I’m keeping it short, as I’m still on my phone.
First, thoughts on the “no bank loan’ statement.
I think this is strictly speaking, a true statement.
While it’s true that we’ve taken money from Macquarie, I think it’s more of a forward sell, as opposed to a typical bank loan. The difference is subtle, but I believe it’s there.
Next is the statement that Xia has converted his loans to equity.
I don’t understand this one.
Yes, we’ve see a share allotment, but there’s been no value attached to them. It’s purely to improve the balance sheet, to suit FFP requirements,imo, which is good.
So if we’ve taken £40 odd million off the books, how much FFP trouble are we still in?
This is not made clear at all and it troubles me.
Do we really still need to sell Grealish?
I’m now not convinced, although it seems to me the Birmingham Mail are more than telling us that he actually wants to go, which is disappointing.
My stance would be that he’s going nowhere unless we get the right price.
There’s no doubt, we have to cut costs though.
Another one I have doubts about is the fact that any other shareholding won’t make a difference to FFP.
As has been explained, new owners would be given another chance to improve things.
The big impression I get is that the club isn’t in as bad a state as was implied by the media.
Or at least it’s not going bust.
But we are of course being set up for a period of severe austerity, which means playing more kids.
Given that we can expect no more than mid table at best, imo, I wonder if Bruce is now the right manager for us?
I predict that if we’re struggling, his contract will be allowed to expire.
Good luck England!
Been one for years Hitch, even bailiff on canals in Brum, gone on to fly fishing now with my son, it takes my mind off Villa problems.
I’ve just seen the new kits.
Not bad and the claret looks ok, but not enough blue for me.
It seems the hype has gone into overdrive, which I don’t suppose is a bad thing.
Let’s hope we’ve still got some decent players left to wear them!
I don’t like the home kit at all, and not over impressed by the away kit either. I’ll stick with my Rottertdam Euro final shirt I think…
I like the away kit but totally dislike home shirt. Stripes and claret sleeves is just not Villa. Looks like West Ham shirt from a few years ago. And some of the stripes are still purple 😡
Like the new kits. The V neck reminds me of the Villa kits of the late 50s when I started going to games.
So the kit’s okay it’s just everything else that’s shit. Thank God England’s still in the World Cup so we can forget about the nonsense that’s now going on at VP for a while.
In truth I’m dreading the new season.
Yes I like it, its trendy been reading other posts and its a hit home and away.,
I only hope we can get over this problem , you never know the kids might shine for us.
Bruce just been on sky sports with interview, anyone seen it i missed it.
In short, Bruce confirmed the club is selling – Grealish, Chester, Kodjia, +/- more.
Hard to imagine what the squad will look like in a month.
I suppose there’s not much we can do, just have to start from scratch Marvin,,
So he’s staying at the club?
Yep – Bruce is here to stay, but he easily could have walked. Personally I’m thrilled he did decide to stay, because I don’t trust Xia and I think Bruce’s experience should at least keep us out of the relegation zone this season.
If we sell Grealish for anywhere near £15 mill, I’ll be absolutely fuming.
As much as I rate Grealish, I’m not convinced he’ll get much game time at Spurs anyway.
If the club can get 20m + a player, I’d be happy. Although I would also keep Grealish and have him play until the winter window. It’s a big risk though.
I see Bruce is getting stick for basically saying “come and get our players cheap”.
Rightly so, too, imo.
How naive.
Badger, I’ve watched the Steve Bruce interview and at no point does he say ‘come and get our players cheap’ unless there is some other interview i’ve missed. He only says what everybody knows – firstly that some decisions would be ones he wouldn’t want to make and fans won’t like – player sales; second we are buggered by FFP (assuming we can solve the cash flow problems but then I suppose the two are contemporaneous) and third that the object this season will to be ensure survival (OK implied not specifically stated).
Why is he getting stick for being honest or have our fans stuck their collective heads in the sand.
I’ve been criticised for ‘defending’ Bruce but just at this moment given the sh*t we’re in and the lack of footballing knowledge at management level then I’m glad he hasn’t joined the ranks of those leaving the ship.
I fully accept that he has to bear a portion of the blame for not achieving promotion but the sad financial mess we’re in cannot be laid at his door.
Should I now put the telephone directory down my pants?
what bruce said was exactly what we all know, but most were in denial. other clubs know the shit we are in before today. what bruce has done is tell the villa fans the situation, the fans that dont believed in fake news.
i have been saying chester and kodjia will go along with grealish. in fact the whole squad will go if we have offers. the prices for them will be nothing like their value. but that cant be blamed on bruce its the way of the world.
the main deal we need to be strong on is grealish. if we can demand his going fee we just might save our club from sinking faster. but its simple the buying clubs will all wait to the last day of transfer window. they will send in cheeky bids. looks like the owner has all his hopes on selling players to recover his loses. but buying clubs will try their best to get the best bargains and we are a pound shop now
Let’s face it, nobody is going to put enough money into Villa to make a difference, and leave Xia in control with his record. He needs to sell. There is one alternative, Xia could find more cash of his own or his original backers. That cannot be a loan or a gift. It can only squeak through FFP if it is a subscription for new shares: and that acceptable by recent UEFA precedent, not a logical reading of the regulations.
I agree OLL – the writing on the wall says additional financing, in any form, from his backers is not going to happen and all ‘internal’ debt has already been swopped for equity (according to Xia’s statement).
and another final thought, if as predicted all the buying clubs leave their bidding last minute shopping at villa. we won’t have any time to bring in cheap replacements.
we are going to end up with a very young inexperienced team. most of you thing they are up for it. i am not so sure they would handle 46 games tuesday saturday. murphy gets injured playing youth football which play 20 games and much slower games and no tackling / contacts.
I think all Villa fans know we’re in trouble after Xia’s statement.
My point is if you were in trouble and had to sell your house, would you practically tell any possible buyers?
I certainly wouldn’t. I’d play a cannier game and say I’ll let you have at a discount, but don’t expect to take the proverbial.
And no, Hitch, he didn’t actually say it, but he might as well have.
Surely it would have been better to come out with the usual stuff and just play coy, the same as most managers do?
I don’t know, I just see a scenario where we let them all go and still don’t get the required amount.
What will the point of that have been?
Much better to just take punishment and a 12 point deduction, because selling all our best players will lose us more than that.
Or better still, Xia just sells up totally.
Rant over😀
I’m glad Bruce is staying Badger, but like you I think he is a complete numpty for naming players who will most likely have to go. All possible suitors will be rubbing their hands together at how cheap they will get them for. If I was to sell my car I wouldn’t be telling everyone that I needed to pay off a debt so I had no choice. Everyone knows we are in financial straits, but you don’t publicly declare that we will have to sell our prized assets. All he had to say was that he had to reduce the wage bill or something. Only at AVFC can clangers like this happen.
Holte – he didn’t name any players in the interview I saw.
Badger, think we will have to disagree about Bruce’s comments. Denying or refusing to answer the question wouldn’t change the facts reported widely in the press and let’s not forget Xia, in his statement, had already gone public on having to sell players before Bruce uttered a word.
If we meet FFP rules by selling our best players we will have no chance of promotion. If we break FFP rules by not selling, we can be prevented from getting promoted by a points deduction or simply being dropped out of the promotion/play off spots.
So, why don’t we just break the rules and see what happens?
The answer is probably that Xia doesn’t have the money. Selling players and complying with the rules means he doesn’t have to put his hand in his pocket.
A squad with the quality players moved on, and Bruce in charge is stuck in the Championship. I appreciate it probably makes sense for him to stay on now, but I am furious with him for blowing our promotion campaign last year.
Xia screwed up on the finances, but without the investment we would have been nowhere near good enough. He just handed it to the wrong managers.
That’s the story of our club for a great many years. Lack of investment followed by plenty of it but in the wrong hands. Doug Ellis refused to fund managers to make the leap from nearly club to winners. Lerner bankrolled O’Neill but then refused to carry on. We were on the cusp, and if O’Neill had been braver in the transfer market and bought a decent striker (Harewood and Heskey FFS) and a playmaker we would have been top 4 with all the benefits that brings. He spent £30M on centre halfs and £7.5M on strikers – go figure.
It’s just a tale of missed opportunity. Ultimately, if you get the wrong manager and fund his transfers, or get the right manager but don’t fund him, you get what we have got. Failure.
Your point about Villa’s long history of poor investment at the wrong time is well made DS. Di Matteo also has to take some of the blame for spending the majority of Xia’s money (parachute payments) unwisely and we’re still paying for that alongside players like Micah Richards who we might as well be awarded a life membership!
MON (how come his name still comes up!) has a history of leaving clubs in years of turmoil – must be a special gift he has!
In fairness, Hitch, one of the biggest criticisms of Bruce is that he leaves clubs in trouble too.
