2010 Aston Villa accounts

[Ad@m]

Who would be responsible for negotiating the players' wages?

Is it the manager? CFO? someone else?

The modern approach for that kind of thing to let the CEO do the big deals - just like they would in any kind of £100m turnover business.  Daniel Levy is the most high profile example of this at Spurs - he's more high profile because they're listed and he has shareholders to report to.  It's also the reason why the guy in charge of the team is more often referred to now as the "coach" rather than the manager - it more accurately reflects his role.

That said, MON was very old-fashioned and Randy made a point of saying he let MON run the club as he wanted to, so I suspect he may have had a major involvement in negotiating wages and new player contracts.  I doubt GH has anywhere near as much involvement.

[Ad@m]

Obviously it wouldn't have altered a huge amount as far as this report is concerned - unless they has been on board prior to July.

Only a minor point but these accounts are up to 31 May 2010, not July.  I can't see much would have happened in June or July to make a major difference.

[KevinGage]

Who would be responsible for negotiating the players' wages?

Is it the manager? CFO? someone else?

The modern approach for that kind of thing to let the CEO do the big deals - just like they would in any kind of £100m turnover business.  Daniel Levy is the most high profile example of this at Spurs - he's more high profile because they're listed and he has shareholders to report to.  It's also the reason why the guy in charge of the team is more often referred to now as the "coach" rather than the manager - it more accurately reflects his role.

That said, MON was very old-fashioned and Randy made a point of saying he let MON run the club as he wanted to, so I suspect he may have had a major involvement in negotiating wages and new player contracts.  I doubt GH has anywhere near as much involvement.

The Spurs example is interesting (not interesting in a 'lets compare turnover/ wages/ image rights' stats-fest, but then what is?) in so far as they operated with a DOF for a number of years.

By all accounts that stopped when 'arry was appointed. But the re-signing of Keane and various other deals seem to have been done with Levy very much at the forefront. Perhaps 'arry has the veto if he outright says he doesn't want a player, but he genuinely seemed to be in the dark over their interest in Adam and the rake of other players they bid for on deadline day. Or perhaps he was just being enigmatic, the lovable scamp.

As for player wages for us and who would negotiate them, that would fall under the CEO's remit. But MON called the shots as far as player selection and they backed him to the point where if he targeted a player to sign and told them to 'do what it takes' to get the deal done, they would do so.  Even if (by the looks of it now) they often grossly overpaid on the wages.  They backed his judgement, his knowledge of football and believed that these players would obviously provide good value in the longrun.

If you could fault them for anything, it's not having someone with enough knowledge of the game in the boardroom to say "actually £40K for Luke Young and Habib Beye/£50 K for Steve Sidwell/  £60k+ for Heskey is too much. We can get better value elsewhere."

[Tezmond]

Is interesting that Randy decided to appoint a CEO (Faulkner) late March last year and the first rumour of MoN walking out (coincidently?) surfaced around that time too. I can see MoNs point of view that he will have felt undermined, but the accounts back Randy totally in reigning in the wage costs.

Loss: 37m, includes 12m on transfer activity (spent 30, clawed back 18 - actually better than I thought). Therefore, 25m unsustainable loss, almost same as the previous year.

Income breakdown:
24.3m matchday (including corporate packages)
14.4m commercial
52m media (tv)

Commercial should see a nice windfall from actually having a shirt sponsor now, but thats still ~20m overspend. This equates to 385k / week we'd need to shed off the wage bill or find from other sources to break even (nevermind start to repay the loan notes).

[dave.woodhall]

We truly are now between a rock and a hard place. After investing in a failed attempt to get into the Champions League, we can't sustain the current losses. So do we go further into debt and risk Doing A Leeds, or do we accept that we can't compete at the top level barring a phenomenally good round of transfer dealings and youth development?

[peter w]

As I've said elsewhere I'm not really that worried as i expect a successful businessman who has experience of running a football club, here and in the states, to have a valid business plan to deal with the debt in the short to medium term.

Undoubtedly the losses are not sustainable and we may have a season or two where we can ship out O'Neill's high earners and non starters and recoup some money back from those whilst using the younger players to fill in the gaps.

The team needs some shoring up especially at the back but with Beye and Warnock gone that would be roughly £80 000 of the wage bill. We would still be able to spend a decent amount in wages to an adequate replacement for less than that. That's what the worldwide market is there for, it may be slightly more risky than the homegrown market but as has been said we can't keep paying 40k or so to very average players.

