sne Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 Just when I thought he couldn't possibly be any dumber, he goes and retain Bruce. And totally doesn't redeem himself. Special kind of moron this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 10 hours ago, Sam3773 said: Anyway, next summer will be telling. The rolling 3 year FFP window will have rolled past our first season in the Championship where we spent a hell of a lot of money. Suddenly next summer we can spend big again. Will he? I hope he's learnt his lesson. Can he? I doubt it without investment. That's cheered me up a bit so there is a chance that we can buy Jack back next summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keener window-cleaner Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 I'm not sure if Xia is a complete fraud, the Asian Gatsby, he could well be. But he could also be a quite normal businessman who is taking risks and exaggerates his and his companies credentials, as businessmen often do when they market themselves and seek investment. It could be as simple as at the time he bought us he had quite much assets, took advantage of Chinas policy of becoming a football world power and managed to get loans with his other business as a security to buy us. Then the Chinese stock market and his other businesses crashed and his gamble on Villa failed. So now he sits in the **** with a lot of loans which we now pay the price for. He probably did what many newly rich businessmen do, they take risks. It's how capitalism works, it requires entrepreneurs to gamble on different projects, many go bust and then you try again. It's the normal market. The problem is that football clubs should not be part of this normal market thinking. For me it goes back to Lerner, he was the one who chose to sell us to a chancer. In fairness, it's not much we or EFL could have done. We could have payed more attention to the ones questioning Xia and his background and protest, but in the end Lerner sells to whom he wishes. Probably Lerner sold to Xia because he could pay with cash up front with his loaned money. It shows that the EFL:s rules on owners must be revised and become much stricter so that we can avoid this to continue. I think I would prefere administration as soon as possible in the hope of getting rid of Xia and facilitating for a local long term, preferrably partly supporter invovled ownership to come in. Until that, I'd happily be part and chip in on a massive Xia out campain with a demand to sell us to responsible owners. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrytini Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 2 hours ago, dubbs said: If Xia is financially screwed as he appears surely getting some money for the club is better than getting nothing if it goes into administration. I disagree. In my view I’d rather go the Full Monty now and restart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WaccoeOnline Posted July 7, 2018 Visiting Supporter Share Posted July 7, 2018 (edited) 43 minutes ago, Keener window-cleaner said: Until that, I'd happily be part and chip in on a massive Xia out campain with a demand to sell us to responsible owners. If you need help on the mechanics, I'm sure @hooter or me could put you in touch with the lads who ran the campaign to get Massimo Cellino (Time To Go Massimo) out of the club - the stuff he linked to in his recent post. Wasn't just laser projections on stands during televised games, we hired all the commercial billboards round the ground and put up signs denouncing him (its less expensive than you think), as well as the usual demos, marches, etc. The aim was to cause maximum embarrassment and discomfort for him all the time to the point where it reduced the threshold at which, when other stuff turned against him, he would throw in the towel. Aim was to reach the Italian (but in your case the Chinese) press as much as UK and local audiences to make him look an embarrassment back at home as much as he was at Leeds. Took a lot of coordination and a fair whack of cash. We used Waccoe - our equivalent of VillaTalk - to raise cash to help kickstart some of it. The projections cost close to £10k, but we raised that in less than 12hrs on waccoe from board members. Other stuff not so expensive, and we used board members with graphic design skills, lawyers on the board offering time for free, etc. Also created huge amounts of memes, photoshops, etc that could be used on twitter to rile and annoy him and his supporters. I'm sure theres a lot that could be shared if you wanted it. Edited July 7, 2018 by WaccoeOnline 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villabromsgrove Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 I think Xia has made it plain that we're in the sh*t, but he's not prepared to sell the club until he's converted our best players into cash. It's also plain that he can't afford to sack Bruce, so he'll insist on SB replacing his best players with our young "wonder kids" in the hope that Bruce will walk. On the plus side, Luke Organ writes a lovely letter doesn't he. Let the asset stripping begin, as Xia continues "to preserve the smooth running of the club without compromising the standards of this great institution" .... Too late for that Tony! So, Xia's going nowhere till he's got a chunk of his money back, and it's Luke Organ's job to put a positive spin on it! