The NSWE Board

[maqroll]

2 hours ago, allani said:

the decision on the US franchise gets closer.

I have mixed feelings about a Villa MLS venture. It would give Villa a foothold here and a direct pipeline to American and Mexican players, an in-house loan setup, and marketing opportunities for the mother club. But I don't like MLS, because it is stifling the development and growth of grassroots club football. MLS refuses to consider merging with lower leagues in a promotion/relegation system which would allow smaller clubs opportunity and hope that would drive fan interest. (Wrexham's journey is keenly followed here) Obviously owners love the exclusive franchise model but outside the MLS cities, clubs and fans are really frustrated. 

[Don_Simon]

How on earth can Emery have more power than the CEO of the company? Its ridiculous. 

Things are brilliant now and long may it continue. However, if its ever the opposite, this would mean Purslow wouldn't be able to dismiss Emery. 

It's very clear the CEO is in charge. All employees report to him. What happens underneath him, (insert our good friend Kenneth gif), is the interesting bit.

[maqroll]

3 minutes ago, Don_Simon said:

How on earth can Emery have more power than the CEO of the company? Its ridiculous. 

I think maybe by virtue of Emery's brilliant start and the fact that Sawiris completely bypassed Purslow to bring Emery in himself after Purslow's catastrophic Gerrard experiment. I suspect Emery only answers to Sawiris, but if it came down to Sawiris wanting to sack Emery, he'd have Purslow do it.

[Don_Simon]

23 minutes ago, maqroll said:

I think maybe by virtue of Emery's brilliant start and the fact that Sawiris completely bypassed Purslow to bring Emery in himself after Purslow's catastrophic Gerrard experiment. I suspect Emery only answers to Sawiris, but if it came down to Sawiris wanting to sack Emery, he'd have Purslow do it.

See this point all the time. Do you have any quotes to suggest this is any more than far-fetched speculation? 

[Guest av1]

Lots of love in the Emery thread and absolutely rightfully so, best manager we’ve ever had. But these guys, wow. We obviously wouldn’t have Emery without them, not to mention the VP development (f##k you Xia we don’t need a theme park). 
 

The board level appointments, V sports etc, this lot are the real deal. 
 

The mind can’t help wondering back to the play off loss to Fulham, we nearly went bust. Having these guys take us over when then did is lottery levels of luck. I wish we had a song to show our appreciation. 

[sidcow]

Wow. Can't believe these guys have owned the club for almost 5 years now. Time has flown and we've been on a hell of a journey. 

[PerryBarrPet]

1 hour ago, sidcow said:

Wow. Can't believe these guys have owned the club for almost 5 years now. Time has flown and we've been on a hell of a journey. 

Yes and long may it continue. I’ve never been more optimistic in my 70 years supporting Villa.

[mjmooney]

1 hour ago, PerryBarrPet said:

Yes and long may it continue. I’ve never been more optimistic in my 70 years supporting Villa.

Same here (although a mere 64 years for me). 

[PerryBarrPet]

10 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

Same here (although a mere 64 years for me). 

What’s a mere six years between fellow fans!

[AvonVillain]

1 hour ago, PerryBarrPet said:

Yes and long may it continue. I’ve never been more optimistic in my 70 years supporting Villa.

You're more optimistic now than over the couple of years we swallowed up the League, European & Super Cups?? Bold.

[TRO]

On 31/03/2023 at 13:17, wishywashy said:

Even the smartest football boardrooms make decisions that, in hindsight, were daft mistakes. The hiring of Gerrard was definitely one of them. Sometimes it just happens, best you can do is just move on and try and get the next appointment right: which from early signs is definitely true in Emery.

This is even more true for transfers. No matter how detailed your recruitment processes are, they are still genuine gambles. One look at the Premier League transfer records and you could genuinely argue that out of the 15 most expensive player purchases, only 2 of them (van Dijk and De Bruyne) were deals that have been 'successful' for the amount of money put into them. Man City blatantly overpaid for the likes of Grealish and Phillips, and Brighton have struggled to sign a consistent goal-scorer. If you keep up the investment and try to play smart, though, you're inevitably going to hit the jackpot with some signings that work out really well. Just have to keep at it.  