I don't see it as the end of the road but the start of a new approach to our transfers.

[Tezmond]

Definitely an era of Douganomics beckoning, luckily every other club will have to behave the same with the new Uefa rules kicking in. 90m debt is scary, but when you consider that Bolton have roughly the same debt as do Sunderland, this seems "normal" for a prem club.

60% of revenue coming from TV will be the big story in the next 5 years, I can see internet streaming obliterating this income source just like downloads and spotify have decimated the record industry.

[Ad@m]

We truly are now between a rock and a hard place. After investing in a failed attempt to get into the Champions League, we can't sustain the current losses. So do we go further into debt and risk Doing A Leeds, or do we accept that we can't compete at the top level barring a phenomenally good round of transfer dealings and youth development?

Or do we appreciate that short of a Sheik turning up tomorrow, there's no quick fix and we build a sustainable club with the infrastructure to compete in the long term.

Lots of things go in to a successful club - Blues have none of them but won the league cup at the weekend!

The previous approach was unsustainable without Champions League money - we gambled and lost, but thankfully stopped it getting out of hand before it was too late. Now is the time to rebuild with a different philosophy, but it will take time and that's not something football fans tend to allow.

[dave.woodhall]

We truly are now between a rock and a hard place. After investing in a failed attempt to get into the Champions League, we can't sustain the current losses. So do we go further into debt and risk Doing A Leeds, or do we accept that we can't compete at the top level barring a phenomenally good round of transfer dealings and youth development?

Or do we appreciate that short of a Sheik turning up tomorrow, there's no quick fix and we build a sustainable club with the infrastructure to compete in the long term.

Lots of things go in to a successful club - Blues have none of them but won the league cup at the weekend!

The previous approach was unsustainable without Champions League money - we gambled and lost, but thankfully stopped it getting out of hand before it was too late. Now is the time to rebuild with a different philosophy, but it will take time and that's not something football fans tend to allow.

It's what I'm absolutely convinced is the club's strategy now, and behind everything from appointing Gerard onwards.

[Ad@m]

It's what I'm absolutely convinced is the club's strategy now, and behind everything from appointing Gerard onwards.

It's not necessarily a bad thing though.

[dave.woodhall]

It's what I'm absolutely convinced is the club's strategy now, and behind everything from appointing Gerard onwards.

It's not necessarily a bad thing though.

Au contraire, it's the only way a club like ours will ever get proper success.

[KevinGage]

I think the days of effectively buying two whole backlines in three years are (thankfully) long gone. How many of Davies, Luke, Young, Shorey, Cuellar, Warnock, Beye, Dunne and Collins are going to be longterm options for us? Who out of that lot could form part of the bedrock of our backline for years to come? That's the worst part about it all, so much waste.

Davies looked a good bet and should be closer to the type of deal we aim for in the future. It won't always work out (it didn't with him), but he did fit the profile at the time.

Luke Young is underrated and -when fit- is a solid, dependable 7/10 merchant. I like Carlos, but two successive managers haven't rated him enough to play him in his favoured position for any length of time. If he can't keep out either Collins or Dunne after some of the 'mares they've had this year, it might be time to say thanks and goodbye this summer. I'm pretty certain he isn't too happy at being constantly overlooked in favour of that pair either and might welcome a move.

The rest?

[Richie]

The results confirm exactly why Martin and Randy had their falling out. We are fortunate that we have an owner who is prepared to cover the losses and still find the money for Darren Bent.

However, this can't go on indefinitely. Unfortunately, we are not in a position where we can allow Ashley Young to let his contract run out and leave for nothing. In addition, we can't afford a new bumper contract to make him stay either.

The immediate future and success of our club is going to be down to the likes of Marc Albrighton, Ciaran Clarke, Barry Bannan and Nathan Baker and I honestly believe these kids are capable of great things.

But when Man United come knocking on the door with a £20 million offer, we've got to accept that the player will be off.

Sad but true. 

[The Left Side]

This may have been said already but it is amazing to see such losses after such a successful season.

[WikiVilla]

Ash will definitely be gone to the highest bidder come the season end and the likes of Heskey / Dunne will be out the door too

Sink or swim with what weve got + the kids