Dodgyknees Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 This by Martin Samuel sums it up this was a year ago. Still stands today. If Michel Platini and Co's Financial Fair Play is such a gift to club owners, why will nobody buy Aston Villa? Villa, the biggest club in Britain's second city, are struggling to find a buyer UEFA claim financially astute clubs will thrive under FFP laws But without heavy investment there is no way into the top 6 for Villa Yet what remains for any new owner of Aston Villa? To maintain? To stay up? To exist? Where’s the fun in that? Where’s the bang for the buck? Villa is value only if a buyer can then invest and get in the game. If all he can do is provide po-faced financial services, plodding along with neatly balanced books and a decade of mediocrity ahead, he might as well put his money into a savings account. UEFA claim that the financially astute clubs will thrive under the new rules, but without additional owner investment, there is no longer a way forward for Villa. Any good players they produce will be poached by the privileged elite — ask Southampton — and the only frisson of excitement will be an occasional cup run, or the seasons when it all goes wrong producing the threat of relegation. It is a miserable portfolio for a prospective owner, with none of the optimism Lerner must have felt when entering the Premier League in 2006. Platini’s version of Financial Fair Play was introduced under pressure from the elite. ‘It’s mainly the owners that asked us to do something,’ he said. ‘Abramovich, Silvio Berlusconi at AC Milan and Massimo Moratti at Inter Milan. They do not want to fork out any more.’ Fine, then don’t fork out. How can Villa get beyond Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and, at a stretch, Tottenham Hotspur if they can only spend what they have already generated? Where’s the thrill? How is Lerner meant to make his club saleable? What dream is he peddling, beyond the heady thrill of accountancy? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2699215/MARTIN-SAMUEL-If-Financial-Fair-Play-gift-club-owners-buy-Aston-Villa.html#ixzz3buVRnFuB Yep, absolutely spot on. Been a football fan all my life, and I think my frustration has been with the state of football, and for a while. I finally admitted it this weekend and it's been a relief. It isn't that I don't care anymore (Villa), it's that I can't allow myself to believe, or hope, or want, or dream. It's over, it has been over for a few years and if things don't change soon (FFP), football as a competition for the many will be gone forever. The charm it once had has gone. The idea that a Forest or a Blackburn can come from nowhere (well, ok, Blackburn with finance - which of course, can no longer happen) will never ever happen. The doors are ajar by inches but they will soon close and the league and the cups will be shared between 4/5 teams, with perhaps one team grabbing glory from below every 10 years. Boring. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 not just Villa though, Everton and Newcastle are probably in same boat that Ashley would prefer a sale but nobody wants to take the punt. Its not a good move to buy a big club and probably better financially to buy a Championship club and get them promoted than an established Premier League club 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodgyknees Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 not just Villa though, Everton and Newcastle are probably in same boat that Ashley would prefer a sale but nobody wants to take the punt. Its not a good move to buy a big club and probably better financially to buy a Championship club and get them promoted than an established Premier League club No it isn't - as mentioned in my larger post on the previous page. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoony Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 This by Martin Samuel sums it up this was a year ago. Still stands today. If Michel Platini and Co's Financial Fair Play is such a gift to club owners, why will nobody buy Aston Villa? Villa, the biggest club in Britain's second city, are struggling to find a buyer UEFA claim financially astute clubs will thrive under FFP laws But without heavy investment there is no way into the top 6 for Villa Yet what remains for any new owner of Aston Villa? To maintain? To stay up? To exist? Where’s the fun in that? Where’s the bang for the buck? Villa is value only if a buyer can then invest and get in the game. If all he can do is provide po-faced financial services, plodding along with neatly balanced books and a decade of mediocrity ahead, he might as well put his money into a savings account. UEFA claim that the financially astute clubs will thrive under the new rules, but without additional owner investment, there is no longer a way forward for Villa. Any good players they produce will be poached by the privileged elite — ask Southampton — and the only frisson of excitement will be an occasional cup run, or the seasons when it all goes wrong producing the threat of relegation. It is a miserable portfolio for a prospective owner, with none of the optimism Lerner must have felt when entering the Premier League in 2006. Platini’s version of Financial Fair Play was introduced under pressure from the elite. ‘It’s mainly the owners that asked us to do something,’ he said. ‘Abramovich, Silvio Berlusconi at AC Milan and Massimo Moratti at Inter Milan. They do not want to fork out any more.’ Fine, then don’t fork out. How can Villa get beyond Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and, at a stretch, Tottenham Hotspur if they can only spend what they have already generated? Where’s the thrill? How is Lerner meant to make his club saleable? What dream is he peddling, beyond the heady thrill of accountancy? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2699215/MARTIN-SAMUEL-If-Financial-Fair-Play-gift-club-owners-buy-Aston-Villa.html#ixzz3buVRnFuB This, this, a million times this. **** football. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nabby Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 The Martin Samual piece is spot on , FFP is a disaster for all but the Elite clubs.You can't spend more than turnover yet you can't increase turnover without spending to attract better players to be more successful. Fox said as much in the recent supporters meeting , the current top 4 and even Spurs and Liverpool are so far ahead now that with he rules stopping a rich owner spending ( which is the reason 2 of the current top 4 are where they are !!) you can't compete.Outside of those clubs sponsors are not going to pay the big money to you. It's a Europe issue as well pretty much all the leagues are dominated by a few teams.The rest of us are just cannon fodder. