Paul Faulkner interview.

[Mortimer82]

Clueless, the chairman and him. But they will keep spinning the same line and people will suck it up.

[Dribbler]

15 minutes of corporate platitudes.

[lukey27]

I'll never get that 14 minutes back again.

He sounds like a politician, pretty much said nothing but tellingly said January wasn't a good time to do business and that he knew the FA Cup means a lot to Villa fans.

The only question he brushed over was the one about how Villa were financially, "Yeah good. Positive....". Thanks for that you utter no-mark. The game tonight didn't piss me off, this interview did though. He seems utterly clueless.

This would be the time to come out and say, we're backing the manager and actively looking to strengthen. Instead just gobbledygook, fills me with no confidence in the direction the club is going.

[Des Little]

Haven't listened to it and won't bother. He's an idiot.

[ciggiesnbeer]

I notice he got in the opportunity to talk up his involvement in the FA. The only time he sounded excited.

[Mazrim]

Well, he will be popular amongst the other bigwigs in the league. After all, our hospitality is second to none. Nobody leaves Villa Park empty handed.

[newtonsballs]

I've always said that Lerner/Falkner should communicate with us more - after that facile drivel I will never ask again. Stop in your office Paul.

[rob_bridge]

Middle management corporate bullshitter. Not a CEO of a massive football club.

Yep - bout sums it up for me. If he was in charge of Corporate Sales or some such position then I would have less of an issue.

The fact is he will be, as things currently stand, the recruiter of the next manager.

Now does anyone think this no football knowledge buffoon is in anyway qualified for such a role.

[NeilH]

It’s when I listen to stuff like this that I realize just why I am rapidly falling out of love with Aston Villa football club. Don’t get me wrong, she will always have a place in my heart, but if I am honest I just remember her as she used to be; a beautiful vision on a cold winters evening with the roar of an expectant crowd drawing me in.  Sure she was still punching under her weight and could have done better, but there was always that expectation that she wanted to be there and that although she wasn’t, she mattered to other clubs and our management and owner knew that.
Now she’s just another faceless club, ran by faceless executives whose only ambition is to simply to continue to suckle at the teat of the Premier League. She demands my loyalty but is prepared to give me absolutely nothing in return anymore, apart from empty promises around some utopian dream of creating the United class of ’92 on a shoestring budget.

I don’t have a problem with Faulkner, I am sure he is doing a good job, but the problem is that we are a football club and his remit is clearly very off kilter with the remit of us supporters who wish to attend VP and watch our team actually compete. And this is the crux of it all really. When Lerner came we were swept up with the euphoria of it all, supporters groups rejoiced, the battle against Doug was over, we had the owner we always wanted. He cared, he was one of us; the club could be remembered for what we did on the field and not what our octogenarian owner spouted. We had a plan to reach the Holy Grail of the Champs League, the club were taking ever opportunity to listen to fans, to improve our infrastructure and make us happy.

Christ it all seems a bloody long time ago now and it’s the fall from grace, interviews like this and mostly the fact that the owner I truly believed has now lost all interest in us, which is driven why I am falling out of love with my club.

[Clampy]

Caught some of it on the way there last night, i'll have another listen sometime today. I did smile when I heard it was Tom Ross interviewing him. I take it PF is still keeping WM waiting and rightly so.

[KevinGage]

It’s when I listen to stuff like this that I realize just why I am rapidly falling out of love with Aston Villa football club. Don’t get me wrong, she will always have a place in my heart, but if I am honest I just remember her as she used to be; a beautiful vision on a cold winters evening with the roar of an expectant crowd drawing me in.  Sure she was still punching under her weight and could have done better, but there was always that expectation that she wanted to be there and that although she wasn’t, she mattered to other clubs and our management and owner knew that.
Now she’s just another faceless club, ran by faceless executives whose only ambition is to simply to continue to suckle at the teat of the Premier League. She demands my loyalty but is prepared to give me absolutely nothing in return anymore, apart from empty promises around some utopian dream of creating the United class of ’92 on a shoestring budget.

I don’t have a problem with Faulkner, I am sure he is doing a good job, but the problem is that we are a football club and his remit is clearly very off kilter with the remit of us supporters who wish to attend VP and watch our team actually compete. And this is the crux of it all really. When Lerner came we were swept up with the euphoria of it all, supporters groups rejoiced, the battle against Doug was over, we had the owner we always wanted. He cared, he was one of us; the club could be remembered for what we did on the field and not what our octogenarian owner spouted. We had a plan to reach the Holy Grail of the Champs League, the club were taking ever opportunity to listen to fans, to improve our infrastructure and make us happy.

Christ it all seems a bloody long time ago now and it’s the fall from grace, interviews like this and mostly the fact that the owner I truly believed has now lost all interest in us, which is driven why I am falling out of love with my club.

Excellent post.

I've heard it said recently that the Villa job is too big for Paul Lambert, and I wouldn't necessarily disagree.

However I have felt for a while that the same applies to Faulkner and RL too. The expectations at a club such as ours will never just be to survive and exist in the top flight. Maybe RL and Faulkner would have been better off at a club more in tune with their ambition and expectations.  A Bolton, Swindon or Bristol City spring to mind. Rather than the scorn and contempt they increasingly get here, they'd be feted as gods if they delivered Premier League survival to any of that lot.  They could blather on about wage bills and so forth to their hearts content, I'm sure fans of those clubs wouldn't mind.

[Fuse]

After listening I couldnt help think that Faulkner is like a clone of Doug! Even down to talking up his role at the FA, like we give a F'!

[Jimbo]

The club has never been more in need of someone at board level who knows something about football. At the moment, we're running ourselves like a struggling business, not a sporting institution. If it carries on like this, it won't end well.

[Villafirst]

After listening I couldnt help think that Faulkner is like a clone of Doug! Even down to talking up his role at the FA, like we give a F'!

Not quite, Doug would've sacked Lambert long ago especially after the Bradford debacle 12 months ago....

[mattjpa]

If I was offered a choice between our absent no mark of an owner and Vincent Tan I think I would probably choose the latter. Granted Tan is making bad decisions but you dont make an omlette without breaking eggs. He is there every week, living through it with the fans proudly wearing his clubs shirt. He cares a great deal and is successful in other walks of life - Eventually he may get it right and push Cardiff on to the next level. For a start, how did he manage to convince solksjaer to go to Cardiff or Martinez to Everton when tinky-winky and la-laa could not convince them to take over the sleeping giant that is AVFC.

Someone should ask PF why Randy could not be arsed coming back over here when the future king of england came visiting recently. I have no faith in either of them