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Tony Xia (no longer involved with AVFC)


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6 minutes ago, Rob182 said:

The main difference is that Randy stopped putting money in by choice, whereas Xia has had his hands tied behind his back by FFP and China.

I'm not sure how true that is. Regardless, his decision making has led us to this mess and yet people defend it because he had good intentions and trusted the wrong football people. It was the same excuses with lerner. 

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Tony can ride this one out. Chester and Grealish our two most valuable players will probably be sold - let's say they bring in £40 mill together. We then go buy some good young players at proper prices for once (Nixon says we are doing this) - we retain a few players we can't shift due to their wages like Jedi - we bring through our good young players - Steve Bruce stays in the job and keeps a good team spirit going. We can definitely get through next season. 

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Just now, Jareth said:

Tony can ride this one out. Chester and Grealish our two most valuable players will probably be sold - let's say they bring in £40 mill together. We then go buy some good young players at proper prices for once (Nixon says we are doing this) - we retain a few players we can't shift due to their wages like Jedi - we bring through our good young players - Steve Bruce stays in the job and keeps a good team spirit going. We can definitely get through next season. 

Except we won't do that. The money will be tossed up the wall.

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1 minute ago, Jareth said:

Tony can ride this one out. Chester and Grealish our two most valuable players will probably be sold - let's say they bring in £40 mill together. We then go buy some good young players at proper prices for once (Nixon says we are doing this) - we retain a few players we can't shift due to their wages like Jedi - we bring through our good young players - Steve Bruce stays in the job and keeps a good team spirit going. We can definitely get through next season. 

Why would we want people who got us in to this mess to ride it out? So they can do it again?

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2 minutes ago, rodders0223 said:

Except we won't do that. The money will be tossed up the wall.

Depends who we get in to replace Wyness, whoever it is you can bet they'll be tighter than the safety latch on Ross Mcormack's gate. 

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37 minutes ago, RunRickyRun said:

The guy is an idiot and it's no surprise he has run the club into the ground. 

Just about sums it up. If you are being kind you could say he didn't really give Villa enough of his attention and allowed to get carried away with trying to get us promoted. But bloody hell we have become a comedy club overnight. 

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2 hours ago, hippo said:

Its all about confidence now. My fear is that come the end of the month we have another hurdle in terms of paying everyones wages. If however we can get a sense of calm back - then for sure we have to sell some players - but perhaps we can be in control of our destiny and get better prices for our players.

As for a takeover who is going bankroll £5m a month ? in addition to an asking price ?  - I don't think there will be many takers.  Short term we have to have hope that this was all down to Wyness managing Aston Villa finances like a lunatic - and that Xia gets a tighter grip on things (which is all a new owner could do)

Top half next season would be some achievement.

Care to point out how we have lost 5m per month?

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Apologies if already been posted, but I think this Guardian article provides a fairly balanced view:

Quote

Aston Villa face bleak future as Tony Xia shortfall exposes house of cards

The Villa owner’s increasingly unreliable backing has left a club who were over-reliant on his funds facing crisis

Alarm bells were ringing at Aston Villa long before a tax bill went unpaid last month. The first indication that all was not well came last year, when Tony Xia’s monthly payments stopped arriving with the same frequency, leaving a club that were operating way beyond their means, and are totally dependent on the owner’s financial support, scrambling around to pay the bills.

Xia, the Chinese businessman who revealed that it was his dream to turn Villa into one of the world’s top three clubs when he took over two years ago, had previously always made regular transfers to cover the outgoings, averaging around £4m a month across his first season. Yet the Guardian understands that those payments were made nothing like as consistently from as far back as 2017.

Villa, one way or another, managed to get by for the majority of last season, sometimes by asking clubs to bring forward staggered transfer fees for players that had been sold on. That practice, not uncommon in the Championship, saw Villa write off money in the long term to solve cash-flow problems in the short term.

Reality, however, was about to bite. In April and May, as the season neared the end, the money trail from China dried up completely and Villa’s financial position became critical. HM Revenue & Customs was due a payment in the region of £4m after May’s payroll and Villa, quite simply, had no way of getting their hands on the money.

The Championship play-off final was on the horizon – a get-rich-quick ticket that had the potential to put Villa’s financial worries to bed – but so was the HMRC deadline, which came 24 hours before the pivotal game against Fulham at Wembley. Villa missed the deadline and the golden ticket slipped through their fingers the following day. Suddenly it was crisis time.

Plenty of staff working within Villa Park must have seen the storm coming, including Keith Wyness, the chief executive, who felt duty-bound to act once it became clear that the club were not going to be able to pay HMRC. Wyness, who would have known the fiduciary responsibilities that come with his role on the board, is believed to have sought insolvency advice before and after the Fulham match.

Indeed, it is understood that Wyness advised Xia, who has been in Beijing since the play-off final, of the severe consequences of failing to pay HMRC, including the prospect of Villa being placed in administration and served with a winding up petition.

HMRC, which has adopted a robust approach in recent times to the football industry, was far from impressed with Villa’s inability to pay their tax bill and not minded to cut them much slack. The club were given a 10-day extension, which expired last Tuesday.