Hence I’m not so sure we can say he’s blameless.
Not arguing he’s blameless Badger but neither is he totally to blame.
MON comment was meant to be tounge in cheek to some extent.
Oh, agreed Hitch.
He’s only the manager and can be overruled.
But he must have been advising Xia, I’d have thought.
Certainly Xia seems to have faith in Bruce, although I expect that will prove to be rubbish too.
If we aren’t doing well, Xia will get rid as soon as it’s financially prudent, imo.
I’m sure I read yesterday that Bournemouth broke FPP the season they got promoted and recently got fined for it.
I suspect you’re right DS, he doesn’t have the money.
Maybe that’s why he wants the investment?
You’re right Badger – they got fined £4.7m if memory serves correct. They deliberately ignored FFP according to the report I read.
It’s ironic – increasing a clubs losses by fining them when their losses are already too great! Or maybe FFP fines are excluded from the calculations – just to add to the absurdity of it all.
What really annoys me is that Grealish may not want to go anywhere. He is contracted to us and that would be reflective in the asking price. But if he asked to leave then we would all be on his case as with Delph, Barry, Downing and all those years ago Yorke to name a few.
Please Xia do not us him a martyr to bail you out of the shit you have bought upon us. I for one will never believe anything he every says again and the sooner you are out of our club the better, your a fraud and can never ever be trusted, you have lost face with every Villa fan so sell and go.
I have heard the interview from Bruce and he has said it as it is, what else can he say apart from what we all know. He has at least has had the bollocks to sit in front camera unlike Xia who just’s write’s an open letter.
In fairness Rocky, if Xia did an interview, he’d never come across well and would be prone to saying the wrong thing, given his limited English.
But, yes I’m beginning to totally distrust him too, as much as I’m hoping he can still pull something out of the bag.
It’s just a disaster, isn’t it?
The Brum mail have confirmed that McCormack has been excluded from the training camp.
Anyone who thinks he has a hope in hell of playing under Bruce is deluded, imo.
Badger It is a disaster but in all of this he has done himself no favours. He came in and basically said in 5 years we would be up there with the likes of Barcelona when in fact the way he is going we will be down there with the likes of Barnet.
He would have to do something really quickly to save his face and anything negative would be seen as failure by the fans,.He has bought this all on himself in my mind.
Okay I am not switched on in the business world and how these people make their money, but it is apparent he is not what we all thought and hoped he would be after RL but this is now apparent as a few highlighted at the beginning about his true credentials and net worth.
When you hear negative responses when new things happen then you do not always look at the negatives moving forward, but focus on the initial positives.
That seems to be a very fair summation Rocky
Rocky, I can perhaps illuminate you as to how they make money.
He (they?) took the gamble at exactly the right time and got lucky in a market that nearly never falls.
It’s mostly luck (and probably inside info re China) and I’ll bet Xia (or his backers) can bearly believe he’s got this one badly wrong.
This is the part that worries me.
He has no experience of when it goes tits up, particularly when it comes to football.
It doesn’t bode well, imo.
Tell you what, I’d never say to a team before a deciding game , your going he’s going you’d be luck to get them to go 100% in a match. Looking back on that Fulham game it didn’t look right. He’s got players in Portugal training and some are for sale , is that a happy camp I would say not.
Badger Thanks for the insight but surely when you spend £80 million on buying a football club that is for everything including all the clubs assets. The running costs of the club and any outlay to bringing in additional players and staff are covered by the income the club generates from all it’s revenue streams including transfers. But surely the oversight on Xia’s part was that when the money he assured us he had dried up, then all he could hope for was PL Football to bail him out, which was in my mind a stupid thing to have done as this could ultimately cost us big time for years to come. That in my mind is nothing short of plain obvious stupidity and he should be held accountable personally.
Yes we had the players and the infrastructure to get us promotion on paper and we should have done had it not been for some poor tactical decisions on Bruce’s part after the Wolves game in the final run in.
If I am honest I do not miss the PL but what they should have done is managed the whole thing correctly on a financially sound basis had it not happened.
The next few weeks will be very interesting and I just hope that my loyalty along with thousands of others is not going to be another wasted load of money on season tickets and away games because some fool who runs our club cannot be responsible or financial astute enough to own a Great Club.
If he does sort it out and we do end up being sort of a stabilised financially sound club, then I hope it is not with him at the helm as he has burnt his bridges in my mind and there can be no going back as the trust has now gone completely.