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 Thing is we can increase our sponsors, our shirt deal and main sponsor will more than likely be it's highest ever, but if it's £30-40m a year which would be money that would make us competitive all the likes of Chelsea will do is phone up adidas / Yokohama and increase their own deal Our sponsor will probably go up by around 25%, so will everyone elses, those already out in front will simply pull away And that's before you add in the man utd official Diesel engine partner type deals, £2m a year I think it is, can't wait to see who fox gets as our Diesel engine partner... The whole thing is rigged, unsurprisingly the brain fart of a man utd executive working at UEFA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jem Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 Down here is Swansea,Swansea City pride themselves with the the philosophy of no debt,if our best players wish to leave they can do so with the club's blessing at the right price (Bony), strict wages regime with league position linked to a players bonus scheme,20k crowds,local owners who refused to sell their shares to rich yanks,Supporters Trust who virtually called the shots when the yanks came calling during last season,play very attractive football which can also get ugly if Monk wishes,buy cheap options and sign bosmans which allows cash to be freed up for a "big buy" (Again Bony £13M).Have a Board who categorically refuse to budge from fiscal self sufficiency and who fully beleive that the club will improve in the coming seasons aligned to eventual CL qualification.If Swansea can do it why not our great club. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nazvfc Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 I literally hate him. He needs to **** off immediately. What he has done to us is criminal. Regardless of his flaws, Ellis would never have let this happen to us. Just like Ellis would NEVER take the European Cup Winners and dismantle the squad and relegate us with his penny pinching ways - OK right I must have dreamed it all and that never happened - we actually never got relegated under Ellis and he never penny pinched and sold our best players to fund others rather than put a single penny of his own money to buy a player. OK I was wrong about him all this time! Ellis being poor isn't a good defence of Lerner, just as Lambert being poor, doesn't mean Sherwood's errors are less so. It's not a defence it's an observation when it is stated that Ellis would never have let what has happened to us happen - well I'm afraid he DID let it happen and HE went one further and relegated us - (and interfered with the manager doing his job) - just like all and sundry blame Lerner for our plight-. Lerner has his flaws (big ones in some peoples minds) but I don't easily forget what Ellis did to Villa and I look back further than the premier league Era. Ellis had 25 years or more - Lerner's had much less. Granted different times but still the same analogy - if Lerner is an A***hole then Ellis is/was an even bigger A***hole. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudevillaisnice Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 Swansea had the luxury of building and having a long term plan which could be implemented in the lower leagues which meant when they were promoted they were in the best position possible as a club. We don't and never have had that luxury. I'd argue Southampton were the same too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCJonah Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 They've still had to manage and improve in the premier league and they've done it. Are we really going to argue we weren't lucky enough to get relegated and play lower league football like Swansea and Southampton. Our problem is we only seem to be doing things right now, once we've hit rock bottom and while the owner wants nothing to do with us. Brilliant timing from the excellent Randy Lerner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodgyknees Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 Swansea had the luxury of building and having a long term plan which could be implemented in the lower leagues which meant when they were promoted they were in the best position possible as a club. We don't and never have had that luxury. I'd argue Southampton were the same too. Southampton are a little different, they were big spenders in the lower leagues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GENTLEMAN Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 (edited) Swansea had the luxury of building and having a long term plan which could be implemented in the lower leagues which meant when they were promoted they were in the best position possible as a club. We don't and never have had that luxury. I'd argue Southampton were the same too. I agree that it seems far easier to build a winning mentality and have sustainable wage structure in the lower leagues, but we should have been light-years ahead of both clubs before they touched the Premiership. We were regularly finishing 6th when they only just started to build what they have now in the low leagues, but Lerner did not capitalise on any of that early success or make the correct decisions following MON's departure. It was all built (rather lazily) on sand, and now we are looking upon Southampton and Swansea as inspiration. Very sad. Edited June 2, 2015 by GENTLEMAN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 (edited) If it's all about money in such a one dimensional way......who in their right mind is going join this crazy club that forces any prospective new owner to compete with the likes of Abramovich or Sheik monsour.....surely only a kamikaze business man would entertain the idea. Money has always been and will always be a crucial element in the pursuit of excellence. But there are other factors too that managers have managed to negate by using skill and nous to compete. Just because you are not Fort Knox Utd....doesn!t mean you have to throw the towel in. Millions of pounds might get you a player to score from 25 yards.....but it doesn't need those same amounts to get players to work hard, press and close opponents down. Edited June 4, 2015 by TRO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danceoftheshamen Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 I have all but given up too on "the dream", it's gone in my opinion, the