Xela Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 The Recon website still lists Villa as a club it owns. You could make a film of this saga. Quite how it happened, will we ever know? He must have had very powerful backers. Once he ceased to become useful to them, they backed out and we nearly went pop. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 14 minutes ago, Keyblade said: There really wasn't any evidence to be skeptical of. Really? Is that not enough evidence to be skeptical I was definitely not on board, was always something dodgy about him 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted January 22, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted January 22, 2021 14 minutes ago, Keyblade said: There really wasn't any evidence to be skeptical of. There were a few things that I know I was choosing to ignore. Head in the sand. The fact that information about him was sketchy at best. The Recon website, it looks like something I could put together and similarly gave no real information about him or them (go and look at it, still there, but now I get a “not secure” alert pop up on my phone and none of the links on the site come up or work). This didn’t tell me he’d lead the club nearly to oblivion, but it did make me quietly wonder his actual worth/reputation. But any worries I had I’d tell myself “Well, it’s China ain’t it? Hard to get real clarification.” 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjw63 Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 1 hour ago, Demitri_C said: @rjw63 better? Can't see it on me phone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fun Factory Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 20 hours ago, Pissflaps said: I would love to know what checks we made before selling to him. Are you Sir Douglas Ellis OBE (Bicycle kick inventor)- He was like a son to me- in disguise? No Are you Randy Lerner long lost brother? No Welcome aboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimzk5 Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 2 hours ago, Mark Albrighton said: There were a few things that I know I was choosing to ignore. Head in the sand. The fact that information about him was sketchy at best. The Recon website, it looks like something I could put together and similarly gave no real information about him or them (go and look at it, still there, but now I get a “not secure” alert pop up on my phone and none of the links on the site come up or work). This didn’t tell me he’d lead the club nearly to oblivion, but it did make me quietly wonder his actual worth/reputation. But any worries I had I’d tell myself “Well, it’s China ain’t it? Hard to get real clarification.” Well I think we all had our head in sand when he took over, relegation and the end of Lerner At the time china was spending money in European football, iirc clubs like Atletico Madrid and mayby ac Milan had Chinese money invested in them? Look at this way though, lerner sold us to a trickster who borrowed against getting promoted, failed and sold us to wes and naseef Sunderland had an owner who sold them to stuart Donald, borrowing parachute payments to buy them, now in league 1 Small heath got bought by a hair dresser and now owned by owners who cant afford to pay of a 700 quid debt to a local company He didnt hold on, he sold us quickly, which when you look at other football clubs, we got off lightly Amazing how quick the house of cards fell after that play off final defeat 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 Without defending Lerner too much, he put the sale into the hands of Hollis and a few others so they would have to take the blame for this. He was just selling on there advice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted January 22, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted January 22, 2021 On the plus side I am delighted to see that @Deisler123 is still hanging around VT. His Chinese insight was really interesting even if he wasn't Xia in disguise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted January 22, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted January 22, 2021 Oh and +-= 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 I was looking back to the start of the thread, because I honestly couldn't remember how skeptical I was, and . . . turns out I was completely skeptical right from the start. I had forgotten how much rubbish there was going on back then; the FT being skeptical about him, hard to find any information about him, dubious people coming along with the deal, couldn't get enough money into the bank account, the claims about his academic qualifications, the line on the club website about him owning 5 companies but really he owned 1, the endless Twitter antics, and on and on and on. On some level I feel a measure of relief that I had my guard up, but at the same time I completely understand why everyone was just so happy not to be owned by Lerner any more, it just led to a bit of an atmosphere where you couldn't express any skepticism about this guy. They were both terrible owners, but at least Lerner really was actually rich. (A complete side note, but is there a way of searching a thread for your own contributions to it? This isn't the first time I have wanted to see all my contributions to a particular long thread to see how my feelings changed over time) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoelVilla Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 There was a journalist who called Xia out as a fraud early. Name? Would like to see when that was first posted here and the reaction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenfly Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 Remember when he posted a Chairman Mao quote on Twitter and nobody thought that was a gigantic red flag? Good times, good times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 5 minutes ago, NoelVilla said: There was a journalist who called Xia out as a fraud early. Name? Would like to see when that was first posted here and the reaction. I dont remember the name but i think some called him a bitter bluenose at the time. I do remember Xia tantrum against Holloway, that was embarrassing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 4 minutes ago, Greenfly said: Remember when he posted a Chairman Mao quote on Twitter and nobody thought that was a gigantic red flag? Good times, good times. He did wish Jimmy Saville a happy birthday too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenfly Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 1 minute ago, Zatman said: He did wish Jimmy Saville a happy birthday too Yes, but to be fair someone tricked him into doing that and I doubt he had any idea who he was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpid Posted January 23, 2021 Administrator Share Posted January 23, 2021 On 22/01/2021 at 00:21, Pissflaps said: I would love to know what checks we made before selling to him. Is it really that easy to buy such an organisation? Show a bit of money a few bankers notes saying you have X amount of money etc and that's it. Surely not Who do you think would be making any checks? Lerner was desperate to sell his company and a buyer came along. It's no different to anyone selling their company. The FA have a "fit and proper" test, but if the alternative was AVFC going out of business, I don't think they'd have stopped it. THey might have asked for some additional safeguards, but we will never know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hank Scorpio Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 3 minutes ago, limpid said: Who do you think would be making any checks? Lerner was desperate to sell his company and a buyer came along. It's no different to anyone selling their company. The FA have a "fit and proper" test, but if the alternative was AVFC going out of business, I don't think they'd have stopped it. THey might have asked for some additional safeguards, but we will never know. I'm not sure hence the question really. I have always assumed the fit and proper person test is a giant waste of time ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpid Posted January 23, 2021 Administrator Share Posted January 23, 2021 19 minutes ago, Pissflaps said: I'm not sure hence the question really. I have always assumed the fit and proper person test is a giant waste of time ? I suspect that it is. The FA would argue that no-one has gone bust since they introduced it, but correlation is not causation. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted January 23, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted January 23, 2021 On 22/05/2016 at 21:35, sidcow said: The only thing I want to know about Dr Xia is if he can wrestle a pig? I think the above shows I wasn't taking questions about his background too seriously. On 15/06/2016 at 21:33, sidcow said: Both Wyness and Xia have made reference to people making false promises and not delivering. I think if you are going to be full of sh!t you just make the false promises. They are both saying they know they have to deliver with actions not words and I believe them. You would have to be a very special kind of chunt to go on about not making false promises whilst making false promises.... You just wouldn't bother going there I think I was hoping that I'd showed a good deal of cynicism, but unfortunately it seems I was suckered in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCJonah Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 The first 40 pages of this thread are really interesting to read. A lot of people had initial concerns that turned out to be bang on. I have to admit, I let the pleasure of getting rid of Lerner blind me somewhat. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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