Christian Purslow

[Hank Scorpio]

3 minutes ago, mikeyjavfc said:

Can he borrow a feeling?

[NurembergVillan]

16 minutes ago, avfc1982am said:

Personally I think anyone rejoicing at his exit has a very short memory as to how this club was run before he arrived. I think for most of us, should Purslow ever again turn up at VP he'll be very warmly received. That in itself speaks volumes about how most the fanbase see him and the job he's done. 

[Delphinho123]

9 hours ago, Mark Albrighton said:

If NWSE were generally unhappy with his tenure I doubt they’d have given him the opportunity to say his farewell bit in the announcement. 

Look at when Smith was released compared to Gerrard. Smith gets a nice little goodbye video, Gerrard gets a short “thanks and good luck” statement. Basically they were appreciative of Smith’s efforts, not so impressed with Gerrard’s. I think this little bit of professional courtesy suggests they have appreciated his work, as well as them giving an overview of the club’s rise while he’s been here in the club statement.

It’s probably very likely what has been speculated plenty of times already. The owners really rate Emery. Emery wants a particular director. Said director would take on some of Purslow’s responsibilities. Added to Heck’s appointment and there’s less for Purslow to do. And yes, there’s the Gerrard appointment. I think that probably crystallised the board’s thinking of essentially “Right, no more pissing about, let’s get moving on this.” Hence Emery.

My hunch is if Purslow wanted to stick around in a more reduced role, NWSE would happily have him around. I think they value his input on certain things. I suspect he himself probably wants to be the defacto main guy and that was no longer going to be the case.

Yeh, fair enough. Good post.

Maybe Purslow has something else lined up? I could easily see him getting a job at another PL side. 

[AvfcRigo82]

9 hours ago, Mark Albrighton said:

So are you of the opinion they offered him a reduced role knowing full well he’d reject it and leave, or are you of the opinion they have just told him to piss off? 

A combination of both imo Mark.

It is clear that since the arrival of Emery, Purslow had gone into the shadows more and was not at the forefront of everything like we were used to seeing.

His card has been marked for a while. Some of his descision making - since the appointment of Slippy G - had not gone down well with the owners (my speculation) and his footballing descisions had been somewhat reduced. It was eveident he had started to be gradually eased out as time has gone on.

I know folk are celebrating everything he has done like he was the messiah, and yes there are positives to be taken from his time here.

However, In my opinion, it's the last year of his 5 year tenure that was the beginning of the end and his own undoing. He was on borrowed time from that point.

[AvfcRigo82]

8 hours ago, avfc1982am said:

Personally I think anyone rejoicing at his exit has a very short memory as to how this club was run before he arrived.

That in itself speaks volumes about how most the fanbase see him and the job he's done. 

 

30 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Maybe Purslow has something else lined up? I could easily see him getting a job at another PL side. 

 

Let's not kid ourselves here, he did good at taking us from being a Championship side to the top 10 of the Premier League thanks to the backing of our billionaire owners that he had the oppurtunity to work with. Without them, or Emery at the last minute, His "5 year plan" would have been nothing but fantasy.

For him now, Maybe a team like Leicester or Forest would be an ideal move for him next and more suited? It would be interesting to see how good he is at doing a similar job at those clubs without extremely wealthy owners like he had here.

 

Edited June 13, 2023 by AvfcRigo82

[CVByrne]

Having watched the first few episodes of that Monchi 13 series. I think it's clear to me that when Emery was approached by Nassef terms of hiring him was that they move to the mixed model (there are three models Monchi says, CEO model, Manager model and moxed model). 

The first is the CEO / President makes the decisions, so you'll see this with say Real Madrid etc.. the Manager Model is like we had in England. The mixed model is the one it would appear we had where its CEO + Manager + Sporting Director. But the way Monchi explains it, it's CEO sets the financial constraints, the manager sets the profile of players he needs, sporting director compiles the list using scouts and data. It's then the sporting director who deals with the transfers once chosen. Where at Villa we had Purslow do the transfers and negotiations. With the addition of Chris Heck for the commercial side. Purslow's role was just reduced and he wasn't going to be visible on the football side like he's enjoyed to date. IT seems he was the one who wanted utmost secrecy on negotiations so he / the club could be the ones announcing the transfers. I think he loved the high profile job. 

The role changed, he would be CEO still but with Nassef more hands on it's too small a remit now for him and moving on made most sense. 

Lets not forget the coaches we could choose from when we appointed Gerrard. Would Potter have joined, would Frank have joined? Hassenhuttle was on the list remember. We couldn't have got Emery and what damage was really done in the end by Gerrard? Coutinho? maybe the Digne signing (though he is a quality player). I'd take the trade off for Emery every day of the week.

I wsh Purslow had stayed, I think he fights our corner well in PL meetings and also with the other improvements around the club like stadium, getting the improvements to the transport around the ground etc...

[QldVilla]

19 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

A combination of both imo Mark.

It is clear that since the arrival of Emery, Purslow had gone into the shadows more and was not at the forefront of everything like we were used to seeing.

His card has been marked for a while. Some of his descision making - since the appointment of Slippy G - had not gone down well with the owners (my speculation) and his footballing descisions had been somewhat reduced. It was eveident he had started to be gradually eased out as time has gone on.

I know folk are celebrating everything he has done like he was the messiah, and yes there are positives to be taken from his time here.

However, In my opinion, it's the last year of his 5 year tenure that was the beginning of the end and his own undoing. He was on borrowed time from that point.

I’m not sure that I agree entirely. I think Purslow’s tenure showed he had limitations with regards to managerial appointments including club transfers, he did appoint Smith, which worked for 3 years.

He did a good job with the off field running of the club and I just believe he had a set skill set and the owners realised for the club to grow new people with those skill sets were required. This diminished his role and probably rightly realised it was time to move on, even though the owners thought this would occur with the changes.

[lapal_fan]

I've got no clue as to why he's leaving, and I'm certainly not going to guess like a lot of people are

I think he's done well in his job compared to other CEOs we've had, like Tom Fox and Keith Wyness..

Some people didn't like the cut of his jib, but he's an intelligent, well spoken person who appears to know what he was doing, which is more than can be said than others in our recent past.

He appeared to always fight our corner and again, that's more than what can be said for others.

Ok, he chose to appoint Gerrard after Smith, it was a decision he took after Gerrard won the league in Scotland, so it wasn't based on nothing.  It just didn't work out well, which a few of us anticipated, mistakes happen - meh.

But to go from the Championship to 7th in the Prem, our value much higher than when he first arrived and the plans for stadium extension means he's done much more good for us, than bad.

Good luck to him in whatever comes next.

Edited June 13, 2023 by lapal_fan

[Mark Albrighton]

31 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

A combination of both imo Mark.

It is clear that since the arrival of Emery, Purslow had gone into the shadows more and was not at the forefront of everything like we were used to seeing.

His card has been marked for a while. Some of his descision making - since the appointment of Slippy G - had not gone down well with the owners (my speculation) and his footballing descisions had been somewhat reduced. It was eveident he had started to be gradually eased out as time has gone on.

I know folk are celebrating everything he has done like he was the messiah, and yes there are positives to be taken from his time here.

However, In my opinion, it's the last year of his 5 year tenure that was the beginning of the end and his own undoing. He was on borrowed time from that point.

While I accept he had been a bit quieter over the past six or so months, the fairly notable interview with Beth Rigby was about six weeks ago. So not a completely reclusive figure.

I think his relationship with Emery came across differently than that of both Smith and Gerrard. Not antagonistic or strained or anything like that, both still working to the same goal, but perhaps in different ways.

I think Purslow leaving is more of a result of the club evolving in the way it’s (going to be) structured, not as a direct result of Gerrard being appointed. Really I think that is the one footballing decision that was wrong. It’s a big one. But I don’t think his time here is littered with mistakes even approaching that one.

19 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

 

 

Let's not kid ourselves here, he did good at taking us from being a Championship side to the top 10 of the Premier League thanks to the backing of our billionaire owners that he had the oppurtunity to work with. Without them, or Emery at the last minute, His "5 year plan" would have been nothing but fantasy.

For him now, Maybe a team like Leicester or Forest would be an ideal move for him next and more suited? It would be interesting to see how good he is at doing a similar job at those clubs without extremely wealthy owners like he had here.

 

Just on this, yes he had two billionaire owners to work with, I dare say working with two billionaire owners who are invested will be easier than working with two millionaire owners who are penny pinching. 

But the two billionaires CHOSE Purslow to be their guy and kept him in post for five years. I don’t think they got to where they are by choosing ineffective people and having them stick around for years. 

It’s a bit like saying “Well Lewis Hamilton is only any good because he drives for Mercedes. If he was in a shit car he’d be shit.” The reason he’s driving for Mercedes is because he’s a good driver.

