Tony Xia (no longer involved with AVFC)

[Villan_of_oz]

2 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

Oh he was. When asked if Xia was the only option Hollis said "No. As of two months ago we had half a dozen serious buyers. That came down to four and then two in the last couple of weeks. Of those two, Tony Xia was the preferred candidate.”

Hollis Explains Sale To Xia

 

Is anyone in our club not at fault for our demise?

[rubberman]

I was on the fence about Xia. I still think he's more likely made bad decisions than been a fraud etc, but who knows yet. The open letter has really boiled my piss though. 

1. I don't believe we're not for sale and I think a lot of the wording is deliberately obtuse to the point of lies re finance. However clickbaity the press is, the stories would not be out there without a grain of truth. 

2. I had hoped he had villa's best interests at heart, if only because a successful club would me he makes money for him. But sticking around while asset stripping is going to screw us for years. 

3. With proper investment and being run by people who know football I still believe there would have been a chance to keep Jack. Xia clinging on has killed this. 

4. And if there was really no way to keep Jack and others, why on earth would you let their sale be carried out by a marketing man (however good he is at that), someone who was an intern 2 years ago and a couple of people in China. Up against the man renowned as the hardest negotiator in football. How's that going to work out? 

Xia out. 

[markavfc40]

17 minutes ago, Villan_of_oz said:

Is anyone in our club not at fault for our demise?

There are levels of culpability but he buck always stops with the guy at the top. You can blame O'Neill, McLeish, Lambert, Sherwood, Faulkner, Fox, Krulak etc etc for our demise under Lerner but the bottom line is he was the custodian, he employed these people, he signed off the cheques. Now you can go around blaming Wyness, Round, RDM, Bruce but the bottom line is Xia owns the club and controls the finances, would have signed off expenditure and ultimately knew very well he couldn't finance us if we failed to get promoted and we'd be up shit creek. He gambled with this clubs future and lost the fallout from which we haven't even seen a fraction of yet.

Edited July 8, 2018 by markavfc40

[dubbs]

29 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

Oh he was. When asked if Xia was the only option Hollis said "No. As of two months ago we had half a dozen serious buyers. That came down to four and then two in the last couple of weeks. Of those two, Tony Xia was the preferred candidate.”

Hollis Explains Sale To Xia

 

He would say that though wouldn't he. He's hardly likely to turn around and say he wanted someone else to take over but sold to this tool instead!

[Villan_of_oz]

10 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

There are levels of culpability but he buck always stops with the guy at the top. You can blame O'Neill, McLeish, Lambert, Sherwood, Faulkner, Fox, Krulak etc etc for our demise under Lerner but the bottom line is he was the custodian, he employed these people, he signed off the cheques. Now you can go around blaming Wyness, Round, RDM, Bruce but the bottom line is Xia owns the club and controls the finances, would have signed off expenditure and ultimately knew very well he couldn't finance us if we failed to get promoted and we'd be up shit creek. He gambled with this clubs future and lost the fallout from which we haven't even seen a fraction of yet.

I agree with this, I'm waiting till we hit the bottom..... not even close yet.

All those clubs whose downfalls have defied belief over the last 15 gears or. We are close to being one of those clubs. 

I can see us in league one in 3 years time.

[markavfc40]

As for those trying to shift some of the blame onto Bruce for this whilst I'll acknowledge he fell short of what was achievable you don't put potentially the very existence of a club onto the shoulders of a manager and say get us promoted.

No owner in their right mind should run a club on the basis of one extreme or another be that qualify for Champions league one season or we'll be battling relegation the next or get us promoted or we are up shit creek. That is no way to run a football club.

Xia came in proclaiming to be a billionaire and is now scratching around for outside investment. Last season we heard on numerous occasions that there was a plan B and things would be fine if we didn't get promoted now as shown by the threat of the winding up order, the search for outside investment, the actively encouraging player sales, the haemorrhaging money like an open tap, there wasn't.

Xia is a charlatan it is as simple as that and he should be hanging his head in shame for what he has done, and continues to do, to our football club.

Edited July 8, 2018 by markavfc40

[AntrimBlack]

17 hours ago, TheEgo said:

Ps I don'y think he does care. We're a business and a project to him, one he thought he could make a quick buck out of, but maybe I say that with the last month fresh in my mind. I like you doubted his intentions from the get go....

Hey you, Mr. Ego. What about all these things that you assured us was going to happen last week?

