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Tony Xia (no longer involved with AVFC)


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2 hours ago, VillaChris said:

Last decade for us would make a great book, surprised no one's had a go yet. Inside story on McLeish being appointed, why Lambert was never sacked earlier, what the hell happened in summer 2015 and then after inital euphoria of not having an owner called Randy Lerner nearly going into administration in summer 2018. And then in last two and a half years Wes and Nas getting pretty much all the big decisions right.

Guess likes of Pat Murphy (although haven't heard him on 5 live for ages so guess he might've retired) or John Percy aren't interested but would be good for up and coming journalist if you had direct hotline to likes of Paul Faulkner and a few others on the fringes around that time with some fan comments aswell.

I really enjoyed reading this book on another club having a similar decade long decline to us a few months back:

https://www.decoubertin.co.uk/caught-beneath-the-landslide-manchester-city-in-the-1990s/

Guy who wrote it used to work for the Times I think.

All these pants series on Netflix and amazon and the real drama at villa

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5 hours ago, VillaChris said:

Last decade for us would make a great book, surprised no one's had a go yet. Inside story on McLeish being appointed, why Lambert was never sacked earlier, what the hell happened in summer 2015 and then after inital euphoria of not having an owner called Randy Lerner nearly going into administration in summer 2018. And then in last two and a half years Wes and Nas getting pretty much all the big decisions right.

Guess likes of Pat Murphy (although haven't heard him on 5 live for ages so guess he might've retired) or John Percy aren't interested but would be good for up and coming journalist if you had direct hotline to likes of Paul Faulkner and a few others on the fringes around that time with some fan comments aswell.

I really enjoyed reading this book on another club having a similar decade long decline to us a few months back:

https://www.decoubertin.co.uk/caught-beneath-the-landslide-manchester-city-in-the-1990s/

Guy who wrote it used to work for the Times I think.

This is so true, it would really be a fascinating story. Frankly the 'long decade' view (going back to the dog days of Ellis and from then to now) would be even better, because I think it would be hard to understand Randy without going from front to back.

It would be hard to get an honest story at points though. There's a lot of blanks in fans' understanding of the boardroom shenanigans during that time, and a lot of people who either have stuff to hide or who are not much likely to be giving candid interviews (eg Lerner, Xia).

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6 hours ago, VillaChris said:

Last decade for us would make a great book, surprised no one's had a go yet. Inside story on McLeish being appointed, why Lambert was never sacked earlier, what the hell happened in summer 2015 and then after inital euphoria of not having an owner called Randy Lerner nearly going into administration in summer 2018. And then in last two and a half years Wes and Nas getting pretty much all the big decisions right.

Guess likes of Pat Murphy (although haven't heard him on 5 live for ages so guess he might've retired) or John Percy aren't interested but would be good for up and coming journalist if you had direct hotline to likes of Paul Faulkner and a few others on the fringes around that time with some fan comments aswell.

I really enjoyed reading this book on another club having a similar decade long decline to us a few months back:

https://www.decoubertin.co.uk/caught-beneath-the-landslide-manchester-city-in-the-1990s/

Guy who wrote it used to work for the Times I think.

Said it before but we were like Sunderland documentary for a longer period. Surprised Xia didnt allow a full behind the scenes crew for his ego 

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6 hours ago, VillaChris said:

Last decade for us would make a great book, surprised no one's had a go yet. Inside story on McLeish being appointed, why Lambert was never sacked earlier, what the hell happened in summer 2015 and then after inital euphoria of not having an owner called Randy Lerner nearly going into administration in summer 2018. And then in last two and a half years Wes and Nas getting pretty much all the big decisions right.

Guess likes of Pat Murphy (although haven't heard him on 5 live for ages so guess he might've retired) or John Percy aren't interested but would be good for up and coming journalist if you had direct hotline to likes of Paul Faulkner and a few others on the fringes around that time with some fan comments aswell.

I really enjoyed reading this book on another club having a similar decade long decline to us a few months back:

https://www.decoubertin.co.uk/caught-beneath-the-landslide-manchester-city-in-the-1990s/

Guy who wrote it used to work for the Times I think.

Would be great. However Dave Woodhall of Heroes and Villains Towers once told me there is no money in doing these types of books anymore.  He did a few on all the villa managers and the 80-81 season a while back- worth a read.

In regards to the thread with each passing day I am so pleased that  Xia is indeed no longer involved with AVFC in any capacity. A utter charlatan. 

