Tony Xia (no longer involved with AVFC)

[eholm]

14 minutes ago, hippo said:

Tony has he wouldn't be spending even without FFP restrictions  (his words not mine)

IME once an owner stops investing, they don't often start again. 

 

Maybe not spending to the levels he has which is surely sensible strategy. IF we don't go up next season the finances will be even tighter so a prudent approach IMO especially considering the investment he has already made and the comparison to other more successful teams in the Championship. I don't agree with your last point as I am sure he will invest very heavily again once/if promotion is achieved.

[Wezbid]

I don't understand the big fuss on not spending huge. How much have other teams in the play-offs and Brighton spent? It's more about getting good value for money and getting the team to play together.

The likes of Bree and Hourihane are more like it. I think some are still expecting Premiership type investment which is just ludicrous. 

[hippo]

4 minutes ago, Wezbid said:

I don't understand the big fuss on not spending huge. How much have other teams in the play-offs and Brighton spent? It's more about getting good value for money and getting the team to play together.

The likes of Bree and Hourihane are more like it. I think some are still expecting Premiership type investment which is just ludicrous. 

The less we spend the less likely we are to go up IMO. Thats a big deal.

 

[DaveAV1]

Spending big in the Championship seems to be less of a guarantee of success, if there's any such thing, than in The Premiership, where it is more or less vital. I haven't looked at the stats but I would imagine with few exceptions, that there is a direct correlation between money spent and league position in the premier league. I don't think, certainly not in our case, that the same correlation can be applied to this division. 

Down here it seems to be more to do with coaching and team spirit. 

[bobzy]

19 minutes ago, hippo said:

The less we spend the less likely we are to go up IMO. Thats a big deal.

 

For me, we spent way more than I thought we would in our first season down here.... and we finished 13th.

[sne]

Spending £70 something million to finish 13th in the Championship is absolutely ridiculous, even in this current football economy.

Xia has been had big time by his "football people" who's in turn been had by clubs, agents and players.

Whoever's been in charge of this transfer strategy really should get sacked.

We've signed some more than decent players for this level, but on the whole we overspent and wasted an unforgivable amount of money.

 

[wilko154]

The main argument here seems to be that we have wasted a lot of money... but have we. Realistically we had to spend a lot of money to overhaul our complete squad.

Let me take you back a year to our final game of last season... here is our squad vs Arsenal

                       Bunn

Lyden Bacuna Lescott Toner Cissokho

Westwood Sanchez Gueye

            Sinclair Ayew

Do we honestly think we would have finished any higher in the league with that?!

 

Now lets take you back to the start of the season, first game against Wednesday

                   Gollini

Hutton Elphick Baker Cissokho

Bacuna Westwood Gardner Ayew

     McCormack Gestede

Do we honestly think we would have finished any higher in the league with that for the entire season?

 

We are improving, but it's not going to happen overnight. The squad is so much stronger than it was this time last year, but again it's going to take time for it all to come together. A summer of stability without spending shed loads of money is exactly what this club needs this time around.

[sne]

Gollini, McCormack, Tshibola, thats £20-25m wasted right there. 

Hogan, Hourihane, Bree, Lansbury might come good next season and could turn out to be good signings, although IMO we spent way too much on Hogan. That's  £20 m that could be good, bad or OK'ish.

Chester, Kodija, Taylor, Adomah and Jedi we IMO got about what we paid for pretty much.

Elphick was a disappointment but the price was about right I guess.

De Laet, Thor you can't really judge yet..

 

I'd say we wasted a whole lot of money considering we are a Championship team.

Bad luck, bad scouting, no overall strategy and players bought in without any idea of how to build a functioning 11 around them.

Paying PL wages in the Championship also means we are hemorrhaging money.

 

 

[pacbuddies]

8 hours ago, hippo said:

Tony has he wouldn't be spending even without FFP restrictions  (his words not mine)

IME once an owner stops investing, they don't often start again. 

 

The new Randy Lerner maybe! Gets a new toy and spends a lot of pocket money trying to polish it then when he realises it's still a turd because the bloke he hired to do the polishing is a chimney sweep and not a valet he loses interest.

