Christian Purslow

[AvfcRigo82]

45 minutes ago, sidcow said:

It's not people having a differing opinion that bothers me.  Absolutely fine.

It's that threads all over the shop get derailed with digs about Purslow for absolutely no reason.

There clearly be reasons for people to make comment on it in the first place though?

If there are no criticisms then it means everything is going fine. The fact that there is then there must be a reason behind it and not just for the sake of sakes.

[tomav84]

1 hour ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

I disagree.

In all fairness, If you think things are solely based on the "appointment of Gerrard" then I think you have some catching up to do.

 

I also need some catching up then. Why else don't you like him? From what I've seen it really does seem like Gerrard appointment is the main reason from most

[AvfcRigo82]

59 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

So, is Heck now his boss?

The statement opens a can of worms.

It does appear so according to the statement from the Villa website.

 

[Made In Aston]

1 hour ago, OutByEaster? said:

So, is Heck now his boss?

The statement opens a can of worms.

 

Generally not, but Purslow will have to feed into Heck for the commercial side of villa. It might even be that Purslow no longer has responsibility for villa's commercial operations,but will no doubt have some involvement I would have thought. 

[AvfcRigo82]

8 minutes ago, tomav84 said:

I also need some catching up then. Why else don't you like him? From what I've seen it really does seem like Gerrard appointment is the main reason from most

I think the Gerrard reason for many has been spoke of more frequent than most of the other reasons that get mentioned.

If I was to list everything else it would probably take me a week to do so and it's not something I have time to do sadly.

I highlight the pros aswell cons with the man, sadly there appear to more cons than pros.. in my opinion anyway.

[Tayls]

I imagine Purslow has other things to be looking after and the commercial side was eating into too much of his time… is Purslow V Sports or just Villa? 

[tomav84]

41 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

I think the Gerrard reason for many has been spoke of more frequent than most of the other reasons that get mentioned.

If I was to list everything else it would probably take me a week to do so and it's not something I have time to do sadly.

I highlight the pros aswell cons with the man, sadly there appear to more cons than pros.. in my opinion anyway.

genuinely staggered by this...theres really that many criticisms you have of his time with us? go on then...how about just giving me the top 5?

[AvfcRigo82]

22 minutes ago, tomav84 said:

genuinely staggered by this...theres really that many criticisms you have of his time with us? go on then...how about just giving me the top 5?

Thanks Tomav. When I get round to it I'll PM you. 

[sidcow]

1 hour ago, tomav84 said:

genuinely staggered by this...theres really that many criticisms you have of his time with us? go on then...how about just giving me the top 5?

1) He and he alone signed Gerrard

2) He and he alone signed Coutinho

3) He absolutely refused to sack Gerrard forcing Nassef to step in and do his job for him

4) He's got the accent of a toff

5) Something funny about his eyes. 

There, easy. 

Edited May 17, 2023 by sidcow

[allani]

2 hours ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

It does appear so according to the statement from the Villa website.

 

There is nothing in that statement that says that Purslow will now report into Heck.  Heck works for V-Sports.  Purslow works for Villa.  Purslow's role as CEO of Villa covers a much wider area than Heck's remit within V-Sports.  Some of the work that Heck does will without question impact on stuff happening at Villa - i.e. I can see us trying to negotiate a Shirt Sponsorship deal across the whole V-Sports network (on the basis that 1 deal with gives a company exposure in 5 or 6 countries is probably worth more than 5 deals that give access to a single market).  But I suspect we will have a global strategy and a local strategy - both of which will feed into each other. 

[KMitch]

4 hours ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

I think the Gerrard reason for many has been spoke of more frequent than most of the other reasons that get mentioned.

If I was to list everything else it would probably take me a week to do so and it's not something I have time to do sadly.

I highlight the pros aswell cons with the man, sadly there appear to more cons than pros.. in my opinion anyway.

You're the one talking nonstop these past few pages about wanting to be heard and have a debate/discussion regarding Purslow, but instead of stating anything besides "hE aPpOiNtEd GeRrArD!11!!1!!1" you act like it's a huge laundry list of egregious offenses that are too long to post when we're all sitting here very confused.  

Air them out and let's actually have a discussion then...

 

[KMitch]

3 hours ago, tomav84 said:

genuinely staggered by this...theres really that many criticisms you have of his time with us? go on then...how about just giving me the top 5?

I've literally gone back 25 pages in this thread and the only things I can find are:

1. Gerrard...  Over and over and over again.
2. Coutinho - 100% his decision, apparently...
3. Sawiris thinks he's incompetent, apparently, and had to step in and unilaterally sack Gerrard and appoint Emery himself without including Purslow in the conversations - Completely unfounded conspiracies
4. He was a Liverpool fan growing up
5. Liverpool & Chelsea fans don't like him from when he was with their clubs so we shouldn't like him either
6. He's a shady/untrustworthy person with no reasons other than...  Gerrard
7. Other than making every wrong decision at the club, he is nothing more than a glorified secretary who does nothing but photo ops and takes credit for successes he had no part in (because all the good that's been done at the club is 100% done without him, apparently)

 

Sorry, but this huge list of criticisms just doesn't exist and he doesn't want to take the time to think of a bunch of legit ones and post them for an actual conversation, so it's much easier to just say "Trust me, mate, they're bad!".