Edited by The Fun Factory
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14 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

This is so true, it would really be a fascinating story. Frankly the 'long decade' view (going back to the dog days of Ellis and from then to now) would be even better, because I think it would be hard to understand Randy without going from front to back.

It would be hard to get an honest story at points though. There's a lot of blanks in fans' understanding of the boardroom shenanigans during that time, and a lot of people who either have stuff to hide or who are not much likely to be giving candid interviews (eg Lerner, Xia).

Well Faulkner gave a decent interview a few weeks back to Matt Kendrick so I reckon a bit more digging and you'd get some really good insights into how Lerner's passion for us faded over time and what really got him to lose interest as we've heard often it was a combination of the divorce, Man. City takeover and then O'Neill wildly spending on squad players who barely played.

Guess given he was taken on as junior in MBNA and worked for Lerner for so long Paul Faulkner seems him as a bit of a father figure so wouldn't want to sully things. Not sure if he still works at Birmingham commerce as think he read he stepped down from the row recently.

I reckon Tom Fox and David Bernstein would say plenty though from the more chaotic 2014-16 period, perhaps that Swedish guy aswell who we got to do the transfers in summer 2015.

I can remember loads of books all coming out at once about Hicks and Gillett failed ownership at Liverpool and that was a relatively minor bump in the road for them. Came across quite a good book on Coventry's ownership woes under Sisu a while back aswell.

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13 hours ago, The Fun Factory said:

Would be great. However Dave Woodhall of Heroes and Villains Towers once told me there is no money in doing these types of books anymore.  He did a few on all the villa managers and the 80-81 season a while back- worth a read.

In regards to the thread with each passing day I am so pleased that  Xia is indeed no longer involved with AVFC in any capacity. A utter charlatan. 

I've got all of them so know Woodhall literature very well! There's been a few nostalgia books in recent years on us with the 80s e.g. "Ticket to the Moon so guess we'll have to wait another decade and perhaps 2010s will start to get covered for the next generation particularly if we actually start winning stuff again.

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On 09/02/2021 at 17:18, VillaChris said:

Last decade for us would make a great book, surprised no one's had a go yet. Inside story on McLeish being appointed, why Lambert was never sacked earlier, what the hell happened in summer 2015 and then after inital euphoria of not having an owner called Randy Lerner nearly going into administration in summer 2018. And then in last two and a half years Wes and Nas getting pretty much all the big decisions right.

Guess likes of Pat Murphy (although haven't heard him on 5 live for ages so guess he might've retired) or John Percy aren't interested but would be good for up and coming journalist if you had direct hotline to likes of Paul Faulkner and a few others on the fringes around that time with some fan comments aswell.

I really enjoyed reading this book on another club having a similar decade long decline to us a few months back:

https://www.decoubertin.co.uk/caught-beneath-the-landslide-manchester-city-in-the-1990s/

Guy who wrote it used to work for the Times I think.

I'd start it in the 2010 League Cup final and then end it in July of last year when we stayed up on the last day. So much interesting stuff during that decade.

Edited by Mantis
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1 minute ago, Mantis said:

I'd start it in the 2010 League Cup final and then end it in July of last year when we stayed up on the last time. So much interesting stuff during that decade.

I would rather never revisit that time 😂😂

Dark dark days

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3 hours ago, VillaChris said:

I've got all of them so know Woodhall literature very well! There's been a few nostalgia books in recent years on us with the 80s e.g. "Ticket to the Moon so guess we'll have to wait another decade and perhaps 2010s will start to get covered for the next generation particularly if we actually start winning stuff again.

I think H&V did one on a one of the early Lerner seasons and after that due to the rise of tinternet they said it was not profitable to do so which is sad.

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  • 5 months later...
On 21/05/2016 at 01:36, YLN said:

 

It's a businessman/architect that really no one has heard of, heading up a group who have a controlling share in one, loss-making company that produces MSG, who says he has been a fan of Villa for a number of years, and adds that he wants to turn a likely poor Championship club into one of the biggest clubs in the world within ten years. There is some mention from Hollis of the Chinese government being involved, and that he played as a striker. 