[AntrimBlack]

3 hours ago, hippo said:

The less we spend the less likely we are to go up IMO. Thats a big deal.

 

Spending big did not get us up this season, so I don't know why you would think that.

 

[Dale]

This squad is, now Newcastle are promoted, the best in the league bar none.

We should be playing with an attacking swagger and crushing teams, instead our management has us defending, hoping Kodjia scores and that we can successfully see out the game.

I don't need signings I need attacking intent and intensity from the first whistle in every game.

[TRO]

12 hours ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

Whilst I do agree with 'pulling' back and being 'smarter', it will certainly be interesting to see how it develops. Maybe I'm scarred by Villa but this certainly does bring back memories of Lerner 'pulling back' his investments, having being burnt by MON.

I agree with that.

I am generalising

I think the ingredient we are missing lends itself to the modest buys.....The big money buys in the main tend to bring with it the billy BB culture and encourages a bit of individualism as opposed to team work.

Having said that I do think we need an effective winger.

I think the next 3 or 4 need to be well thought through.

 

Edited May 16, 2017 by TRO

[Villarocker]

Maybe Dr Tony is cautious about the qualities of Bruce and doesn't want to give him any more money in case he has to sack him after a few games. 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

1 hour ago, villarocker said:

Maybe Dr Tony is cautious about the qualities of Bruce and doesn't want to give him any more money in case he has to sack him after a few games. 

Exactly what I intimated when the news first came out,

Can't blame him for being cautious.

As you know he is active on social media and will certainly have an eye on people thoughts and points.

[Dodgyknees]

16 hours ago, hippo said:

The less we spend the less likely we are to go up IMO. Thats a big deal.

 

Bollocks. We have spent 70m. Over two seasons that is 35m, I bet Brighton and others (outside of Newcastle) haven't spent that in 5 years.

[hippo]

12 hours ago, AntrimBlack said:

Spending big did not get us up this season, so I don't know why you would think that.

 

So if we invested another £60 on players this summer - you feel our chances would diminish ? 

[HanoiVillan]

29 minutes ago, DK82 said:

Bollocks. We have spent 70m. Over two seasons that is 35m, I bet Brighton and others (outside of Newcastle) haven't spent that in 5 years.

I don't think this proves @hippo's point wrong. He didn't say it was impossible to go up without spending money, just that it made it less likely. 

[Dodgyknees]

27 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

I don't think this proves @hippo's point wrong. He didn't say it was impossible to go up without spending money, just that it made it less likely. 

We've thrown money at it. Now we need to build a team with what we have, remove the deadwood and then bring in only essential additions.

@hippo sorry if I misread or offended.

[HeyAnty]

22 hours ago, eholm said:

This is Tony restricting spending purely due to FFP compliance and the potential consequences and has nothing to do with his willingness, or lack of, to invest in the squad. Two completely different things IMO.

This FFP is a smoke screen.  Villa Park could generate 100mill for naming rights eh Tony.  You any companies you want to sponsor villa? 

In saying that, do I think Tony is right not to spend more money on Players to we get rid of the chaff?  Yeah totally, our squad is to big, full of players going through the motions.  Our new players wont flourish until we get rid of some of the players who have been there through the poisonous regime of Lerners.

[Raver50032]

13 minutes ago, HeyAnty said:

This FFP is a smoke screen.  Villa Park could generate 100mill for naming rights eh Tony.  You any companies you want to sponsor villa? 

In saying that, do I think Tony is right not to spend more money on Players to we get rid of the chaff?  Yeah totally, our squad is to big, full of players going through the motions.  Our new players wont flourish until we get rid of some of the players who have been there through the poisonous regime of Lerners.

I see your point there about naming rights. For me, that is the kind of deal that should be kept up our sleeve until we get promoted. That's when we'll need to kick on and compete to stay in the Premier League, and push ourselves further up as part of the bigger, promised plan.

I appreciate of course that we still need to be competitive 'down here' and make sure we can get out of it with promotion. Sooner or later, the FA or the EFL will make an example of a club with more than just a token fine. Knowing our luck, what better example for everyone than pulling Aston Villa's pants down?