Football is facing a big financial bubble at the moment. Big money TV deals + increasing revenue streams means that Prem clubs that stand little chance of relegation are invaluable. Boehly et al. bought Chelsea for a ridiculous sum of money because they are gambling that this bubble is going to keep growing over the next decade. From what NSWE have been doing lately with the amount of money they've put in, they seem to be of a similar mindset. I'm confident that, in the long-term, everything will work out for both NSWE and Villa as a whole. With their investments in V Sports, they're clearly not deterred by our questionable short-term progress. They're in this for the long haul.

It's unbelievable how lucky we are to have these owners, especially considering a) the state of our club when they took us over and b) the ownership of other clubs around us. West Brom are in a bad state (their owner took money out of the club and has seemingly decided to not pay it back), Small Heath are at genuine risk of doing a Bury (the more you read into that club, the more dire the situation looks for them. you could make an entire documentary series on what happens over there) and even Wolves' Fosun are facing turbulence with the collapse of the Chinese real estate market.

Mistakes happen.....but I think the mistake was Christian Purslows, NWSE just signed it off.

When it was clearly not going to change, Nass stepped in, and the rest is history.

[villabromsgrove]

32 minutes ago, AvonVillain said:

You're more optimistic now than over the couple of years we swallowed up the League, European & Super Cups?? Bold.

The years 1980 to 1982 were amazing as a Fan on the footballing side, but very worrying off the pitch. Ron Bendall was the chairman and major shareholder, and he was fighting battles with Ellis and others on the board. Key board members resigned and Saunders fell out with Bendall over his personal contract and the lack of money for players, and was replaced by Barton. There were also claims of financial irregularities regarding the building of the North Stand and about that time a very large amount of money allocated for the build "went missing" with the club racking up serious debts. This started the decline that led to relegation a few years later.

We have no such worries with NSWE as owners and custodians of AVFC. The "off the pitch" set up is already very good and is becoming even stronger with current additions in the pipelines. Our manager is genuinely world class, our playing staff is becoming a real force and will soon have some exciting additions. Major stadium and infrastructure improvements are in hand, and will greatly enhance the match day experience and Villa's standing as an ambitious and "potentially" massive club.

2023 is a fantastic time to be a Villa fan .... I would say it's the best time .... I agree with PerryBarrPet and mjmooney when they say they have never been so optimistic about Villa's prospects. 

[OutByEaster?]

1 hour ago, TRO said:

Mistakes happen.....but I think the mistake was Christian Purslows, NWSE just signed it off.

When it was clearly not going to change, Nass stepped in, and the rest is history.

Again there's no actual evidence that this is what happened - that's not to say that it couldn't be true - but it's entirely based on an outside reading of a situation.

Purslow liked Gerrard  - absolutely - but I can't see Sawiris and Edens signing off on multi-million pound decisions on that basis - there will have been a mass of data on all of the candidates which was then presented to them - can Purslow influence that? Absolutely. Can he bring in his mate on a whim? I very much doubt it.

The idea that Nas stepped in is based on him looking angry on the telly while we lost 3-0 away at the team nearest his house, then standing with Emery at his home in London when he signed. If we think that Purslow didn't have a part to play in either of those decisions then I think we're way off beam - people like Edens and Sawiris don't employ senior people and then ignore them - you either back your man or you don't.

The Gerrard mistake was Purslow's and NSWE signed it off having been provided with sufficient data to make an informed decision - all the decisions are made that way - including sacking Gerrard, including hiring Emery.

Readings of situations, assumptions made on rumour - they become fact over time - it's why people still believe we were interested in signing Thierry Henry as our first NSWE manager even though we had no interest in him whatsoever - they're things we need to be mindful of.

 

[Follyfoot]

16 minutes ago, villabromsgrove said:

The years 1980 to 1982 were amazing as a Fan on the footballing side, but very worrying off the pitch. Ron Bendall was the chairman and major shareholder, and he was fighting battles with Ellis and others on the board. Key board members resigned and Saunders fell out with Bendall over his personal contract and the lack of money for players, and was replaced by Barton. There were also claims of financial irregularities regarding the building of the North Stand and about that time a very large amount of money allocated for the build "went missing" with the club racking up serious debts. This started the decline that led to relegation a few years later.

