been linked to the takeover and not currently around but largely this is irrelevant now as we are where we are. Support to the manager Support to improving robust club finances Fan liaison Support to the Manager This can be in any number of ways. Financial obviously, but also in terms of supporting him through good and bad times. Working closely with him as he wants, either in the shadows or up front. I have to say in this regard Xia has been very good. Obviously none of us know the inner workings of their relationship and so cannot comment on how well they work together but it appears to be ok. He has certainly not come out and had a go at RDM as he has done some players that’s for sure. Bit concerned he is taking too much of a profile in some aspects of player management but I hope this is just initial enthusiasm and not a character trait. There are one or two niggles for me in some areas but I’ll elaborate more in the fan liaison section. For finances you cant really argue that the manager has not been supported. At least publically it seems we have got the majority of targets we have gone for and broken a couple of league records in the process. I do concern myself that the financing should not stop there but this will only be proved in time. Should w be successful in promotion then we will require even more money to be spent, especially when you look at the figures some of the minor clubs are spending. We may have broken some championship records but even those figures are dwarfed by the lesser clubs in the premier league. It is frightening but I hope that our owner does not think that once we have spent the money in this window we will not need to again, that all it needed was one investment in the team. The amount we have spent this summer was needed for now. But on the basis of the now, no complaints from me he has been prepared to spend the cash to support the manager. Long may that continue. I would have liked to have seen all the key appointments made by now and it is disappointing the much vaunted TD has not yet arrived , someone who I believe could improve the player psychology aspect. Support to improving robust club finances I’m really impressed with this actually and he seems to be doing things I’ve wanted the club to do for a while and which Lerner singularly failed to do. His initial work in India and China will open the club up to huge new markets. I really believe he is modern and forward thinking enough in this aspect to really excel here and by god we need it. Our revenue streams at home are restricted. The market we are in is saturated and we cannot compete with some of the players in it. We have to broaden our horizons it is only practical so I’m glad he has done that. I have also been amazed in the past at how we have failed to capitalize on some of the nationalities we have in the team. We have seen fans come onto this site from some countries where we have signed players, only really interested in Villa because one of their national players has signed for us. This is something I truly believe we should have capitalized on as a club and have failed to do. I hope it is an area we look at now. It was suggested with Jedinak and Australia for example but we should definitely look to do this. I also believe it should work both ways with those players perhaps more aware of the emerging talent from those countries and able to provide a more advanced recommendation before those youngsters become too well known. Outwardly this is not something we have done in the past. I have hopes that Xia may work this to our advantage. So far so good on this, though certainly India and China were good starts. Fan Liaison Now the last owner had significantly lost his enthusiasm of being a football club owner. It has diminished over a number of years. We have now an owner with renewed excitement , I’ll give him that. In addition it is clear he is more aware of the reach of social media and internet communications in the modern age than the previous owner was and he is clearly determined to exploit it. My concern is in an apparent naivety of that, lets say. Quite obviously a large portion of our fan base is excited and intrigued to get direct communication with an owner after years of having one not interested and not communicating. To then see that communication basically expose some of the inner workings of the club when all fans of whatever club crave an element of ITK, well its like manna. For me it is a huge risk and I would prefer that he shy away from such matters as criticism of players, criticism of opposing clubs, discussions on financials of players, criticisms of football pundits. Some have said it is his club and his money he can do what he likes and that they trust his knowledge. Sorry I disagree. He does not have an experienced football knowledge and he does not have experience of how football media and reports on football are handled in this country. If he persists we will get into trouble. And this is in the championship. If we do get promoted the spotlight will be on us even more as a club, it will be like nothing else. Yes the communication lines with the fan base needed to be improved but I would much rather an ex player be employed in some official fan liaison / communication role. Someone like an Ian Taylor for example to manage the communications. Not saying he should not tweet at all, I think direct contact with an owner and for fans to feel an owner is not distant can be a huge positive, especially in generating a “we are all in this together” team atmosphere. I just think some of the things are very unwise and could be more harm than good. They may even come with good intentions, like quotes that he finds inspirational, but I’m afraid that they come with a scrutiny that is unwelcome. Things like raising expectations to a level that cannot be achieved as well. Advice here is under promise and over deliver. Not the other way around. In addition when he gets involved in some elements of player management it concerns me greatly as he is owner, not manager. He does not have the football skill or experience and he should employ and trust experts to do that. Of course he has a financial approval but not a technical opinion as far as I am concerned. Overall I think some of the timings of the things done have been a bit tardy , but I temper that with my expectation that we will not be pushing for promotion this season and that rebuilding the club is a long term project, certainly if we want success. So what’s the issue with a few weeks now at the start when we are talking 5 or plus years to turn the club around? I do have concerns over whether the money can continue as it will need to be , but that can only come with experience and time if we do get promoted. For now he is spending so fair play, cant second guess too much. I do have concerns over how much influence he is having or wants over team affairs especially having seen how foreign owners who do that can cause problems , but I am hopeful it is youthful over exuberance at this early stage, not that I want his enthusiasm to diminish, just that it should be better channeled. His communication style could and should be better managed but at this stage I am fairly happy with events. Not that that means I cannot criticize or that criticism should cease and desist for ever and ever. If it is merited, in my opinion, or if something happens I am not sure of then absolutely I’ll express it. Just as I will also show approval over the good things. So as we all prepare for back to school at the moment I’d say A for effort and B for attainment, overall B+ to Dr Xia. 29 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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