[villa4europe]

6 hours ago, KMitch said:

I've literally gone back 25 pages in this thread and the only things I can find are:

1. Gerrard...  Over and over and over again.
2. Coutinho - 100% his decision, apparently...
3. Sawiris thinks he's incompetent, apparently, and had to step in and unilaterally sack Gerrard and appoint Emery himself without including Purslow in the conversations - Completely unfounded conspiracies
4. He was a Liverpool fan growing up
5. Liverpool & Chelsea fans don't like him from when he was with their clubs so we shouldn't like him either
6. He's a shady/untrustworthy person with no reasons other than...  Gerrard
7. Other than making every wrong decision at the club, he is nothing more than a glorified secretary who does nothing but photo ops and takes credit for successes he had no part in (because all the good that's been done at the club is 100% done without him, apparently)

 

Sorry, but this huge list of criticisms just doesn't exist and he doesn't want to take the time to think of a bunch of legit ones and post them for an actual conversation, so it's much easier to just say "Trust me, mate, they're bad!".

All of this at a time when we're doing really well and things are looking up

Any danger of everyone being positive? Absolutely not, let's go sling some shit at purslow

"Villa are flying under Emery and look a club finally going places"

"yeah but that **** purslow hiring his mate Gerrard..."

Its a bit weird

Edited May 18, 2023 by villa4europe

[QldVilla]

11 hours ago, Made In Aston said:

Generally not, but Purslow will have to feed into Heck for the commercial side of villa. It might even be that Purslow no longer has responsibility for villa's commercial operations,but will no doubt have some involvement I would have thought. 

I don’t think it’s just the commercial side, it’s president of business operations. 

The role suggests Heck will oversee the V Sports business operations worldwide and Purslow I would suggest, will have to submit business plans both operational and commercial to Heck for approval. The owners will also be able to take a further step back.

At the end of the day Purslow is CEO of Villa and Heck will be the President of V Sports which Villa feed into, so makes sense and ensures the responsibilities of the other clubs don’t interfere in Purslow’s role at Villa.

[sidcow]

The likelihood is Purslow runs Villa (the UK) and reports direct to NSWE and Heck runs the separate section of V Sports and also reports directly to NSWE.

Management of a large group is unlikely to be linear.  Our head of UK does not report to the head of Europe or the head of North America, but they will all report to the main board.

[cheltenham_villa]

its difficult to judge CEOs on the successful appointment of managers, especially in a season when i think all but 6 clubs have changed manager. 

I think on Gerrard he may have been guilty of recruiting Gerrard based on his commercial appeal rather than football but i also recognise that they were trying to achieve two things.

Generally though, the club is on an upwards trajectory on and off the pitch so its difficult to say he hasnt been successful. 

[est1874]

4 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

Erm you are aware that was under tony xia and purslow wasnt here then??

So that makes it even more remarkable.

Who bought in smith??

That wasn't the point he was making. He said we were promoted a year early. I was merely countering that and saying that's simply revisionist and false.

[Mark Albrighton]

The not being needed to be promoted in 2019 stance was something Purslow insisted was the case back in late 2018. 

So if it’s a lie, then it’s a lie he (and the club) at least has been consistent with. 

I’m sure there are accounts that can now be shown to show we would have been in trouble. I guess it means he and the owners have a very good poker face. To the point of spending millions during that first January window on what amounted to a sub keeper. Seems slightly reckless to me, spending a large amount of money when promotion looked far from certain, and Purslow and the owners don’t strike me as being reckless.

Edit - agreeing to buy Guilbert as well. Not exactly the most frugal of decisions, commit to buying a player who you then allow to continue to play for the selling club. 

Edited May 18, 2023 by Mark Albrighton

[sharkyvilla]

23 minutes ago, est1874 said:

That wasn't the point he was making. He said we were promoted a year early. I was merely countering that and saying that's simply revisionist and false.

In terms of objectives for NSWE and Purslow I'm sure they've gone on record to say we got promoted earlier than they thought we would.  It meant we basically had about a third of a squad going into the PL.  As Dem says, the years before they took over are largely irrelevant except considering the mess they inherited.

[blandy]

16 hours ago, tomav84 said:

genuinely staggered by this...there's really that many criticisms you have of his time with us? go on then...how about just giving me the top 5?

It's possible to criticise a number of things that appear to be in his realm of responsibility. Not everyone will have the same criticisms, but here's a few:

The recent increase in season ticket and match ticket prices - when people are already struggling (and yes the club's costs have gone up too, I acknowledge)  - they're well above inflation. Some are egregious, given, for example, the state of the North Stand

Last season's increase in season ticket prices and the change of category of some sections of the ground. Again massively over inflation.

The move to these premium type seating places in the Holte End. It feels wrong to me.

The "justification" for these price increases is feeble - other clubs fleece their fans, so we will too - is the gist of it.

The choice of another betting company as sponsor.

Some fans will say that "well we need money to compete", and I accept that to a point, but I'm not willing to BOHICA (google it if you don't know - it's safe to do so).

His little video after the Grealish sale  - it was petty calling him "Greedlish" in it. Who negotiated and signed up the contract with the £100 mill selling clause? Purslow. Great. Good businesss, perhaps, but don't then get all mardy when it's exercised. We were all gutted, but the CEO should have more decorum than he showed in that video.

The "suspicion" (hi, libel lawyers, if you're reading) that his involvement in the choice to sign Danny Ings was er, rather more than appropriate for the CEO.

The (again, hello lawyers) "suspicion" that the choice of Gerrard as manager was very strongly driven by Purslow's views on Gerrard.

There are others, but some one asked for 5 or so, so there's at least 5.

On the flip side, he's clearly highly capable, works hard, is driven to succeed and has achieved a great deal and been an integral part in the recovery of the club back towards where we'd all like it to be. He gets things done. He's good at his job, smart, communicates well and seems a much more capable CEO that we've had for a very long time.