[TheEgo]

17 hours ago, thabucks said:

I wanted to believe after the painful end to the Lerner’s tenure .... warning signs were there early doors but still kept faith... started to hear bad rumours very early on when I was at OUFC of something was not quite right and was he our true owner and did he actually have the wealth he claimed. The background noise grew but I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.... what I have since been told regarding samuels role (has it actually ever ended ??! ) unverifiable backers, dodgy loans, Wyness being a puppet for Samuel, round being a puppet for Wyness, overpaying on wages where we didn’t need to, grandiose plans with no chance of reality. Asking clubs if we can defer payments owed, and there’s more but libel laws .... one day it will all come out .... I’ve been told today not to be surprised if more comes out this week and Xia’ s plan is to act like a naive China man taking advantage of by Wyness and will shift all blame to Wyness and round whilst saying he shares in it... a big PR drive will be heading our way and many will fall for it no doubt but the guy is not legit and cannot be allowed to ruin us anymore... BofAmericaMerrilLynch should of realised something wasn’t quite right surely ? 

What really ducked me off in his letter (obviously written by Luke Organ) is that we should readjust our expectations..... just **** off .... how did Cardiff do last season on loans and frees and we supposedly have the promotion god managing us.... basically he is saying we can’t get promoted without money... 

 Xia out ! 

Yes WE need a "Reality Check" WE do........What a f**king cheek. We've had 8 years of a reality check and expectation adjustment. As I coined, He's the Chinese Gatsby a total chancer that doesn't deserve to own this grand old club.

[TheEgo]

3 hours ago, John said:

It's in The Mirror. Moxley is just fanning the flames he also claims Levy "has little intention of raising his offer (for Jack) above £10m". Fake news with a liberal helping of inaccurate monetary information.

All he has done is take the 5/6m per month figure and x it by 12. Great reporting Neil.

[TheEgo]

1 hour ago, markavfc40 said:

Oh he was. When asked if Xia was the only option Hollis said "No. As of two months ago we had half a dozen serious buyers. That came down to four and then two in the last couple of weeks. Of those two, Tony Xia was the preferred candidate.”

Hollis Explains Sale To Xia

 

Hollis was Chairman at KMPG too, one of the worlds biggest auditors. As well as Merrill Lynch checking over everything. Mind Boggling really.

[villabromsgrove]

All we need from an owner is common sense, honesty and sufficient funds (real money not monopoly). Thinking back I can't remember this ever being the case with our owners. Randy and Doug came closest with a score of one out of three qualities, albeit different ones. 

I rate Doug above Lerner and Xia though, because he has demonstrated a real passion for supporting the claret and blue, even long after he stopped making money out of us. 

Is there someone out their with all three qualities who is prepared to come in and do a proper job for Villa? I'm not going to hold my breath while I wait!

[sidcow]

38 minutes ago, TheEgo said:

Hollis was Chairman at KMPG too, one of the worlds biggest auditors. As well as Merrill Lynch checking over everything. Mind Boggling really.

KPMG. The people who were auditing Carillon you mean? 

All auditors do is charge eye watering fees to supply a signature. 

I would be surprised if most auditors could add two and two with any competence. 

And then they would put a huge list of disclaimers about the answer being 4.

Edited July 8, 2018 by sidcow

[TheEgo]

9 minutes ago, sidcow said:

KPMG. The people who were auditing Carillon you mean? 

All auditors do is charge eye watering fees to supply a signature. 

I would be surprised if most auditors could add two and two with any competence. 

And then they would put a huge list of disclaimers about the answer being 4.

Haha!! Fair one 

[TRO]

My take on it all is this.

Our football club/stadiums/training ground  like Sunderland & Leeds was built for the Premier League.....We have never quite accepted relegation in the true sense and have tried to scramble our way back by signing players from the Prem or what is perceived to be the divisions best players.....that comes at a price and in our position then, we have to pay through the nose, like now we sell in a fire sale.....buy or sell, its all done in a bit of a panic.

In comparison to Saunders and Taylor.....they spotted talent that was not readily recognised and capitalised on it.....buying players for strategic roles and developing them.

In my opinion....Lerner and Xia have been badly advised, by folk caught up in a desperation to scramble back to respectability.

You only have to glance at the current England set up, where prima donna's have gone, pragmatic team building has replaced it with young hungry players who have experienced the lower leagues and the values that have to be learnt and the togetherness that breeds......we have dispensed with picking JUST the best players for the sake of it and instead blended a bunch that have balance and respect for each other and not be afraid of using aerial power to gain progress, without being cast dinosaurs......How many headed goals has this World cup thrown up, even teams like Brazil recognising the importance of this aspect of our game, its far from dead ,its thriving in the modern game.

