Takeover rumours

[Dave]

I genuinely couldn't care less, it'd still be Villa Park to me and anyone else interested in football. Just as the NEC is still the NEC not the LG Arena, Bescot Stadium is still Bescot Stadum and so on and so on

You can't change peoples mindset just by sticking a new sign up on an old building and expect people to start calling it something new.

I think you're absolutely right, so with that in mind why would anybody bother paying us £10m in the first place for no benefit to themselves?

[saunders_heroes]

I don't care how much money we're offered, I'd never be comfortable with a Villa Park name change. It would be different if we were to move to a new stadium as they'd be very little emotional attachment to it, but Villa Park is in our hearts and minds and is simply not for sale.

[Dave Cooper please]

I don't care how much money we're offered, I'd never be comfortable with a Villa Park name change. It would be different if we were to move to a new stadium as they'd be very little emotional attachment to it, but Villa Park is in our hearts and minds and is simply not for sale.

You won't have a lot of choice if the owner decides to sell the naming rights. You could whinge, throw a strop, chuck away your season ticket, but it'll still be renamed if that's what Randy decides.

[Salsa Party Animal]

It would be interesting to see what would happens if George Ramsey and William MacGregor come back and see mega money in football and Aston Villa history over last 90 years.

[KevinGage]

How much would it take for us to make a realistic challenge for top 4 again?   £200 million?  £300 million?  Maybe even closer to £500 million, when you factor in wages (we'd need to pay above the going rate to give ourselves a chance of getting the better players to opt for us).

There is a debate to be had if any form of sponsorship/ naming rights came close to those figures.  It would still be a no for me, but I can see why others might go for it.

However, £50 million wouldn't really go very far (as if to illustrate just how mental the game has gone).

it's the equivalent of about two and a half transfer windows for us, taking our business over the past two summers into account.

[eastie]

How much would it take for us to make a realistic challenge for top 4 again?   £200 million?  £300 million?  Maybe even closer to £500 million, when you factor in wages (we'd need to pay above the going rate to give ourselves a chance of getting the better players to opt for us).

There is a debate to be had if any form of sponsorship/ naming rights came close to those figures.  It would still be a no for me, but I can see why others might go for it.

However, £50 million wouldn't really go very far (as if to illustrate just how mental the game has gone).

it's the equivalent of about two and a half transfer windows for us, taking our business over the past two summers into account.

True but the original question did say would you be prepared to go down that route if it meant winning the European cup and premiership title -in which case definately yes.

[danlanza]

All day long

[LeeB]

How much would it take for us to make a realistic challenge for top 4 again?   £200 million?  £300 million?  Maybe even closer to £500 million, when you factor in wages (we'd need to pay above the going rate to give ourselves a chance of getting the better players to opt for us).

There is a debate to be had if any form of sponsorship/ naming rights came close to those figures.  It would still be a no for me, but I can see why others might go for it.

However, £50 million wouldn't really go very far (as if to illustrate just how mental the game has gone).

it's the equivalent of about two and a half transfer windows for us, taking our business over the past two summers into account.

True but the original question did say would you be prepared to go down that route if it meant winning the European cup and premiership title -in which case definately yes.

I see Citehs' success as totally empty. I don't feel envy in the slightest, and I know I'd feel the same if it were us.

[danlanza]

How much would it take for us to make a realistic challenge for top 4 again?   £200 million?  £300 million?  Maybe even closer to £500 million, when you factor in wages (we'd need to pay above the going rate to give ourselves a chance of getting the better players to opt for us).

There is a debate to be had if any form of sponsorship/ naming rights came close to those figures.  It would still be a no for me, but I can see why others might go for it.

However, £50 million wouldn't really go very far (as if to illustrate just how mental the game has gone).

it's the equivalent of about two and a half transfer windows for us, taking our business over the past two summers into account.

True but the original question did say would you be prepared to go down that route if it meant winning the European cup and premiership title -in which case definately yes.

I see Citehs' success as totally empty. I don't feel envy in the slightest, and I know I'd feel the same if it were us.

To get success these days you have to sell yourself to the highest bidder. If we did that we would still have our history behind us. To see Villa competing with the best in Europe again would make me very happy.

[LeeB]

Seeing my club sold as a marketing vehicle for the likes of Mansoor, or a vanity project at the whim of an oligarch, would probably be the end for me.

[pauliewalnuts]

Seeing my club sold as a marketing vehicle for the likes of Mansoor, or a vanity project at the whim of an oligarch, would probably be the end for me.

To be fair to Mansoor, they've actually proved to be pretty good owners. They do decent work in the community in that part of Manchester, and don't seem like a bunch of fly by night shysters.

[dave.woodhall]

The first two paragraphs should act as a warning/reminder of what challenging at the top would entail.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/nov/16/manchester-fc-united-different-world?CMP=twt_gu

[ciggiesnbeer]

Seeing my club sold as a marketing vehicle for the likes of Mansoor, or a vanity project at the whim of an oligarch, would probably be the end for me.

To be fair to Mansoor, they've actually proved to be pretty good owners. They do decent work in the community in that part of Manchester, and don't seem like a bunch of fly by night shysters.

Agreed. Pretty much a model owner to be fair.

For me I am neutral.

If I want pure football not soiled by the sin of money then I can go watch non league.

Every team in the premier league has bought its way there one way or another. If some crass commercialism can help us push on then so be it. Pointing to our history was nice for a few decades, but it is getting all a bit Notts Forest these days.

Time to win things again.

[Dave Cooper please]

The first two paragraphs should act as a warning/reminder of what challenging at the top would entail.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/nov/16/manchester-fc-united-different-world?CMP=twt_gu

I'm sure I'd hate it. Which is why I said earlier that I'm being a bit selfish, because it wouldn't really change my Aston Villa viewing habits, I hardly go to Villa Park anyway, the Premier League and Sky killed my enthusiasm for top flight football years ago. I would just join the queue of gloryhunters scrabbling for Cup final tickets.

The problem I see with wanting to hold onto traditions and not sell the club to the highest bidders is that there are plenty of other clubs that will happily step in, so if we don't do it if a rich Arab decides they want us then they will go and look elsewhere and instead of the mid-table also-rans we are now, we'll find ourselves being overtaken by Southampton, Cardiff, Leicester, Nottingham Forest or whoever these rich bastards decide to buy.
 Some will be fly-by-night shysters and will see clubs ruined but others will stick with it and their clubs will become the second-tier behind Man Utd, Citeh, Chelsea etc. Villa will not only remain also-rans, but we'll be also-rans with ever decreasing chances of finishing even in the top half of the table.

[Ads]

There is little more lamentable in football than walking past the Liverpool Inc Warehouse on the way to Old Trafford. Past the half and half scraf sellers, the plethora of flag sellers, the myriad of accents, to cross past the back of the East Stand by the "Megastore", where I brake my habbits of quintessential English politeness and walk through the foreign tourist and day trippers taking photographs of themselves as if they were outside Big Ben.