By the way my nephew sent it to me and he's a card carrying knuckle dragging blue nose.
When Christian Purslow strides to his chief executive’s office at Villa Park, he passes the famous statue of William McGregor, the founder of the Football League, one of the many magnificent reminders of the club’s great history.“We should rejoice that one of our original directors founded professional football in this country but we shouldn’t be drowned by a retrospective look at our history,” Purslow says. “We need to look to the future. A year ago this club was facing extinction. It was bankrupt. It had a £4 million tax bill that it couldn’t pay. The club faced being wiped out.”The story of Villa’s revival is as remarkable off the field as on. Not only are they newly promoted to the Premier League, but they are being re-galvanised with a transformed training set-up, a strengthened, professionalised women’s section and a new mood of optimism.Now 55, Purslow worked at Liverpool in dark times, tackling the chaos of Tom Hicks and George Gillett’s tenure, helped revive Chelsea’s commercial operations, and admits that he’s like “Red Adair”, brought in to put out fires. Villa’s was blazing. He was appointed by the new owners, Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens, on July 18, 2018, to solve the financial difficulties that forced Tony Xia, the Chinese businessman, to sell up.“It is a fantastic institution,” Purslow continues. “Within seconds of arriving here, it consumed me. It’s an emotional reaction. The health of the football club is my life.”He is sitting in the canteen at Villa’s Bodymoor Heath training ground, outlining the strong characters and values driving Villa. His head coach Dean Smith, and the club’s sporting director, Jesús García Pitarch (also known as Suso), join us briefly to chat about the season ahead. What is very clear is how the three operate as a team and, when required, through contact with Sawiris and Edens.“They are about as perfect you could wish for as owners,” Purslow says. “Nassef and Wes rescued Villa by injecting a lot of money to clear all the club’s debts. They are knowledgeable about sport, experienced, patient, and above all else, realistic about what it takes to compete in the Premier League. We’ve just spent £131 million in one summer on completely rebuilding the football club [squad in the transfer window].”The fans are loving it. “We have 7,000 on a wait-list [for season tickets] for the first time in the club’s history. Villa Park is 42,000 capacity and if Villa get properly established in the Premier League, we will have demand to require us to add capacity. There are plans where we can infill.” They would not consider knocking Villa Park down. “No chance! Villa Park is a cathedral to football.”Bodymoor Heath is undergoing changes, particularly with HS2 due to run across some of the old pitches. “We bought a huge amount of wasteland to replace the blighted pitches from HS2, and have taken the opportunity with our new owners to build a state-of-the-art youth training set-up. I hope it will be the pre-eminent academy in English football.”The new owners’ commitment to Villa was seen in a recent, unexpected outlay. When Randy Lerner sold Villa to Xia for £70 million in 2016, the American inserted a clause in the deal that Xia would pay him an additional £30 million should Villa regain their Premier League within three seasons. Should Xia not pay up, the club would be accountable. When Villa were promoted via the play-offs this summer, Xia failed to pay Lerner, so Sawiris and Edens stepped in to settle the monies due.Villa seem in good hands now, and safe hands in goal with the recruitment of the 33-year-old Tom Heaton. “If you look at the 12 [other] players we bought, Tyrone [Mings] was the oldest at 26,” Purslow says. “Our strategy, quite deliberately, is buying young players on sensible wages who, if they prove themselves in the Premier League, will grow their value. Dean and Suso sat down, and said, ‘OK, we’ve achieved all of our outfield targets, it would be good to have an experienced, senior pro who had seen the Premier League.’ Tom was that target. Yes we were buying England’s No 2 but we were buying experience and additional leadership. Everybody we spoke to said, ‘Tom Heaton will be a really good senior pro for you.’ ”Heaton’s professionalism was immediately seen when he excelled in his first appearance for Villa, in the friendly with RB Leipzig. “He’d got a phone call from his partner on the way to the game, saying she was at the vets. Completely out of the blue, their poor dog [had become ill] and the vet was recommending the dog be put down. Tom had to make that decision on the way to his debut. What a professional.”Heaton joins a dressing room stocked with good characters like local boy Jack Grealish. “Jack is the heart and soul and face of our club,” Purslow adds. “He’s kind, generous and incredibly driven. He lit up the Championship. He was unplayable. If we hadn’t been promoted it would have been impossible to keep a player who’d performed at that level. He had a £60 million escape clause. Somebody would probably have invoked it. Jack can be Villa’s Steven Gerrard in terms of importance and impact to his club.”Purslow enthuses about the “fantastic staff” at the club. “We have a really experienced leadership group. The most experienced chief executive in the Premier League in Sharon Barnhurst just completing her 30th year at Villa. I’ve been in football 12 years. Jesús had 20 years as a sporting director at Valencia and Atletico Madrid, 20 years as a professional footballer.“Dean’s steeped in football. He’s seen everything in football. He’s played. He’s coached. He’s put the bibs and cones out. He’s painted the seats in Orient’s stadium. He has a huge amount of earned authority. He’s calm and constant.”The value Purslow particularly admires is being “fearless”. “For players, being fearless in the way they play football,” he adds. “As a club, I want us to be fearless in a way we use football and Villa as a force for good. Bad behaviour that in the street has been illegal for many years is still seen in football stadiums. I promise you we will be fearless in calling out unacceptable behaviour in the stadium. You can hold me to that challenge. We will not tolerate anti-social behaviour.”What about players and dissent? “Players know what these values are. Dean held a workshop with the players in America. It’s about integrity. Dean and John (Terry, his assistant) are hugely influential role models. When Dean and John walk into any public place, they’re swamped. People listen to them, respect them. Dean is worshipped in the Villa side of this city. John is one of the superstars of world football. You are role models, let’s use that positively.“Having the founding father of the game standing outside our stadium when I walk into work shows Villa is a bit special. And it needs to live up to that by living up to some traditional values being lost in modern-day life. I want us to be a bit different as a football club. I want us to shine a light.” McGregor would approve.
Thanks, both!I guess we can put aside the "let's move stadium" debate for now, then. Pleased that they seem to be considering expansion, anyway.Also, pleased that the women are professional, now. Didn't realise that. Hopefully they can get promoted in the near future, now. Also surprised that Lizz didn't add Tom Heaton's dog to the Celebrity Deathwatch Thread...
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