Yes, Mr President

[rob_bridge]

Who on earth would want Mervyn King to be Villa's life president - this is the man who presided over the most calamtous financial crisis in this country for 90 years? The ultimate blathering front man for a bunch of thieving bankster scumbags?
Jeeps if a third world despot's action led directly or indirectly to the subtle theft of a huge portion of the nation's wealth by a bunch of financial terrorists would he be held in such esteem?

Therefore if it is a non football person , and outside of SGT I thinks those proposed are impractical, for different reaons.

Therefore I like the  Carl Chinn or Benjamin - and I think they could do it very well.

[rob_bridge]

Mervyn King was instrumental in ripping us off to the tune of at least £1 Trillion pounds of our money in the banking collapse and subsequent bail out/scam. He then supported the Tory Lib coalitions drastic cuts in public services - affecting millions of vulnerable people. Quite a legacy.

Going way off topic and beyond my area of expertise but can you be more specific?  I'm not sure what powers the BoE have other than manipulating interest rates.

They were held down too low for too long - all of this was on his watch. This lead to a house price bubble (not accounted for in the inflation target) and provided ever cheaper ever riskier  ever more wreckless credit which ultimately lead to a huge liquidity and solvency issue with the retail and/or investment banks.

And that is my major angst.

None of the lessons have been learned prior to his departure at the BoE as interest rates continued to be artifically low couple with printing £400bn of free money fuelling more inflation by which stage had become unimportant. This was done to prop up the bankrupted banks, headed by Merv's friends and co and which are ultimately underwritten by the taxpayer partly in the form of huge cuts to public services.

[rob_bridge]

Having considered it there is a blindingly obvious candidate who we are all overlooking.

A man who has only had good things to say about Villa to the best of my knowledge and therefore has a great deal of fondness for the club. I believe he still lives reasonably locally so geography would not be a challenge. He is not currently in full time employment but he is a well liked if not universally respected figure in the game.

TSM!!

[badluckeric(gates)]

Ron Saunders please.

An 80 year old who has had nothing to do with football for 25 years? Much as we love Super Ron I don't think he's the man for the job somehow.

Do you want to bet against him?

[Damo70]

Twenty five years? Surely any association with football ended in 1982.

[not3bad]

On a related note, the mention of Benjamin Zephaniah also got me thinking. Wouldn't it be ace to be the first football club to appoint a poet laureate. Commission someone like Zephaniah to write a collection of Villa poems, perhaps do recitals at the Holte Suite, create poems to mark special occasions (our 140th anniversary, for instance). He's a Villa fan, a proud Brummie, but just as importantly he's a normal working class bloke, one of us. In terms of PR, it would certainly grab headlines, elevate our profile and cement our place as a pioneering club, not just a football club but a cultural institution.

Great choice and Zephaniah would get my vote if he were on the list.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

Judging by his voice alone, Sir Graham wasn't sounding too good on Radio 5 just now.  His voice has considerably weakened, and he now sounds "old".

[Diablo]

On a related note, the mention of Benjamin Zephaniah also got me thinking. Wouldn't it be ace to be the first football club to appoint a poet laureate. Commission someone like Zephaniah to write a collection of Villa poems, perhaps do recitals at the Holte Suite, create poems to mark special occasions (our 140th anniversary, for instance). He's a Villa fan, a proud Brummie, but just as importantly he's a normal working class bloke, one of us. In terms of PR, it would certainly grab headlines, elevate our profile and cement our place as a pioneering club, not just a football club but a cultural institution.

Great choice and Zephaniah would get my vote if he were on the list.

A superb choice (if it wasn't going to be an ex-player or manger) he'd definitely get my vote.

[ktvillan]

I don't buy the former manager as threat to current manager thing.  A retired (and frankly well past it in 2003) manager like SGT acting as a conduit between owners and supporters/media should be no more a threat to Lambert than having Ken McNaught on AVTV is a threat to Ron Vlaar's first team place.  It's a completely different and unconnected role.   Unless Lambert has some severe insecurity and paranoia issues.

[LeeB]

I don't buy the former manager as threat to current manager thing.  A retired (and frankly well past it in 2003) manager like SGT acting as a conduit between owners and supporters/media should be no more a threat to Lambert than having Ken McNaught on AVTV is a threat to Ron Vlaar's first team place.  It's a completely different and unconnected role.   Unless Lambert has some severe insecurity and paranoia issues.

I agree with this.

[Jimbo]

On a related note, the mention of Benjamin Zephaniah also got me thinking. Wouldn't it be ace to be the first football club to appoint a poet laureate. Commission someone like Zephaniah to write a collection of Villa poems, perhaps do recitals at the Holte Suite, create poems to mark special occasions (our 140th anniversary, for instance). He's a Villa fan, a proud Brummie, but just as importantly he's a normal working class bloke, one of us. In terms of PR, it would certainly grab headlines, elevate our profile and cement our place as a pioneering club, not just a football club but a cultural institution.

Great choice and Zephaniah would get my vote if he were on the list.

A superb choice (if it wasn't going to be an ex-player or manger) he'd definitely get my vote.

I'd certainly vote for Zephaniah as club poet laureate rather than club president. I see the roles as being quite different. Appointing a poet laureate would be a first, to my knowledge. It would grab headlines all over the world. It would set us apart as a sporting and cultural institution, one that has a role serving its community beyond the cynical, money obsessed sport of top-flight football. It might even inspire Villa fans to pen their own verses about the club and what it means to them. And other clubs might follow our example. Not only that, but I doubt it would cost too much - a week of Stephen Ireland's salary at the most.

As we've discussed on here in the past, the Villa have a history of being mentioned in prose and poetry, from Larkin to DH Lawrence. We already have an association with literature. It would be brilliant if we could commission a book of 21st century poems to celebrate our 140th anniversary, and Zephaniah would be the obvious choice of poet.

[Brend'Watkins]

Mervyn King for me is the best choice of those proposed.

He speaks fluidly and with authority.  Regardless of what you think of his handling of the bank of England he is still a known and well respected individual who would add more profile to our club and who would represent it well in a presidential role.

[oldtimernow]

Nigel K has just given the Villa one of the best plugs in a non footballing arena.

Last night of the Proms magical performance

Nige for President!!!

[BC54 VFC]

Nigel K has just given the Villa one of the best plugs in a non footballing arena.

Last night of the Proms magical performance

Nige for President!!!

Seconded!

[saunders_heroes]

Nigel K has just given the Villa one of the best plugs in a non footballing arena.

Last night of the Proms magical performance

Nige for President!!!

Seconded!

Ditto!