Wyness was no longer in control of the day-to-day running of the club by the time that deadline passed, after being told via a letter that he had been suspended. The reasons for that decision have not been made public but it is believed that Xia took exception to Wyness’s views on Villa’s predicament and wants the club to investigate the chief executive’s conduct in relation to the conversations that took place about insolvency.

It is all rather strange and, worryingly for Villa fans, easy to imagine things getting worse before they get better. Even if Villa come up with the money to cover May’s HMRC bill – there are suggestions an agreement will be reached by the end of the week – another payment will be due in less than three weeks’ time and then the whole episode starts again, not overlooking the fact that there will be many other creditors to satisfy. An exodus of players, including the departure of Jack Grealish, the club’s prize asset, seems inevitable.

Although complying with the Championship’s financial fair play rules threatens to be a major issue now that Villa’s three-year-loss limit has fallen to £39m, FFP is a problem for another day. The more pressing concern is the here and now, highlighted by a sobering story in the Birmingham Mail, revealing that the club are considering selling a plot of land close to Villa Park, which is used as a staff car park, to raise a few million quid.

This is the same club that embarked on an unprecedented spending spree at Championship level the season before last, when £88m was splurged on signings. Xia was effectively placing all his claret and blue chips on winning promotion with a high-risk strategy that has badly backfired and leaves the club with a huge financial void to fill next season, with or without his funding.

How much Xia is actually worth is a matter of debate and tied in with the question of why he is no longer bankrolling Villa. A key reason put forward is that the Chinese government has clamped down on capital flight, where investors send their money out of the country, although some Villa fans could be forgiven for wondering if that is a smokescreen for other issues. The club have been approached for comment.

Reports about potential takeovers continue to give those fans a glimmer of hope that there could be a resolution, although no change of ownership is anticipated in the near future. In fact, all that can be said for sure right now is that one of England’s most famous football clubs is in an awful mess.

 

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6 minutes ago, Hornso said:

Apologies if already been posted, but I think this Guardian article provides a fairly balanced view:

 

It appears he is saying or at the very least hinting that the owner has been putting in 4m a month and that is complete rubbish.

1, FFP doesnt allow it
2, It doesnt show on last years accounts 
3, we dont make losses anywhere near that level.

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With the shed load of press, sensitive financial details being recklessly fed to journos by Wyness, I think it may be sensible to hang fire and see if the fan base is being stoked up by some dark arts to put pressure on the owner. If we fail to pay any bills, and for the record as it stands, this is not the case, then I intend to call for Tony out. In the meantime, I look on, slightly cynical that the amount of press on this saga is starting to feel disproportionate to the actual events. I also look forward with interest to the outcome of Wyness’ investigation. 

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10 hours ago, irishmangiant said:

Villa were being topped up with cash every month. That's like living from paycheck to paycheck.

I don't run my own finances like that and I'm in a full time job.... Whatever happens, the man at the top Tony Xia needs to take responsibility for this.

Anyone doing business with his Recon Group should consider looking elsewhere. 

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/inside-story-behind-aston-villa-12655774

 

So according to this we had to go cap in hand to Burnley to pay the wages from the cash they owed us from the Westwood deal and they pocketed some of it because they could. :rolleyes:

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9 hours ago, Jareth said:

Tony can ride this one out. Chester and Grealish our two most valuable players will probably be sold - let's say they bring in £40 mill together. We then go buy some good young players at proper prices for once (Nixon says we are doing this) - we retain a few players we can't shift due to their wages like Jedi - we bring through our good young players - Steve Bruce stays in the job and keeps a good team spirit going. We can definitely get through next season. 

Nixon is hardly ever right on anything villa - he’s a Blackburn man and specialises in north west football - I’ve found him wrong on villa issues countless times , even more than James  nursey .

There are a handful of fairly reliable reporters on villa matters - Moxley and Percy probably among the best .

take Nixon with a large pinch of salt .

Edited by Eastie
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I’m so angry with this guy, looking at the Wyness debarcle it just looks like one of his senior men tried to tell him we have a very serious problem and Tony didn’t like it so he suspended him. I could be wrong in that but that’s my reading of it.

 

now just to stay in charge he is willing to sell anyone and everything and asset strip us with the promise of looking for new investment which then makes our ownership situation even more murky making us harder to buy for someone who is actually interested.

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34 minutes ago, John said:

So according to this we had to go cap in hand to Burnley to pay the wages from the cash they owed us from the Westwood deal and they pocketed some of it because they could. :rolleyes:

Yea, I think that's fair enough if the shoe was on the other foot. If we were asking them to go against the contract we'd need to offer them a carrot. 
I think Villa were desperate enough in this scenario and needed it so quickly. 

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9 hours ago, hippo said:

The chines government may not be involved - but the english one is

https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/football/aston-villa/2018/06/06/tom-watson-calls-on-government-to-suspend-moves-that-could-push-aston-villa-into-the-abyss/

he clock is ticking for Aston Villa. I think Villa fans and football supporters across the country deserve to know what steps the Government will be taking to protect our football clubs and our national game from those who threaten its long term future."

Fair play to Tom Watson a local MP backing a local football club in our hour of need and telling the government to cut us a bit of slack.:clap: 

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If the figures Stan has tweeted are to be believed, this issue is very worrying and has been going on for some time.

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