Back to us.....We have an opportunity to change, now......not one we would have wished on ourselves, but an opportunity to move away from players doing well at other clubs and failing with us.....we need to be more diligent in our recruitment, to ensure the right characters are pursued, ones with ambition, ones who can display a will to win, ones who relish the physical aspects of the game, ones who can head the ball as well as they can kick it.....ones who are in the lower leagues, bursting for an opportunity to show there worth, like the Vardy's and the Maguires.

We need to be geared up to be taking advantage of and developing our own recruits from lower leagues and creating our own loyalty like we did with Morley, Evans,Withe, McGrath, Mortimer......Players like this are still out there, like they always will be we have to be bold and adventurous enough to take the modest risks.....not putting the club in jeopardy, by extravagant gambles that are no more thought through than a stat next to a strikers name.

Our club needs to think about what it is now, not live in the past......I don't want an owner to be bailing us out every month or using parachute payments to pay everyday expenses.The club should be run within its means and if that means us dumping 15 million pound players, until we can rightfully afford it, so be it......only when we are ready for that market, should we be in it.

I don't want owners to be pandering to a section of the fanbase to appease the fancy signing that on paper is all it is, I don't want cosmetic marketing, i want substance and strong leadership.....I want a responsible man/woman to stand firm and strong and build the club on a sound footing and get back to us producing our own stars, because lets face it guys, we have rarely been any good at signing expensive stars, they have usually been other peoples duds.

Back to basics maybe the best thing thats happened to this club, cut the cloth according to what we can afford.

When we went down, it was for a reason and that reason was as clear as daylight, we didn't stumble like Newcastle or some clubs who have had an iffy season.....we was in serious decline.....you don't get back from that quickly ( In normal circumstances) you have to incrementally improve over a given period adding modestly priced players in to a group that covers all eventualities, like strength, power, talent, pace, brought together in a cohesive unit.....too much of one is no good, we need balance.

I just hope the powers that be see we have tried a route back and despite us nearly getting there, the price we are paying is too much......To lose Jack in doing so is a failure in itself.

moving forward.....slowly, slowly catch a monkey.

Edited July 8, 2018 by TRO

[Zatman]

3 hours ago, striker said:

Just something that has been bothering me all through this. How could Lerner sell to Xia? Surely to goodness due diligence was explored yet nothing was discovered?

Lerner and whoever was employed to look into Xia's business background should take a very large portion of blame for selling to him.

Lerner got people to sell club for him including the "hero" that is Steve Hollis who some people want to bizarrely bring back

[TRO]

2 hours ago, markavfc40 said:

There are levels of culpability but he buck always stops with the guy at the top. You can blame O'Neill, McLeish, Lambert, Sherwood, Faulkner, Fox, Krulak etc etc for our demise under Lerner but the bottom line is he was the custodian, he employed these people, he signed off the cheques. Now you can go around blaming Wyness, Round, RDM, Bruce but the bottom line is Xia owns the club and controls the finances, would have signed off expenditure and ultimately knew very well he couldn't finance us if we failed to get promoted and we'd be up shit creek. He gambled with this clubs future and lost the fallout from which we haven't even seen a fraction of yet.

The problem as I see it Mark is.....each incumbent along the way has left a bigger fire to put out, that includes Owners,CEO's and managers.......so its hard to know where the blame really lies.....its kinda spread in a way.

Xia has tried to be smart and fell on his arse.....but lying is never a trait to be easily redeemed.

Whether its palatable to hear or not.....some straight forward honesty is what our club could with right now.

[TRO]

On 07/07/2018 at 08:16, Tommo_b said:

How far do you have to go back to find our last good owner, I only remember as far back as the Big Ron era, so I don’t think I’ve ever known a good owner.

The early Lerner days were exciting but we all know how that went.

I don't think I can remember a good owner......What we have achieved in the main, is despite them.

[Robbie09]

34 minutes ago, TRO said:

I don't think I can remember a good owner......What we have achieved in the main, is despite them.

Bendall, Ellis, Lerner & Xia - not the best collection of owners is it

[paul1984]

So a new figure of 75 million to find.... suspiciously like that stupid 6 million loss per month that was parroted in the papers or the supposed 45m needed for FFP plus 30m investment figure......

God I wish we could see the accounts to get the actual truth the media is bloody useless.