spirit of football has been killed off by corruption, greed and the now closed shop created for and by a few teams. Football was about competition and the chance to dream and achieve glory, without that it is just a pretty boring and depressing non event. I have said for years that corruption is rife in the game, a lot more than anybody wants to admit for fear of tainting their passion for the game. Basically it gets swept under the carpet because it's easier to do that than face the fact the game is not as honest as we would all like to believe and it has been for a good while starting right at the top. See the current goings on at that disgraceful organisation called FIFA for evidence. I am convinced it will come out at some point that the whole World cup has been rigged for years! Now the money men have got things largely as they want them and frankly as things stand nothings gonna change. So the Premier League is now dull, tediously predictable in fact and yet all the media and pundits would of course brain wash you otherwise as they want your money! It's like having a formula 1 race made up of 4 formula 1 cars and 16 formula 2 cars... the only way one of the 16 formula 2 cars stand a chance is if one of the formula 1 cars goes into meltdown for a season but they would soon be back on track the season after! Now add to that the powers that be have effectively told the 16 formula 2 teams that they are not allowed to spend enough money to upgrade their cars to formula 1 standards and well?! ..... Whats the point exactly?! I love my football and it sickens me the way things are at the moment but something badly needs to change as like others i find it all a bit pointless at the moment. I swear they won't be happy until we have just 4 teams in each country all playing each other 10 times a season! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodgyknees Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 Good post, I agree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daz316 Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 This guys well and truly killing or club with yet another summer of uncertainty but giving the right or to suggest we're on the cusp of something better. He even had the nerve to turn up at the final as though he had anything to do with it. A couple of wins and he appears in the country, a loss later and he disappears again like a coward Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted June 10, 2015 Share Posted June 10, 2015 When we were calling for Ellis to go so that the club could achieve, compete and fulfill potential many thought that Lerner was the destination. Turns out he wasnt the destination, he was part of the journey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrackpotForeigner Posted June 10, 2015 Share Posted June 10, 2015 I have all but given up too on "the dream", it's gone in my opinion, the spirit of football has been killed off by corruption, greed and the now closed shop created for and by a few teams. Football was about competition and the chance to dream and achieve glory, without that it is just a pretty boring and depressing non event. I have said for years that corruption is rife in the game, a lot more than anybody wants to admit for fear of tainting their passion for the game. Basically it gets swept under the carpet because it's easier to do that than face the fact the game is not as honest as we would all like to believe and it has been for a good while starting right at the top. See the current goings on at that disgraceful organisation called FIFA for evidence. I am convinced it will come out at some point that the whole World cup has been rigged for years! Now the money men have got things largely as they want them and frankly as things stand nothings gonna change. So the Premier League is now dull, tediously predictable in fact and yet all the media and pundits would of course brain wash you otherwise as they want your money! It's like having a formula 1 race made up of 4 formula 1 cars and 16 formula 2 cars... the only way one of the 16 formula 2 cars stand a chance is if one of the formula 1 cars goes into meltdown for a season but they would soon be back on track the season after! Now add to that the powers that be have effectively told the 16 formula 2 teams that they are not allowed to spend enough money to upgrade their cars to formula 1 standards and well?! ..... Whats the point exactly?! I love my football and it sickens me the way things are at the moment but something badly needs to change as like others i find it all a bit pointless at the moment. I swear they won't be happy until we have just 4 teams in each country all playing each other 10 times a season! Why clutter things with four teams. Two is more than enough. Actually just one and a load of cannon fodder would satisfy most fans, especially overseas ones. The fans are as much to blame as the Champions' League cartel imo. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaw_nuff Posted June 11, 2015 Share Posted June 11, 2015 Why clutter things with four teams. Two is more than enough. Actually just one and a load of cannon fodder would satisfy most fans, especially overseas ones. The fans are as much to blame as the Champions' League cartel imo. Good point. I often openly ridicule 'fans' who have no affinity to the team they follow. There always seems to be some lame excuse like their great uncle was a ManU tea boy or something. Anyone can find a glory hunting relative in their family tree. My nephew has lived all his life in Norwich. He supports Chelsea and when i ask him what his emotional connection is with his club he looks at me blankly. Support your local club ffs. I know a lot of people won't agree but they're wrong Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted June 11, 2015 Share Posted June 11, 2015 By local team do you mean Bromsgrove or Kidderminster etc.? Or the nearest 'big' team? Anyway, that pedantry aside, we are clearly being edged towards that european super league. Eventually we will be a contender of sorts in England, as Chelsea, Man City and Man Utd., will have moved to Swiss holding companies and play from a rota of grounds all over europe and beyond. Not even having a 'home' ground. Just nominally being 'home' on week 2 where the match happens to be in Sydney, New York, Shanghai or wherever. Entry to the World League will be by bid process, where your national TV franchise will pay to get a 'local' team into the circus. I'm going for a lie down now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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