terrytini Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 31 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said: I'm very hopeful that Dr Xia and his board are working hard somewhere on ensuring that contracts and plans and commercial arrangements are progressing so that they can hit the ground running - that would seem to be a sensible way to run a football club - but I think the weight has already been passed. I simply don't think that the footballing future is of much interest to Hollis in his role or that it's particularly necessary for the new owners to keep him informed on how they're looking to manage it. My point, rightly or wrongly, is that Hollis is either aware of this and confident in the outcome, or there will be other things in place as contingencies. Whilst he certainly would rather not be interested and it isn't his field I simply don't see him sitting back at home saying "Well I've done my bit what's on Tv ?" IF there is any realistic danger of the sale not proceeding (I am sure it will) he will, I think, know this, know the likelihood of it, and be mindful of there needing to be a fallback position Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Tommo_b Posted May 30, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted May 30, 2016 Seriously guys, if it is RDM that has agreed to become manager if Dr Tony passes the fit and proper test, then he will be appointed once the takeover is officially confirmed im sure RDM is doing preliminary work etc, he will want to get things in place asap, literally no need to panic, unless the takeover falls through, but until then, everything's probably going as planned for RDM and Dr Tony. 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Jareth Posted May 30, 2016 VT Supporter Popular Post Share Posted May 30, 2016 12 minutes ago, Tommo_b said: Seriously guys, if it is RDM that has agreed to become manager if Dr Tony passes the fit and proper test, then he will be appointed once the takeover is officially confirmed im sure RDM is doing preliminary work etc, he will want to get things in place asap, literally no need to panic, unless the takeover falls through, but until then, everything's probably going as planned for RDM and Dr Tony. Take your sensible, calm and reassuring post back to whatever sane land you reside from, there's simply no need for this sort of thing on VT. I'm going to email the football league now, something must be done! 19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 7 hours ago, BOF said: Anyone else worried that he won't hang around forever? Not that I particularly want him or anything, but if they do then the duration of this fit and proper test is making me restless. It's like our entire club's existence is on hold until some bigwig gives us the thumbs up. Hurry TFU. I think RDM's talks with Lazio suggest that he will remain open to offers from other clubs until he actually signs a contract with us. I also think that the longer that takes to happen the less appealing taking the job will be for him given each day we remain in limbo reduces the chances of us hitting the ground running at the start of the coming season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted May 30, 2016 Moderator Share Posted May 30, 2016 1 hour ago, terrytini said: My point, rightly or wrongly, is that Hollis is either aware of this and confident in the outcome, or there will be other things in place as contingencies. Whilst he certainly would rather not be interested and it isn't his field I simply don't see him sitting back at home saying "Well I've done my bit what's on Tv ?" IF there is any realistic danger of the sale not proceeding (I am sure it will) he will, I think, know this, know the likelihood of it, and be mindful of there needing to be a fallback position I'm broadly in agreement on everything else, but I just don't think it's his problem, the most he'll need is a contingency person who can step in to the board if things drop through - I'm hopeful the takeover is now sufficiently advanced that Hollis is pretty much finished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NurembergVillan Posted May 31, 2016 Moderator Share Posted May 31, 2016 9 hours ago, OutByEaster? said: I'm broadly in agreement on everything else, but I just don't think it's his problem, the most he'll need is a contingency person who can step in to the board if things drop through - I'm hopeful the takeover is now sufficiently advanced that Hollis is pretty much finished. Not sure I agree. Having worked at a big company during a takeover, the message from the top was 'business as usual'. Dr Who? is buying the club as a going concern and the current custodians have a duty to keep moving things forward. In terms of Hollis as an individual, he doesn't strike me as the type of man to give less than 100%. Given his work at the college, it possible he sees Villa as another chapter in his legacy to Birmingham. And why not? He'll probably be bringing the HP factory back next too! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post OutByEaster? Posted May 31, 2016 Moderator Popular Post Share Posted May 31, 2016 The problem here is that the message from the top has no-one to go to. Here's my take on it. We had a board dedicated to running the club and looking to sell it as a secondary thing. Results were crap, the board was crap, our owner got impatient - so he bought in a new chairman, not someone with the experience required to be chairman of the club as a going concern, but someone with the experience needed to push through a sale as a priority. For Lerner that was an indication that a sale had moved higher up his list of priorities than the club as a going concern. Hollis recognised that he couldn't keep on the failing management structure so brought in a new one; King and Bernstein and Little. They were responsible for the running of the club as a going concern whilst he got on with the owners priority - selling the club. And on they went, planning the club as a going concern. After a short while they came back to the owner and said, this is how we'll do it. Lerner said "Steve, have you sold the place yet?" and Hollis said "Actually, I almost have, there's this Chinese fella.". "Good!" said Randy "Now tell these annoying people to leave me alone." Bernstein and King didn't like this, they'd felt the owner cared about running the club as a going concern - but he'd moved on - `I believe that Lerner now has no interest in the club other than its sale. Bernstein and King, the 'going concern' duo