[A'Villan]

2 hours ago, TRO said:

My take on it all is this.

Our football club/stadiums/training ground  like Sunderland & Leeds was built for the Premier League.....We have never quite accepted relegation in the true sense and have tried to scramble our way back by signing players from the Prem or what is perceived to be the divisions best players.....that comes at a price and in our position then, we have to pay through the nose, like now we sell in a fire sale.....buy or sell, its all done in a bit of a panic.

In comparison to Saunders and Taylor.....they spotted talent that was not readily recognised and capitalised on it.....buying players for strategic roles and developing them.

In my opinion....Lerner and Xia have been badly advised, by folk caught up in a desperation to scramble back to respectability.

You only have to glance at the current England set up, where prima donna's have gone, pragmatic team building has replaced it with young hungry players who have experienced the lower leagues and the values that have to be learnt and the togetherness that breeds......we have dispensed with picking JUST the best players for the sake of it and instead blended a bunch that have balance and respect for each other and not be afraid of using aerial power to gain progress......How many headed goals has this World cup thrown up, even teams like Brazil recognising the importance of this aspect of our game, its far from dead ,its thriving in the modern game.

Back to us.....We have an opportunity to change, now......not one we would have wished on ourselves, but an opportunity to move away from players doing well at other clubs and failing with us.....we need to be more diligent in our recruitment, to ensure the right characters are pursued, ones with ambition, ones who can display a will to win, ones who relish the physical aspects of the game, ones who can head the ball as well as they can kick it.....ones who are in the lower leagues, bursting for an opportunity to show there worth, like the Vardy's and the Maguires.

We need to be geared up to be taking advantage of and developing our own recruits from lower leagues and creating our own loyalty like we did with Morley, Evans,Withe, McGrath, Mortimer......Players like this are still out there, like they always will be we have to be bold and adventurous enough to take the modest risks.....not putting the club in jeopardy, by extravagant gambles that are no more thought through than a stat next to a strikers name.

Our club needs to think about what it is now, not live in the past......I don't want an owner to be bailing us out every month or using parachute payments to pay everyday expenses.The club should be run within its means and if that means us dumping 15 million pound players, until we can rightfully afford it, so be it......only when we are ready for that market, should we be in it.

I don't want owners to be pandering to a section of the fanbase to appease the fancy signing that on paper is all it is, I don't want cosmetic marketing, i want substance and strong leadership.....I want a responsible man/woman to stand firm and strong and build the club on a sound footing and get back to us producing our own stars, because lets face it guys, we have rarely been any good at signing expensive stars, they have usually been other peoples duds.

Back to basics maybe the best thing thats happened to this club, cut the cloth according to what we can afford.

When we went down, it was for a reason and that reason was as clear as daylight, we didn't stumble like Newcastle or some clubs who have had an iffy season.....we was in serious decline.....you don't get back from that quickly ( In normal circumstances) you have to incrementally improve over a given period adding modestly priced players in to a group that covers all eventualities, like strength, power, talent, pace, brought together in a cohesive unit.....too much of one is no good, we need balance.

I just hope the powers that be see we have tried a route back and despite us nearly getting there, the price we are paying is too much......To lose Jack in doing so is a failure in itself.

moving forward.....slowly, slowly catch a monkey.

This is an excellent post and highlights why a monopoly in football may not breed strong and healthy competition but it doesn't nullify it entirely either. "Where there's a will, there's a way" as they say.

The club needs to get in touch with the grassroots .Only a rat can win a rat race. God knows footballs full of them. How about some good sportsmanship. From top to bottom. Football, business, customer service, every facet got to have good sportsmanship. Athletes that love the club and the game as much as they do their paycheck. It's not airy fairy, unattainable or unrealistic, it's called having vision and with every principle there's a promise.

As you say it's going to need to be thorough and substance over hype. Another thing you say which is bang on is that the fault is spread between Xia, Wyness and Bruce.

Was it not Wyness that spouted the Villa Engine crap. Like we had come up with a formula for our own Southampton model only better, Europe in 5 years! Like we were going to achieve greater feats than arguably the greatest team of all time under the leadership of Rijkaard and then Guardiola. It took Barca longer than 5 years and they were already in a way stronger position than us. Utter shit. Success does not define us, we define the success. Just like it would be better to create a name for yourself than live of someone else.

They're just marketing schemes, that'll lead the club to it's own destruction like sparking a fiend.

It makes me feel like the biggest mug. I bought in to it.

Edited July 8, 2018 by A'Villan