We have no such worries with NSWE as owners and custodians of AVFC. The "off the pitch" set up is already very good and is becoming even stronger with current additions in the pipelines. Our manager is genuinely world class, our playing staff is becoming a real force and will soon have some exciting additions. Major stadium and infrastructure improvements are in hand, and will greatly enhance the match day experience and Villa's standing as an ambitious and "potentially" massive club.

2023 is a fantastic time to be a Villa fan .... I would say it's the best time .... I agree with PerryBarrPet and mjmooney when they say they have never been so optimistic about Villa's prospects. 

75 to 82 in all fairness was quite a journey , easy to forget how good  the 76/77 side were 

Edited May 17, 2023 by Follyfoot

[PerryBarrPet]

1 hour ago, AvonVillain said:

You're more optimistic now than over the couple of years we swallowed up the League, European & Super Cups?? Bold.

 

25 minutes ago, Follyfoot said:

75 to 82 in all fairness was quite a journey , easy to forget how good  the 76/77 side were 

The answer is easy; not bold just based on who now runs the club. At that time HDE was manoeuvring in order to “take back control” so any optimism was on hold then finally extinguished when he did return and the brakes put on.

[blandy]

44 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

The Gerrard mistake was Purslow's and NSWE signed it off having been provided with sufficient data to make an informed decision

Exactly. One sentence accurately covering what pages upon pages of posts have largely failed to do.

[tonyh29]

42 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

Readings of situations, assumptions made on rumour - they become fact over time - it's why people still believe we were interested in signing Thierry Henry as our first NSWE manager even though we had no interest in him whatsoever - they're things we need to be mindful of.

Whilst I don't have any ITK knowledge on these matters personally , someone who has always had very good and reliable inside Villa knowledge told me this was pretty much a done deal , both owners wanted him , Purslow fought for Smith and Terry  and won the argument 

bit like Purslow & Gerrard stories I don't know if we will ever get the truth , unless one of the main players speaks about it  ? 

 

[AvonVillain]

35 minutes ago, PerryBarrPet said:

The answer is easy; not bold just based on who now runs the club. At that time HDE was manoeuvring in order to “take back control” so any optimism was on hold then finally extinguished when he did return and the brakes put on.

1 hour ago, villabromsgrove said:

The years 1980 to 1982 were amazing as a Fan on the footballing side, but very worrying off the pitch. Ron Bendall was the chairman and major shareholder, and he was fighting battles with Ellis and others on the board. Key board members resigned and Saunders fell out with Bendall over his personal contract and the lack of money for players, and was replaced by Barton. There were also claims of financial irregularities regarding the building of the North Stand and about that time a very large amount of money allocated for the build "went missing" with the club racking up serious debts. This started the decline that led to relegation a few years later.

I don't know too much about this, but it sounds as though the club was being financially mismanaged to some degree over our biggest years. Would it be fair to say Ellis was in fact trying to rectify the problems by taking back control?

[PerryBarrPet]

15 minutes ago, AvonVillain said:

I don't know too much about this, but it sounds as though the club was being financially mismanaged to some degree over our biggest years. Would it be fair to say Ellis was in fact trying to rectify the problems by taking back control?

No it would not be fair so don’t make me laugh. Two points: Ellis had been on the board when some of the problem decisions were taken. Taking back control for Ellis was all about feeding his huge ego - tight financial controls were all about enforcing his personal control.

[FLVillan]

18 minutes ago, AvonVillain said:

I don't know too much about this, but it sounds as though the club was being financially mismanaged to some degree over our biggest years. Would it be fair to say Ellis was in fact trying to rectify the problems by taking back control?

There was definitely a big mess at boardroom level for sure and changes were needed.  Ron Saunders leaving was the straw that broke the camels back.  Unfortunately, Ellis was able to come back in and take advantage of the mess.  However, what is more notable is that the club achieved more on the pitch in the 4 years that Ellis was away (he actually joined the Small Heath board at one stage) than during the 30+ years he served as chairman.