left. Hollis, the 'sale' man stayed. With Bernstein and King went the idea of a Randy owned club planning for next season, with them went pre-season, went contracts, went all the normal business of running a club. They tried, but it wasn't really required by the owner. Enter Dr X - now the Doc has a plan, he has a concern about the going concern, he has a manager he'd like, he has (hopefully) some sort of plan around that - what he doesn't have is completed ownership. That's okay though right, because the extant footballing structure could start to carry out some of those things for him couldn't they, with a little encouragement? Well, no. There isn't an extant footballing structure. There's just Hollis and here's there for one purpose. I'd be surprised if Hollis goes to Villa Park five days a week, I wouldn't be too surprised if he very rarely visits Villa Park, or Bodymoor Heath, I wouldn't be amazed to find he doesn't have an office at the club - I would guess most of his Villa business is done wherever his boss and his buyer need him. In terms of the other stuff that happens at the football club, Randy isn't interested in a new manager, he isn't interested in pre-season dates, he's interested in being out. So Hollis isn't interested either. Other than in so far as they relate to a sale I wouldn't imagine there's much at Villa Park that falls under the category "Stuff that interests Steve Hollis". When he arrived I was worried that he was called Chairman but acted like a CEO, I was concerned over the job titles of Bernstein and King and about where responsibility lay for different aspects of the club. I think it's clearer now - I think Lerner wanted to make a sale the absolute priority, so he put the guy in charge of the selling above everyone else in the club, even though he wasn't a guy who could actually run a club. He wanted Hollis to be able to say to the 'going concern' people "Does this help us sell the club? No? Then you're not doing it." so he gave him the title and that power. I'm sure Hollis is giving 100% and by the looks of things, he may well be that rarest of Lerner things - the right man for the job - but the job is selling not running Aston Villa Football Club. If Dr Xia fails this fit and proper persons test (and there's no reason at this point to believe he might) then we'd be in a world of crap - I don't know if we have a back up buyer, but Lerner would need to choose between 'going concern' or continuing to push a sale - and whichever option he chose, this stage in the summer, I think we'd be largely writing this season off. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 (edited) @OutByEaster? Scott I won’t quote what you have put but I think you are pretty much spot on with your assessment. My fear isn't so much the sale not going through now as for it not to would require a major f up on Hollis’s part in getting this far down the line with a buyer that can’t see it over the line, my worry is how long this is all taking and the fact it is eating into the time we have to be anything like prepared for kick off in just over nine weeks. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next couple of days as both Hollis and Xia said when the takeover was announced that a manager would be in place within two weeks. That two weeks is up tomorrow. The question is whether or not that two weeks was based on the football league having given the go ahead for the sale within that time. Bottom line is that none of us know how long this is all going to take. We are all just guessing. If a manager isn't announced over the next couple of days though I think Hollis is going to need to give an update as to what is going on and what the planned time scales are now. Edited May 31, 2016 by markavfc40 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 (edited) I think its Xia best interests to ask \Hollis to remain in place up until start of season if he wishes to leave then so be it Edited May 31, 2016 by Demitri_C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 (edited) I think as Scott has said above Hollis’s whole remit was to sell the club. That is what he came into the club to do and that his where his expertise lay. He doesn't have any experience in terms of running a football club aside from the few months he has been here where as far as we know he hasn't dealt with any player contracts, he hasn't been involved in buying and selling any players, he hasn't been involved in making arrangements for pre-season. The football part of the operation was going to be down to Bernstein to oversee. I don’t see what use Hollis would be to the club if he was kept on and I’d like to think Xia has much better people ready to come in and run the club than Steve Hollis. That is not to put Hollis down by the way as if he has sold the club then he has done his job well. Edited May 31, 2016 by markavfc40 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Thomas Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 (edited) I expect a lot will be happening behind the scenes. Hollis and Xia 'should' be fairly certain this deal is going through if they’ve done their homework. So to all intents and purposes Xia will know this will be his club and he will want things being done now, even if Hollis is not directly involved. For example, I would not be surprised if RDM has already agreed to come in and that new replacements in the scouting and assistant management positions are lined up and possibly on Xia’s payroll already. I would expect various people to be beavering away in the background, studying the squad, making plans, identifying potential targets, lining up pre-season and training schedules. In other words, doing all the preparatory work so that when things are rubber stamped we are ready to move very quickly. Surely Xia and his team would be thinking this way given the urgency of the situation. Edited May 31, 2016 by Gary Thomas 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 18 hours ago, terrytini said: This all really boils down to whether Hollis knows what he is doing, or doesn't know what he is doing. Whilst its impossible to know for sure, I'm going with his record suggesting he knows what he is doing, and all this panic is for nothing. He is the man who appointed a high profile "Football Board" under the old regime, who then resigned just a few weeks later when it became clear the actual owner of the club didn't recognise or accept their role (maybe didn't even realise they had been appointed?). I'm afraid I have less faith than many on this