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyp102 Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 So I took from this I took from the letter that we have no expectations of anything like promotion, we will be selling a lot of players. We’ll then rely on the youth, build them up, get them looking good players and then sell them on as well. In the past when we were in the prem, we were the feeder club for the top teams, we’d be the club to take a chance on younger players from the lower leagues build them up and then the top teams take them, Delph, Young etc. We’ll now be the feeder for the low prem teams, who will take out better players, give them prem exposure and then sell on to the top teams... oh the joys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshVilla Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 (edited) I remember when he was saying we were targeting the champions league within 10 years.... There is still time lads were only 3 years in Edited July 7, 2018 by AshVilla 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEgo Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 13 hours ago, A'Villan said: Well spotted. Although with technology as it is it's perfectly possible translators were involved, given the magnitude of our situation, I would be surprised had they not spoken on some level. Guys, he does speak English, not super fluently but better when he's not in front of the cameras apparently. Sometimes it's easier to speak a language than to write in it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sexbelowsound Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 FFS I was really hoping to enjoy the first game of the season. Now I feel like we need to be spending our time forcing this fraud out of the club. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveAV1 Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 50 minutes ago, WaccoeOnline said: If you need help on the mechanics, I'm sure @hooter or me could put you in touch with the lads who ran the campaign to get Massimo Cellino (Time To Go Massimo) out of the club - the stuff he linked to in his recent post. Wasn't just laser projections on stands during televised games, we hired all the commercial billboards round the ground and put up signs denouncing him (its less expensive than you think), as well as the usual demos, marches, etc. The aim was to cause maximum embarrassment and discomfort for him all the time to the point where it reduced the threshold at which, when other stuff turned against him, he would throw in the towel. Aim was to reach the Italian (but in your case the Chinese) press as much as UK and local audiences to make him look an embarrassment back at home as much as he was at Leeds. Took a lot of coordination and a fair whack of cash. We used Waccoe - our equivalent of VillaTalk - to raise cash to help kickstart some of it. The projections cost close to £10k, but we raised that in less than 12hrs on waccoe from board members. Other stuff not so expensive, and we used board members with graphic design skills, lawyers on the board offering time for free, etc. Also created huge amounts of memes, photoshops, etc that could be used on twitter to rile and annoy him and his supporters. I'm sure theres a lot that could be shared if you wanted it. With all due respect, I hadn’t heard of all that media pressure you put on Cellino and I’m from Birmingham. So whether it reached Italy seems unlikely. As other posters, with Chinese connections have said, we ain’t big news over there and reaching the Chinese media is hopeful at best. However something must have worked, so fair play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keener window-cleaner Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 8 minutes ago, sexbelowsound said: FFS I was really hoping to enjoy the first game of the season. Now I feel like we need to be spending our time forcing this fraud out of the club. To cheer you up hopefully we wont sell all our youngsters, so we will have a team of young talanted villans to cheer on and see develop, instead of overpaid oldies who come in for a couple of years for a final pay check. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEgo Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 No mention in his statement about how he proposes to fund the running of the club day to day WITHOUT investment (and let's face it no one worth their weight will invest in us without clear involvement or control/influence) Deliberately sent out at a time where it could be somewhat hidden and full of woolly statements. That said I asked for him to speak up and I'm glad he has. No bank loans (misleading as many will read it as no debt. I took it to mean, brace yourself for impending sales (Grealish, Adomah, Chester and Hogan/Kodjia) expect to keep hearing about FFP (whilst remembering Bournemouth only JUST got fined fr 14/15 season) If we had CASH (we don't) he could easily ignore FFP (not that we really should be though, as we do need to be sustainable) He is definitely trying to blur the lines between FFP and no cash flow or lack of cash flow. To me it's all rather disingenuous, quite the opposite of 'open' Again, where is the detail on how he proposes to fund the club? He makes out the changes at Senior level were 'strategic' as opposed to a chaotic dismissal with Wyness and cost cutting with Round. Didn't trust him from day one and don't know. I believe he will sell and he's trying to control the 'narrative and optics' So much left unsaid. Be worried people, it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better imo 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WaccoeOnline Posted July 7, 2018 Visiting Supporter Share Posted July 7, 2018 4 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said: With all due respect, I hadn’t heard of all that media pressure you put on Cellino and I’m from Birmingham. So whether it reached Italy seems unlikely. As other posters, with Chinese connections have said, we ain’t big news over there and reaching the Chinese media is hopeful at best. However something must have worked, so fair play. To be fair we weren’t aiming for the Brimningham press but we did make it all over the national tabloids, particularly with the projection stunt. And into his local papers in Italy. But the insulting posters all round the ground were as effective in making him uncomfortable and unhappy. Heres a bit of the coverage https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/leeds-united-fans-step-up-campaign-against-massimo-cellino-with-elland-road-protest-a6876701.html https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/leeds-fans-hire-for-sale-8006230 https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/apr/15/leeds-fans-protest-massimo-cellino-reading https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/494804/Leeds-fans-protest-Massimo-Cellino-images-projected-Elland-Road of course at the time you were probably still enjoying your football, no need to pay attention to a northern club on its knees... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEgo Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 Oh and a self confessed multi billionaire looking for investment to help pay the bills......Hmmmmm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEgo Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 1 minute ago, WaccoeOnline said: To be fair we weren’t aiming for the Brimningham press but we did make it all over the national tabloids, particularly with the projection stunt. And into his local papers in Italy. But the insulting posters all round the ground were as effective in making him uncomfortable and unhappy. Heres a bit of the coverage https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/leeds-united-fans-step-up-campaign-against-massimo-cellino-with-elland-road-protest-a6876701.html https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/leeds-fans-hire-for-sale-8006230 https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/apr/15/leeds-fans-protest-massimo-cellino-reading https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/494804/Leeds-fans-protest-Massimo-Cellino-images-projected-Elland-Road of course at the time you were probably still enjoying your football, no need to pay attention to a northern club on its knees... I followed it with interest and only wish our fan base could manage to collaberate, sadly it's far too busy taking pot shots at one another after years of divide and conquer. Apathy is the main emotion of many. A dangerous mindset. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keener window-cleaner Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 7 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said: With all due respect, I hadn’t heard of all that media pressure you put on Cellino and I’m from Birmingham. So whether it reached Italy seems unlikely. As other posters, with Chinese connections have said, we ain’t big news over there and reaching the Chinese media is hopeful at best. However something must have worked, so fair play. How about bringing a lawsuit against him for fraud or something, we have paid for tickets etc in the believe of investment, champions league football, a theme park etc etc. Not it would of course be unfounded and would loose the case, but it could be worth the cost just to give him negative publicity. "Fans suing owner for broken promises", "Fans suing owner for being a fraud". Bet the Brittish media could come up with some tasty headlines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodgyknees Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 5 minutes ago, WaccoeOnline said: To be fair we weren’t aiming for the Brimningham press but we did make it all over the national tabloids, particularly with the projection stunt. And into his local papers in Italy. But the insulting posters all round the ground were as effective in making him uncomfortable and unhappy. Heres a bit of the coverage https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/leeds-united-fans-step-up-campaign-against-massimo-cellino-with-elland-road-protest-a6876701.html https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/leeds-fans-hire-for-sale-8006230 https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/apr/15/leeds-fans-protest-massimo-cellino-reading https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/494804/Leeds-fans-protest-Massimo-Cellino-images-projected-Elland-Road of course at the time you were probably still enjoying your football, no need to pay attention to a northern club on its knees... You must have missed the Lerner-out campaign we put together on this forum. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keener window-cleaner Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 (edited) 6 minutes ago, TheEgo said: I followed it with interest and only wish our fan base could manage to collaberate, sadly it's far too busy taking pot shots at one another after years of divide and conquer. Apathy is the main emotion of many. A dangerous mindset. I disagree, we're united when it counts, the McLeish and Lerner out campains for example. Discussions on message boards are another thing that should not be blown out of proportion. Edited July 7, 2018 by Keener window-cleaner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WaccoeOnline Posted July 7, 2018 Visiting Supporter Share Posted July 7, 2018 (edited) 11 minutes ago, TheEgo said: I followed it with interest and only wish our fan base could manage to collaberate, sadly it's far too busy taking pot shots at one another after years of divide and conquer. Apathy is the main emotion of many. A dangerous mindset. The truth is most of our fans were apathetic or actively collaborated with the crooks wrecking us turning on their own trying to save the club. Was prob only 3000 or so hardcore, mostly originally off our messageboard but also organising via twitter, who got behind the campaign. And maybe only 10-20 getting properly stuck into organising, leafleting, poster campaigns, media, etc. But sometimes that’s all it takes. And when a few hundred lads online one evening can raise £10k just like that - and then week after week to keep stunts and campaigns going, you’ve a chance. Sad fact is a lot of our “fans” would abuse the protestors - singing “support the club or xxxx off home” when protests started, etc. probably the majority of our fans were like yours, but even worse were like that over 10-15 years. Even set up their own pro-owner group “In Massimo We Trust” to coordinate vile attacks and smears on those pushing for change. Thankfully enough good lads were willing to stand up and be counted enough to keep our self respect. Even if some had their lives disrupted and pulled apart as a result of the sacrifices they made and how far the quislings and collaborators in our fanbase were willing to go to turn on their own rather than on the vile scum who owned us. Stories could be told. And some will never be forgiven. But more important were those who put lives on hold to try to make a difference. Am sure with support as large as yours you can find their like and galvanize more, if you choose to. Edited July 7, 2018 by WaccoeOnline Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts