Deisler123 Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 (edited) In the short time since Xia hit the headlines, it is impossible to verify everything about him. Even his birth-date has been questioned. Xia, whose full name is Xia Jiantong, says he was born on October 26, 1976, and that the confusion arose because he started school as a precocious four-year-old whose parents needed for legal reasons to pretend he was six. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3602825/Saviour-dreamer-Sportsmail-talks-Aston-Villa-s-owner-waiting-Dr-Tony-Xia.html A lot of reports in China that I can find through Baidu (chinese google) all said he went to scholl at the age of 4. and went to university at the age of 14. Being a chinese these are perfectly normal to me. I went to Primiary school (without pre-school) at the age of 5. And my parents changed my birthday in order to send me to the school 1 year earlier, then changed it back later. This happens to a lot of chinese kids. A lot of Chinese students went to university at the age of 13-15. They were chosen to do this - they had to show super high IQ and exam results (normally mathematics and physics) in order to be admmited. I am not that good to do this, though. Edited May 22, 2016 by Deisler123 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFC_Hitz Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 But how much have AVFC already lost over the last two years? We lost Richards and Lescott to ricketts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler123 Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 3 minutes ago, TrinityRoadSteps said: So. Out of all of this I think the best thing I have learnt is that SHA means stupid in Chinese haha it has to be third tone though (which has 100+ letters) SHA the first tone could mean: Kill; the second could mean (in certain scenario): WTF? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrinityRoadSteps Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 2 minutes ago, Deisler123 said: haha it has to be third tone though (which has 100+ letters) SHA the first tone could mean: Kill; the second could mean (in certain scenario): WTF? I am so glad I don't have to learn Chinese! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meme Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 18 minutes ago, Deisler123 said: they had to show super high IQ and exam results (normally mathematics and physics) in order to be admitted. *instant erection* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yayoboy Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 Not sure if this has been posted, so apologies if it's old news. http://english.caixin.com/2016-05-20/100946170.html "American billionaire Randy Lerner, who bought Aston Villa in 2006 for 62.2 million pounds, put the club up for sale in 2014. Six companies showed interest, Xia said, but the final competing bidders were Recon and the American software company Oracle Corp. Lerner eventually chose to sell to Recon in part because China provides a large fan base for English soccer teams, Xia said." Wow. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daweii Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 5 minutes ago, yayoboy said: Not sure if this has been posted, so apologies if it's old news. http://english.caixin.com/2016-05-20/100946170.html "American billionaire Randy Lerner, who bought Aston Villa in 2006 for 62.2 million pounds, put the club up for sale in 2014. Six companies showed interest, Xia said, but the final competing bidders were Recon and the American software company Oracle Corp. Lerner eventually chose to sell to Recon in part because China provides a large fan base for English soccer teams, Xia said." Wow. Makes sense. Hollis had already said that it was Xia's outlook and plans that made him the better option. Xia wasn't just about improving Aston Villa but improving the greater Aston area. If you add that to the fact that China would be a far more welcome host to us with their aspirations to be a great footballing nation and Xia wins hands down. Yes Oracle has absurd amounts of money but that also only gets you so far in English football before you run foul of FFP. Couple that with the fact that football (soccer) is not a very popular sport in the States and the overall deal looks less appealing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 Ermmm, so Larry Ellison was interested? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Gary Thomas Posted May 22, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted May 22, 2016 I know some people will jump on this, but personally (given where we are) I think it is very reassuring to know that Recon (Tony Xiu) was seen as a BETTER option than Oracle. They fact they had some such good options suggests our guy is the real deal. The more I hear about this the happier I am with him. Like others have said the money and growth potential in China is incredible - this makes good sense to me. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yayoboy Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 2 minutes ago, Gary Thomas said: I know some people will jump on this, but personally (given where we are) I think it is very reassuring to know that Recon (Tony Xiu) was seen as a BETTER option than Oracle. They fact they had some such good options suggests our guy is the real deal. The more I hear about this the happier I am with him. Like others have said the money and growth potential in China is incredible - this makes good sense to me. This. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meme Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 If Recon and Xia in particular has links with the Chinese government and state support, he would technically have BILLIONS of pounds more to spend on Villa than Oracle Group, and an incredibly easy way to loophole FFP. This, as well as what Gary said, would make Recon the obvious choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 54 minutes ago, meme said: *instant erection* Maths is hot 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 (edited) 2 hours ago, Rob182 said: I think that's a bit of an overreaction. The only part of 'They would prefer Lerner + no budget + McLeish' that is an exaggeration is the McLeish part, as no-one wants him back. But there have been a number of people stating that their morals are too clean cut for us to be involved with an owner like Xia and Chris Samuelson, given the rumours of hidden funds etc. As some people have made no secret of their disapproval, it's not crazy to say that they, and their morals, would prefer to have Randy Lerner and the minimal budget he would provide, even if it meant we got stuck in the Championship. . . . which is also rubbish quite frankly. At least one of the people who has been skeptical of Xia is me. Now I'm not trying to claim any great involvement, but I did spend two of my recent Saturday afternoons handing out 'Lerner Out' banners outside Villa Park. But apparently now I'm some kind of Lerner fan, just because I've had the temerity to be skeptical about Tony Xia. If the sort of second order thinking inherent in 'Lerner needs to go BUT ALSO I have some doubts about Xia' is beyond people that's pretty embarrassing for them. The bits about 'no budget' and 'bring back McLeish' were just garbage, not even worth the dignity of a proper response. That a post that bad received that many likes suggests to me we're well inside the Groupthink phase when posters are simply expected to climb onboard the bandwagon. Edited May 22, 2016 by HanoiVillan 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 19 minutes ago, Daweii said: Couple that with the fact that football (soccer) is not a very popular sport in the States Not a fully accurate statement. In fact, you could easily argue it's been more popular here than in China since the turn of the 20th century. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 (edited) But if there was a bid from Ellison and it got rejected, that is staggering news. If we get this one wrong, holy sh*t. Edited May 22, 2016 by maqroll Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler123 Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 (edited) 2 minutes ago, maqroll said: Not a fully accurate statement. In fact, you could easily argue it's been more popular here than in China since the turn of the 20th century. edited. Misread, sorry Edited May 22, 2016 by Deisler123 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sexbelowsound Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 I'm not buying the Ellison interest. He doesn't seem to have much interest in acquiring sports teams, not sure why he'd start now and with us. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 (edited) 2 minutes ago, sexbelowsound said: I'm not buying the Ellison interest. He doesn't seem to have much interest in acquiring sports teams, not sure why he'd start now and with us. Isn't that article using Xia as a source for this information? So if Ellison wasn't interested then either Xia is lying or the journalist is. Edited May 22, 2016 by Dr_Pangloss Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alreadyexists Posted May 22, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted May 22, 2016 We don't know at what stage the Oracle bid was considered to be the worse bid, it could be that they were interested very early on and withdrew, or that their intentions for Villa weren't right. Either way, there's no point worrying about what might've been, there could be a hundred reasons why Xia was considered better, and if it doesn't 'work out' with Recon (in years to come) that doesn't mean that it's the wrong choice now. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sexbelowsound Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 3 minutes ago, Dr_Pangloss said: Isn't that article using Xia as a source for this information? So if Ellison wasn't interested then either Xia is lying or the journalist is. Doesn't read that way to me. They've quoted Xia a couple of times during that article so if he did say it why not quote him again? Journalists embellishing information wouldn't exactly be shocking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts