Fox is Gone

[passport1]

I love the way that supporters who have no idea of the inner workings of the club invent their own version of events.

Only one the internet.

[passport1]

On a seperate note look up Jeff Sterlings  take on the Hollis review of our season on Sky. Excellent.

[supertom]

On a seperate note look up Jeff Sterlings  take on the Hollis review of our season on Sky. Excellent.

Saw that. Absolutely spot on. Depressingly so.

[Villa in Denmark]

I love the way that supporters who have no idea of the inner workings of the club invent their own version of events.

Only one the internet.

If that one's aimed at me, the fact is that we went through 3 CEO's in the 4 years O'Neill was here. Fitzgerald, Cunnah and whoever Fitzgerald's predecessor was. That's an appalling rate of attrition that smacks of a power struggle behind the scenes, with one bloke who's a constant the obvious winner.

It's also well documented that O'Neill refuses to countenance anyone other than him having anything to do with or even questioning the management of any footballing matter.

It's also a fact that within a couple of months of Lerner parachuting in his own man, Faulkner, O'Neill was toast.

You join the dots.

I don't know the "inner workings of the club" but I do know what a power struggle between a control freak and someone who just wants to get on with the job looks like when they're both working for the same weak boss.

[dave.woodhall]

I love the way that supporters who have no idea of the inner workings of the club invent their own version of events.

Only one the internet.

If that one's aimed at me, the fact is that we went through 3 CEO's in the 4 years O'Neill was here. Fitzgerald, Cunnah and whoever Fitzgerald's predecessor was. That's an appalling rate of attrition that smacks of a power struggle behind the scenes, with one bloke who's a constant the obvious winner.

It's also well documented that O'Neill refuses to countenance anyone other than him having anything to do with or even questioning the management of any footballing matter.

It's also a fact that within a couple of months of Lerner parachuting in his own man, Faulkner, O'Neill was toast.

You join the dots.

I don't know the "inner workings of the club" but I do know what a power struggle between a control freak and someone who just wants to get on with the job looks like when they're both working for the same weak boss.

There wasn't a CEO before Fitzgerald and I could be wrong, but I don't think Cunnah ever had the role.

[Villa in Denmark]

My mistake then.  Memory not what it was apparently.

I was thinking of Langham as Fitzgerald's predecessor, but he was from the fag end of the Ellis era.
I was sure that Cunnah was reported as taking over from Fitzgerald, but it appears that he was COO acting as CEO, followed by Robin Russel as acting CEO for nearly 2 years before Faulkner stepped up from COO to CEO?

Either way it looks a mess. To go through so many exec's with a good chunk of the time covered by temporary appointments isn't a recipe for success.

[dave.woodhall]

My mistake then.  Memory not what it was apparently.

I was thinking of Langham as Fitzgerald's predecessor, but he was from the fag end of the Ellis era.
I was sure that Cunnah was reported as taking over from Fitzgerald, but it appears that he was COO acting as CEO, followed by Robin Russel as acting CEO for nearly 2 years before Faulkner stepped up from COO to CEO?

Either way it looks a mess. To go through so many exec's with a good chunk of the time covered by temporary appointments isn't a recipe for success.

Robin Russell was only temporary CEO for the few weeks between Faulkner leaving and Fox arriving at the start of last season. Bruce Langham was appointed in 2004 and left in 2005 for family reasons, after which Doug was in sole charge for another year. Fitzgerald started when Randy took over in 2006 until March 2008, then Michael Cunnah who was COO but in reality CEO left a few weeks later. Faulkner then got the job until he resigned in 2014. That's five permanent, one acting and Cunnah, who was somewhere in between, in twelve years.   

[pauliewalnuts]

I've posted this more than once before, but a bloke I worked with for a while was on the board of 32 Red when they were our sponsors. As a result of that, he got into the club, his kids became (and still are) Villa fans.

He was also a close friend of FitzGerald, going back a long way.

He told me in no uncertain terms the reason FitzGerald left was entirely about an internal struggle with MON - basically that MON wasn't having it.

[Steve67]

MON is an arsehole. I have it on good authority from the former Leicester Chairman, who I happened to work with a couple of years ago. Described as a real self centred tossa.