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!
The real elephant in the room is what is Xia’s ambition? Because after reading the open letter again I still don’t know what his measurement of success is. To get his money back? To see the club/his investment grow? To be proven a sound businessman?
Either way I have never know a company to be ‘efficient’ and successful when the boss works thousands of miles away and in trusts daily operations to a 29 year old with limited experience. What possibly can go wrong.
DS makes a good point about breaking FFP rules, accept the points deducted and hold on to the best players we have. Biggest problem is that if a premier league club comes knocking then we know they will be gone anyway. So thanks to another inept owner we are literally in quicksand sinking without any hope of getting out. I fell for the refreshing new communicative approach adopted by Xia after Lerner’s silence. Both have one thing in common which is naivety. Both started throwing money at the club expecting greatness in return. Both were obviously badly advised and when the pot was empty they both wanted their money back by selling our best players. The only constant during this time are the fans, particularly the 20,000 plus who have already bought their season tickets in good faith. We might end up with a new owner, manager and players in the near future, but the long suffering fans will still be there. UTV
its not a case of ignore ffp, who is going to pay the club wages every month. the drx has got the money, but he isn’t going to fund villa without a cat in hells chance of a return on his outlay. nevermind the issue of cant get money out of china. he doesn’t want to waste more money on us hes trying to cut his loses not lose more
about mccormack. i don’t rate him as a player. i wouldnt have him in my squad. but the point which is being overlooked. mccormack is currently on the wage bill. we paid over 10 million for him, plus the wages we lost already to him. if we send him to coventry you are resigned to running down his contract like richards.
the manager has to use all resources afforded to him. looking around the villa squad and i can say mccormack would score many from dead ball situations. many more than hourihane who if hes around will be our dead ball expert.
bruce likes a big strong forward and mccormacks gate is only a excuse he doesn’t fancy him as a striker. but if you bring him in out from the cold, he would bring in more bids than if hes frozen out. maybe bruce isn’t good enough to find a position for a 10 million player.
i think the way we create these bomb squads is all down to our own doings. we signed players without any research. swap managers willy nilly, the money has dried up and we look for excuses or ppl to blame, we should look at ourselves.
You miss the point. PSG, Man City, Bournemouth last season and so on. They ignore FFP and pay the fines. The destruction of the team under the current plan consigns us to the Championship for years to come. Where’s the return on investment there? Xia doesn’t have the money. Problems getting it out of China is just a cover. I doubt if it was Xia’s money in the first place (or at least a chunk of it wasn’t).
McCormack issue is just Bruce showing who is boss. Pointless waste of money and of a decent resource. Doesn’t surprise me but then I never thought he was the right appointment anyway so it just confirms my opinion.
Di Matteo was big gamble and a mistake. Bruce was tried and tested, and also a mistake.
ffp aside i am sick of hearing ffp and money stuck in china. its all down to costs of wages and transfers owed all out going money, its far greater than incoming money. xia and his backers won’t cover the mounting debts and existing debts . i read somewhere, we lost money last year with a 30 million parachute. just over the last two months xia has had to beg borrow and steal to pay two months income and debts owed. thats the point, i am not missing and others are. yes we can ignore ffp bulshit, but who is gonna dig deep into their pockets to pay the wages . especially mccormacks who will be brushed aside and we still pay his wages.answer he goes on loan,but because we cast his aside clubs, will say we will take him as long as you pay his wages, as you want him out
doesn’t matter who bought him, we villa made the mistake all this finger pointing is bulshit we are in trouble and pointing fingers or banishing players won’t fix nothing.
look without mentioning ffp or money stuck in china. how will villa pay wages this season. they couldn’t manage this last season with 30 million parachute. explain please how they will managed to pay wages,existing transfer debts taxes and other expenditures without 30 million less income. my maths must not be up to scratch. i won’t ignoring ffp just run more debts and xia can pay them debts hes the owner. bournemonth got a fine of 4 . 5 milion we can pay that with the money tree
i am gonna put my head in the sand sounds great down their
Every time the guardians of football pass these owners of football clubs as fit an proper. We know this is rubbish.
What if?
What if Dr Xia went he’ll for leather? Ignore FFP, pump money into the club and take legal action against any point deduction ( accept the fine – Bournemouth president demonstrates a toothlessness structure). Could this work?
I accept there are limiting factors, such as SB consistently playing attacking football! But to keep hold of Grealish, Chester, Green, Davis etc. I’d value your thoughts.
Sid – the more I read, the more I think Nath is right and that FFP is a convenient cover for the fact that we are broke and Xia has no more money whatever the source. Simply put, sell players or file for administration – outcome of the latter action – fire sale players and 12 point deduction and (maybe) new owners. So, whatever happens we are going to sell players.
Nath is also right in that we find ourselves in this position because of years of mismanagement overspending and useless owners – it’s a perfect storm. He’s wrong though in saying we shouldn’t hold individuals to blame for their part in all this including people like Tom Fox and the moneyball guy whose name evades me.
I suspect it’s going to be a long and difficult season and what concerns me most is the risk of infighting between the fans which will add to difficulties on the pitch.
UTV
And that is why I say Nath is wrong. He says Xia has the money. It’s obvious that he hasn’t.
On that point I agree DS.
Didn’t Xia transfer money into a British bank for investment when he first came over? Maybe I’m imagining that happened or maybe he did and he has spent it all. I think he has money but it’s all tied up in China IMO.
There was, allegedly, a £400m bank draft deposited in a UK bank. OLL has never believed that and neither do I.
Whenever I read the posts on this site I am amazed how many of you guys really know so much about the workings both from a Business point of view but also the in’s outs of the way these things work at our club. That is a compliment by the way.
Surely if genuine supporters like us all seem to know what is going on and the route cause of these issues then wtf are the people we entrust with our club doing when it comes to being advised? Because reading some of the posts it all stems down to the fact that no one at the top has a clue which is my perception.
Good question Rocky.
I think our problems at this time are probably down to Xia most likely ignoring any advice, myself.
It’s probably why Wyness is suing for unfair dismissal.
Thinking about it, it’s probably why Mervyn King left the board so quickly too.
I’m a bit confused and worried by today’s news that Xia is still picking up loans against the club.
Indeed.
The close season is obviously the leanest time for any football club, but the way it’s going, we’re not going to have any assets left to sell.
Very worrying.
But according to Xia’s statement we are ‘bank loan free’
That Rock1 is the problem. Aston Villa have and are behind the times in many ways, we as a club have just poodle along oblivious to all and sundry, Deadly Doug was a glimmer of hope he at least built us a descent ground, from him we have gone backwards, what we have now is a Chinese gambler that’s dropped a gooley. Villa fans beyond any doubt are the best in this country I know because I’ve seen it in black and white being said. Now we have to start all over again because the FA says we have to. and to think we started the bleeding game in the 1800s. ( Marvellous ).
all aston villa fans are suffering from villan grief
their are 5 stages i reached all 5 weeks after the efeat to fulham. i look around all post on different sites and the evidence is all around we are all suffering what stage are you on.
stage 1 denial
stage 2 anger
stage 3 bargaining
stage 4 depression
and finally acceptance
drX does have money and his helpers do. but they are not ploughing any more into villa, both hitch and dvilla make good arguments and i cant give facts to counter them, in fact i agree with both. hitch does seems to be right on the money, excuse the pun.
the part which we differ, does he or doesn’t have money is hard to prove either way. doesn’t help the situation any how. but drx and his backers are investors not supporters. they had a plan to make a killing on selling us and making profit. this mostly relied on promotion.
now they find themselves in a awkward position, they stand to lose their investment,unless they plough more in, or they can sell sell sell everything they can to reduce the running costs and recoup their money slowly. but its better than returning home with a big fat loss on their investment and in shame.
he could easily take out a loan in his own name, but hes isn’t doing that, he is taking loans out on club assets. hes nothing more than a breakers, we will be stripped down to the bone and finally he will be off selling the club for a small lost but he will have made his money some how these chinese always make money for themselves or they will get flogged back home
england time
its coming home home footballs coming home or the players will lol
i take my hat off to this squad. i thought they would be better than past squads, but nothing special. out of groups at best. but some good performances i hoped for. i thought their defence was weak, playing a fullback in the back three and the other two were not the best and experienced. i thought freekicks and corners they would struggle with mostly defending them.
france are a good team and will win WC, but we could reach the final and that would be a special achievement, croatia they have some tidy players but they haven’t preformed so far so we might do this come on lads
Very decent first half.
Will I need to change my mind about Southgate?
I hope so.
Come on England!
Heartbreak hotel – AGAIN
But the team and Southgate did us proud
England had no plan, Croatia moved the ball quicker and found there player’s,
Don’t change your mind Badger we are still in the dark age.
Think that’s a bit harsh Bill. Croatia were the better team – simples with more experience and better players – there’s no disgrace in losing to better opponents. Let’s see where this team is in two years time.
Not in my eyes Hitch, their team are a lot older and they run rings around us. This passing back for the goalkeeper to clear all ended up back at us.no we was poor.
Just have to agree to differ on that one Bill. Of course it was disappointing to lose but remember we had the youngest and least experienced squad in the tournament. As one old timer to another, age and experience can beat youthful exuberance!
england missed out oh so close. they should have won that game, we missed our chances in the first half, croatia were the better team i think overall, it was a nice surprise this world cup i enjoyed it and england being competitive was the nice surprise,
hindsight grealish would have been the finishing touch to this england team. we missed a player who can open up opposition ali i thought was poor all tournament. defence was missing a solid defender, overall thou i am happy
frogs will win 3 1 final
Agreed Nath; we had two gilt edge chances in the first half to take a two goal lead. We didn’t take them and the rest becomes history.
Pointless criticising Southgate or the team given that, before the tournament started, most people thought we’d be lucky to get out of the group stages!
Poor second half and I thought the defence let us down more than anything.
Still, we did ok, but I just have the feeling that that was our best chance in donkey’s years.
Disappointed, but as our local barman just said, we did better than Spain.
To cap it all, we come home tomorrow 🙁
Got to stay and play for third place against Belgium! Never quite could work out why – I suspect neither team really want to play a completely futile game and would rather get back home. Games for 3rd / 4th place are normally sterile bores.
Totally agree Hitch. My wife, who has no interest in football, said “at least they can come home now”. When I explained the 3rd/4th place game she said “what’s the point in that?”. It’s a total waste of time for all of them.
Disappointing way to go out. That game was there for us. Still, exceeded my expectations getting as far as we did so not the time for recriminations.
Gutted deja vu. A missed opportunity definitely. Croatia were on the ropes first half hour. At least England have gained the fans appreciation again and helped taken our minds off the idiots at VP.
Interestingly (well, for me, anyway), England set a new record for the most set piece goals since 1966.
Which is similar to what I see in the game generally.
And is nearly as boring as penalties/kicks in Rugby.
Roll on the time when goals in open play come back into fashion.
Meanwhile, Villa’s new home shirt is probably the worst I’ve ever seen, and being 53 I’ve seen a few, calling it second rate would be kind.
Not worried about the shirt but who’s going to be in it this coming season.
Back to what seems to be the default and dreading the new season.
I’ve just realised, by the time the next the world cup comes I’ll be almost getting a letter from the queen, that might be why I was so pissed off. Hitch, we could have won but I still maintain 3 of our players didn’t turn up on the day, ok I’m cruel ,but even the comments from the panel said the same, why does Tottenham want Grealish? same reason to take the ball on and not side to side, Young, he left the door open time after time, Kane running around ,not his fault never got into the game. Then I know nothing about football, OLL I’ve always thought you know the game what’s your take enlighten me.
Bill, I agree with you on the three players – or was it four? For me Young was a liability but Henderson had a poor game and I’m still not sold on Stirling. The fourth for me is Deli Ali who goes ‘missing’ far too often. What I really didn’t agree with was that we hadn’t moved forward as a team. I think there was ample evidence of a more positive and aggressive approach throughout this tournament. If we can find one or two more gems we’ll have a very decent team.
Hitch, I’m in agreement that ,yes an improvement with Southgate but I just dont like the idea of not dribbling and going forwards, how many times was the ball lost in trying to create openings, how many times was the ball passed back to the goalkeeper, when he kicked it nobody got it, and it went to the opposition, all a waist of time, as for Stirling fast but not part of yesterday’s game in the way we played.42 games 2 goals ?not a player I’d have picked.
Ho, Ho, Ho – no, not the VP guy but me laughing. Off topic but I’ve now heard it all. Fiat workers have gone on strike over Juventas signing Ronaldo. Apparently the same family owns Juventas and Fiat and the union has decided that the decision to buy Ronaldo means reduced investment in the car maker. The world and football in general has truly gone mad!
Shit thats a good idea, we’ll get Land Rover to buy Villa. What possibly go wrong.
LOL – Indian chicken farmers and Blackburn Rovers springs to mind!