Ginge Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 I can tell you that Ellis is not "in charge" in the way he is made out to be. Marion Stringer now conducts the club on a day to day basis and a lot of things are now being kept back from him, he is then used as the face of it all so we have somebody to blame and basically throw the s*** at. Re structures behind the scenes have been kept from him, redundancies are being made and the club is really in a state of depression. All control has been lost, at least Ellis knew what he was doing much as the Holte End dont believe that, it is true. Tony Hales is right to be despairing at the "behind the scenes" situation because believe me it is desperate. The club are losing money hand over fist. I can not see a takeover being achieved with the state the books are in but i do believe Ellis really wants to sell up which is why he is so angry at lost sales and under achieving on the pitch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zippy178 Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 Where did you get that info from Ginger? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zippy178 Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 *Ginge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginge Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 I am a recent ex employee!! Cant say too much cus Aston Villa dont like people to talk but trust me it is true! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zippy178 Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 Sorry to ask, but do you know whether the Comers are still on, or if its a waste of time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginge Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 It was on and off that many times that i dont think even Doug knows anymore. I would say when i left it was off! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianrobo1 Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 I can tell you that Ellis is not "in charge" in the way he is made out to be. Marion Stringer now conducts the club on a day to day basis and a lot of things are now being kept back from him, he is then used as the face of it all so we have somebody to blame and basically throw the s*** at. Re structures behind the scenes have been kept from him, redundancies are being made and the club is really in a state of depression. All control has been lost, at least Ellis knew what he was doing much as the Holte End dont believe that, it is true. Tony Hales is right to be despairing at the "behind the scenes" situation because believe me it is desperate. The club are losing money hand over fist. I can not see a takeover being achieved with the state the books are in but i do believe Ellis really wants to sell up which is why he is so angry at lost sales and under achieving on the pitch. Thanks for the information Ginge and this is exactly how I thought things are, if you can answer these questions it would be interesting to hear .... 1) Why are we making reduncacies, if it is wage costs the people including yourself are on a fraction of the players, is the club finacially in the shit ? 2) Have you heard of ANY other moves by anyone to take over ? 3) Are any of the staff able to make any decsion involving money ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avfcinwales Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 I would say something Ian but I'm sure some accountant types would ridicule the comments as they did before ) You get accused of spreading unsubstantiated lies I seem to remember. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trinity-Tom Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 I would say something Ian but I'm sure some accountant types would ridicule the comments as they did before ) You get accused of spreading unsubstantiated lies I seem to remember. I am an accountant and I promise not to ridicule if you tell us! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mykeyb Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 Well the only question left to answer is which will die first "our club" or "the chairman" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avfcinwales Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 I'd say as the chairman has outlasted the earlier predictions and the club is in freefall, the club Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex7783 Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 Surely this situation has been on the cards for many years, if you have an elderly chairman who point blank refuses to delegate responsibility then once he loses the ability to run the business noone has a clue what to do. Then the business enters freefall, the share price collapses, therefore the owner can no longer demand as much for his shares and the business gets taken over. On a different note, does anyone else really wish Langham was still on board. With Ellis clearly out of the decision making loop that would have put all decision making responsibility at the feet of the CEO, Langham!! Which would have been very interesting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginge Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 I believe the redundancies are being made because the labour costs at the club are too high. Paying staff off with substansial amounts and not replacing people who leave seems to be a massive thing their at the moment. Bruce Langham started off a restructure programme which would have been a really good idea behind the scenes but when he left the powers that be decided to continue with his plans but never really knew what they were doing, the whole club is in decline in my opinion. Remember Langham is still being paid until May this year so he is still officially "on the books". Some really senior people have been paid off allegedly for the benefit of the club, Abdul Rashid was there years before they got rid of him last year. The reasons behind his departure were never given and the club has not massivley improved without him so it doesnt make sense. Other than Steve Stride i dont think anybody has the power to spend money except Mr Ellis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted March 14, 2006 Moderator Share Posted March 14, 2006 For all the entirely valid comments about Ellis's control freakery and self serving ego based leadership, the board of Aston Villa Plc has legal responsibilities. Yes there's no "capable" Chairman. Sure the CEO left and wasn't replaced, and the same applies to the post of Finance director, and yes this is down to Ellis. BUT The remaining board members have a duty to run the business in the best interests of the Company, not defer to the interest of one of the shareholders. It is highly questiojnable whether they are actually discharging that responsibility. I have no doubt that marion Stringer is working hard in the way she sees best, but that's not the point. It's like somone whose house is on fire running around pouring cups of water on the fire. You can't criticise their effort, but you have to wonder whther a call to the Fire Brigade (experienced firefighters) might not be absolutely essential. The board must in my view change their focus from "trying to muddle along, best we can, waiting for something to happen" to actively taking control of the the club again. If this means concluding that Ellis is not fit to perform his paid job - and he clearly isn't - and reconstituting the board with a new CEO, Chairman and all the rest, then that is what they have to do. They have Rothschilds looking for new owners, but no-one seems to be looking for taking responsibility for addressing the current failings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisVillan Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 Fire Brigade Pete, please call them "those who choose to fight fire". Many thanks. Now I'm not really into all this stuff, but it seems to me that the club is run in a way which contradicts or at least bends stock exchange rules. How far off the mark would that be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianrobo1 Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 to me the PLc is clearly in breach of all stock market governance rules and possbly legal rules, can anyone claify the legal responsbilities of a PLC board which is now just Stride and (dead)ly ellis. The problem is that to force this a major shareholder (and that can only be Petchey or those holding more than 0.5% of shares) should be the ones forcing the matter and reporting the board and calling for an EGM. However it seems Petchey does not want to do this and thus Ellis is allowed to continue. My major problem iss as Ginge says IF Hales is pissed off , as a non-exec could he not force the issue or is the plain gfact by teh time anything happens, Ellis may wwell be dead anyway ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mykeyb Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 You would have thought that this would be a pretty big story in the local press if not the nationals. And we have read nothing. Is our local press so awfull it cant do ome digging and print the truth about what is going on at VP or are they being paid not to look to close. I agree the board in its capacity is there to act in the best intrests of Aston Villa PLC not Doug Ellis. If I was looking to buy the club I wouldnt want to do anything before the end of the season as the value of the club must be shrinking on a daily basis, so we will probably have to wait untilthe summer for Doug to leave the club in one way or another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianrobo1 Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 despite the bravado by the Mail a few weeks ago they have not done their job properly nor the local press because they could lose their 'privledges' and frankly the national's don't care. Just imagine this situation at Everton, West Ham, Spurs, Newcastle etc. it would be aall over the nationals and national phone in's. Ellis made us irrelevaant to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginge Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 The problems at our club started when we became a PLC, it was fine until then! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianrobo1 Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 no it wasn't Ginge, if we had gone to a PLC, then Ellis would have had over 60% of the shares and we would never have been aable to afford to redevelop the Holte and give money to the managers from it, I think without going public we could have been relelgated at least once. the PLC, opened up Villa to far more scrunity than they ever have haad, and it has been good, but you can't take the money and not except the responsbilities along wioth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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