So far, what has come out of Villa Park since the news broke has been an absolute mess. If this group are as rich as they claim, they would surely have gotten better advice on how to present themselves to the English media. There wouldn't be the miscommunication. They would have had people checking the officials statements for accuracy. There shouldn't be any question of anything being lost in translation. This is supposedly a multi billion pound group, and they can't come up with a statement that doesn't sound like a man rambling on about what he thinks he should be saying to fans to make them like him. So far it looks like it was all cobbled together, like a bad GCSE essay. 'Write a formal letter to fans of a club you've just taken over, telling them your plans for the future'.

I don't know what's actually going on, but to my untrained eye, it stinks

 

 

On 21/05/2016 at 08:29, Rob182 said:

I have to take issue with this post.

The OS statements all came out on the day that he took over. It was almost as if the deal was done, and then he wanted it announced - and why not?! We've been under a dark cloud with Lerner for too long, and he knows that, so clearly he wanted the world and all of our fans to know, and for us to match his enthusiasm.

Yes, he's part of a 'supposedly multi-billion pound group', but also he's just purchased a £75m-£100m pound football team. He wouldn't be crazy to expect a business of that price to have a half-competent media team to release a simple statement.

Anything incorrect that Hollis has said, is nothing to do with Xia or Recon.

What Xia has said in interviews over the past few days is ambitious, and some may say unrealistically ambitious, but he's not just said 'Top club in the world!!!' and nothing else, he's talked about business structure, investment, a new manager being agreed in a few weeks, getting us promoted, 'not throwing money at it' like Man City, as well as talking about other opportunities such as suggesting young, talented Chinese players to the manager. All of what he has said, comes across like what you would expect a clever business man to say. The only part you could question, is the top 3 in the world part, because that is a massive challenge. But when the first statement of 'top 6 in prem' came up, people were questioning why we wouldn't be going for top 4!! So he can't win either way.

What has come across as a bad GCSE essay, as you put it?

The only miscommunication I've seen, is Hollis thinking Xia was involved with the Bird Nest, and the OS saying Recon owns 5 listed companies instead of 1. That's not exactly exactly catastrophic, is it?

I love when this thread reappears

Hurray for Hindsight! They should have interviewed me for Al Jazeera.

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I have a lot of anger towards Tony Xia. Seeing that preview makes me even more angry with Lerner & crew. He simply said "yes get me out" to the first crook that showed up.

I am pretty sure if the bloke in the video and some journalists could figure out what was going on with Xia then Randy's lawyers would have told him Xia was a fraud straight off as well.

Edited by ciggiesnbeer
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16 minutes ago, villan-scott said:

Crazy how he gets/got away with it time and time again. Hiding in plain sight. Confirms he believes Xia was a front for someone else…! 

Does anyone have any clue who actually was behind Xia? 

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Just had a look at this in a different thread. Samuelson is pure slime and its sordid that he had anything to do with our great club and he got paid millions for it.

I would like to know one day who actually fronted the money for Villa because it is a clear that Xia never had any and was utterly clueless.

Thank McGrath we got bought in 2018 and didn't actually win the playoffs. I wouldn't have said that at the time though.

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15 minutes ago, ciggiesnbeer said:

I have a lot of anger towards Tony Xia. Seeing that preview makes me even more angry with Lerner & crew. He simply said "yes get me out" to the first crook that showed up.

I am pretty sure if the bloke in the video and some journalists could figure out what was going on with Xia then Randy's lawyers would have told him Xia was a fraud straight off as well.

What I would like to know is how Steve Hollis fell for it hook,line, and sinker. Lerner was a idiot and would have sold to anyone by then but Hollis was/is a respected businessman.

Edited by The Fun Factory
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1 minute ago, The Fun Factory said:

What I would like to know is how Steve Hollis fell for it hook,line, and sinker. Lerner was a idiot and would have sold to anyone by then but Hollis was/is a respected businessman.

I imagine his palms were suitably laced. Keith Wyness will be sweating gravy at the prospect of this programme. Although he claims Xia was his nemesis and he was was trying to save us. Maybe he was. Who knows. 

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3 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said:

What I would like to know is how Steve Hollis fell for it hook,line, and sinker. Lerner was a idiot and would have sold to anyone by then but Hollis was/is a respected businessman.

Yeah him as well. They all knew something was wrong. As fans we couldn't know as we never saw this paperwork and only heard vague rumours. 

But everyone associated with the sale did know and that stinks.
 

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I listened to a podcast with Gregg Evans and Dan Bardell interviewing Hollis, it was about a year ago since I listened, but if I'm remembering rightly he didn't seem bothered about what happened with Xia, basically did his job in selling the club and that was that.

1874 Podcast

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