board that Hollis knows what he is doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob182 Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 As others have said, I would hope that following RDM's talks with Xia's people, RDM is starting to prepare for next season already, awaiting the final rubber stamp. He left Shalke last year, so it's not like he needs the extra time to sunbathe. Fingers crossed, he's already identifying and sounding out his backroom staff, identifying possible signings and making plans for training and pre-season. The only question marks I have, are how this would work for him salary-wise. As he's not technically employed yet, he has no obligation to prepare, but it's in his and the club's best interests, so presumably when having contract talks, Xia's people would have said that he starts preparation right away and this will be covered by a signing on fee? The other question mark is around the rumoured Lazio talks. Why would he talk to other clubs if he's basically agreed to come here and start preparations? Or were the Lazio talks just before when we had our supposed final talks with him? (I actually don't know, I've been away for a week so I've not kept up-to-date). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NurembergVillan Posted May 31, 2016 Moderator Share Posted May 31, 2016 @OutByEaster? us Mods taking things off topic? Perhaps not as this does relate to whether or when Di Matteo will arrive. I can only go off my own experience, but during the transition phase of the takeover I was involved in some people indeed had very little if anything to do whereas some of us were in effect working for the new owners. Clearly it was a gamble of sorts by the existing owners in the case that the sale fell through. I guess they knew more about the likelihood of the takeover being completed and it'll be the same here too. As far as a going concern is concerned (couldn't resist!) it's not really so much about Lerner and his level of interest, but more likely that now Hollis is working on the remit of Dr Who's team. A poor analogy might be that you've agreed to sell your house, and whilst the new owner is going through the legal phase you'd be expected (and based on your own morals you'd likely do this anyway) to keep the house in good order. You wouldn't leave all the windows and doors open and stop flushing the toilet. I'm not sure whether it's just an unwritten rule or an actual rule in business, but the idea of leaving a company to go stagnant whilst the new buyer is moving into place isn't a concept I'm familiar with. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa_southerner Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 Looking forward to Roberto Di Matteo coming in, think we will see Steve Clark as his Assistant and Kevin Bond First Team coach. Just a little hunch. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dn1982 Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 3 hours ago, markavfc40 said: I think as Scott as said above Hollis’s whole remit was to sell the club. That is what he came into the club to do and that his where his expertise lay. He doesn't have any experience in terms of running a football club aside from the few months he has been here where as far as we know he hasn't dealt with any player contracts, he hasn't been involved in buying and selling any players, he hasn't been involved in making arrangements for pre-season. The football part of the operation was going to be down to Bernstein to oversee. I don’t see what use Hollis would be to the club if he was kept on and I’d like to think Xia has much better people ready to come in and run the club than Steve Hollis. That is not to put Hollis down by the way as if he has sold the club then he has done his job well. Hollis appointed people to do the jobs he isn't good at King,Bernstein and Bevington for me that shows he isn't a fool even though they've all left now. I'd like him to hang around for the summer just so it's a smooth handover and things are moved forward quickly. I doubt Hollis was brought in too solely sell the club. We don't know for sure who will be brought onto the board and I think his knowledge may come in handy especially as we need to act fast this summer. We need new everything up and running in next to no time. It's going to be an interesting summer and we can't mess it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 5 hours ago, markavfc40 said: I think as Scott as said above Hollis’s whole remit was to sell the club. That is what he came into the club to do and that his where his expertise lay. He doesn't have any experience in terms of running a football club aside from the few months he has been here where as far as we know he hasn't dealt with any player contracts, he hasn't been involved in buying and selling any players, he hasn't been involved in making arrangements for pre-season. The football part of the operation was going to be down to Bernstein to oversee. I don’t see what use Hollis would be to the club if he was kept on and I’d like to think Xia has much better people ready to come in and run the club than Steve Hollis. That is not to put Hollis down by the way as if he has sold the club then he has done his job well. I think Hollis perhaps main focus was to sell the club, but i believe his role certainly had more to it as well. I think Hollis knows the condition of the club. he has hinted at it at various times just like his analysis on the summer recruitment. I would like to think hollis would have a briefing with Xia and his team just to tell them what was found out via the investigation and all the areas that need addressing behind the scenes. I was one of Hollis biggest critics but honestly he in a short space of time contributed far more than that clown Tom Fox. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craigy1874 Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 Will be appointed in 48 hours according to a 'sun exclusive'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob182 Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 Will be appointed in 48 hours according to a 'sun exclusive'. Collymore has tweeted his standard 'welcome' tweet too, indicating he may have had some info from someone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwpzxjor1 Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 Surely suggests they don't foresee any problems with Xia's takeover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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