In my opinion the reason they appointed and stuck with Purslow for as long as they did is because they think he’s been good. 

[Sulberto21]

The waiter at shababs said they heard Doris has been calling the new guy Big Heck and because of that Purslow got jealous and said no to the new job.

Apparently right she’s after that Monchee meat too but Purslow wanted exclusive rights to her buttered buns whereas Big Heck doesn’t mind sharing.

Doris eh what a gal!

[Pinebro]

Don't remember if it was Danks 4-0 win or Emery's first game.

But I remember we were winning and Purslow was in attendance and looked absolutely miserable.

I think this has been in the cards for a while.

It was over the moment Nassef decided to strip him off footballing decisions and give the keys to Unai.

Which is absurd for me. Why a CEO feels the need to control footballing decisions strikes me as very odd. You're a CEO. Stick to your job, administrative tasks.

[Pinebro]

"We've decided to let go of Purslow and bring in 3 other CEO's"

Edited June 13, 2023 by Pinebro

[It's Your Round]

8 minutes ago, Pinebro said:

"We've decided to let go of Purslow and bring in 3 other CEO's"

You’re about 24 hours too late with that one. 

[AvfcRigo82]

10 hours ago, Mark Albrighton said:

While I accept he had been a bit quieter over the past six or so months, the fairly notable interview with Beth Rigby was about six weeks ago. So not a completely reclusive figure.

I think his relationship with Emery came across differently than that of both Smith and Gerrard. Not antagonistic or strained or anything like that, both still working to the same goal, but perhaps in different ways.

I think Purslow leaving is more of a result of the club evolving in the way it’s (going to be) structured, not as a direct result of Gerrard being appointed. Really I think that is the one footballing decision that was wrong. It’s a big one. But I don’t think his time here is littered with mistakes even approaching that one.

Just on this, yes he had two billionaire owners to work with, I dare say working with two billionaire owners who are invested will be easier than working with two millionaire owners who are penny pinching. 

But the two billionaires CHOSE Purslow to be their guy and kept him in post for five years. I don’t think they got to where they are by choosing ineffective people and having them stick around for years. 

It’s a bit like saying “Well Lewis Hamilton is only any good because he drives for Mercedes. If he was in a shit car he’d be shit.” The reason he’s driving for Mercedes is because he’s a good driver.

In my opinion the reason they appointed and stuck with Purslow for as long as they did is because they think he’s been good. 

That's fair enough Mark. I understand your reasoning and appreciate your point.

So without boring the thread any further I guess he's old news now though and new dawn awaits us in kicking on and going forward as aclub. I for one am looking forward to it. 

[Villatillidie95]

Karren Brady has good things to say about him and said they he will be badly missed, he sat on a lot of different committees that were dealing with commercial rights in the premier league. I expect he will turn up somewhere else in the premier league shortly, seems that he is very highly respected in the game and dont think he will sit around unemployed for too long.

[Tomaszk]

Has it been reported when he'll actually go?

There's deals to be done and if Monchi isn't in are we a man short?

[OutByEaster?]

1 hour ago, Tomaszk said:

Has it been reported when he'll actually go?

There's deals to be done and if Monchi isn't in are we a man short?

He's gone - Heck is currently basing himself at Villa Park from what I can gather - apparently there was a little send off meeting last week at the club where people got to say their goodbyes and wish him well.

 

[Tomaszk]

6 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

He's gone - Heck is currently basing himself at Villa Park from what I can gather - apparently there was a little send off meeting last week at the club where people got to say their goodbyes and wish him well.

 

Interesting.

Do you think it tells a story that he's gone before the replacements are all in place? Doesn't feel like something that would happen if it was amicable on all sides.

[tomav84]

13 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

Interesting.

Do you think it tells a story that he's gone before the replacements are all in place? Doesn't feel like something that would happen if it was amicable on all sides.

the point is that there is no replacement...his role doesn't exist anymore. heck is already in the door handling the off field stuff and i imagine all transfer business has been essentially put on hold until the new DoF comes in. tielmans the exception as emery clearly knows him well enough to push for the deal to be done

[Tomaszk]

1 minute ago, tomav84 said:

the point is that there is no replacement...his role doesn't exist anymore. heck is already in the door handling the off field stuff and i imagine all transfer business has been essentially put on hold until the new DoF comes in. tielmans the exception as emery clearly knows him well enough to push for the deal to be done

Yes, and transfer business being on hold wouldn't be much good if it took 3 more weeks for Monchi to arrive.