Paul Faulkner

[rob_bridge]

So, enlighten me. You're right I'm not a mind reader. So what exactly did YOU want him to say?

No you enlighten me, and maybe some others too. Tell us what worthwhile facts we wanted to hear as you suggested. And then tell us what our reaction would have been. You are the one who suggests you know what mine or other's reaction would have been in response to worthwhile facts, which weren't part of the interview?

That is, in between picking arguments with others on here tonight.

You have made a lot of good points over the years but today's are not, IMHO, one of them.

[tomd2103]

Decent bloke.

All good and well, but it would be nice to hear from him once in a while regarding the general vision and direction for the club. 

He tried and some people slaughtered him.

Genuine question TV - when was this and what did he say?  I remember him saying  that they expected to be finishing 6th when we were struggling near the foot of the table under McLeish. 

He gave an interview a while back. If anyone was really expecting juicy insider information then they were kidding themselves. Nobody gives out actual plans or information. It was always going to be quite general in nature. In that position he's hardly going to make any comments that could have actual consequence. Doesn't make great listening or reading for fans, but it's not exclusive to our CEO. As for the slaughtered bit, just look above for sampling of the standard cynicism. If he said anything worthwhile it would have dismissed in much the same way.

I guess so TV and Tom Ross is hardly Jeremy Paxman.  It does annoy me though that Paul Faulkner has been able to remain somewhat in the background over the past couple of years and only surfaced on a few occasions.  I had a quick look through his comments made in the interview you mentioned and there are a number of things he said that he really should have been pressed on, but as you say that probably wasn't the nature of the interview.  It is almost as if noone in the local media really wants to push it and it was telling that when Mat Kendrick made an appeal in the Evening Mail, it was aimed at the fans and not those at the club.

To go back to the original topic regarding his appointment at the FA, I found this part of the aforementioned interview interesting, "We all dream about lifting the cup, I know what it means to Villa fans. 1957 is a long, long time ago. I’m on the FA Cup committee as part of the FA Council so I sort of deal with that on a daily basis".  Would daily basis be a figure of speech or does it mean that not only do we have an absent owner, we also have a CEO who is on FA business on a daily basis? 

[bertlambshank]

The problem is the local press see the club as the door is almost closed.
Make any trouble and it is slammed shut.
It's been like that since MON to by fair.

[tomd2103]

The problem is the local press see the club as the door is almost closed.
Make any trouble and it is slammed shut.
It's been like that since MON to by fair.

It has seemed to me that an "us versus them" attitude has been prevalent amongst the heirarchy at the club, with them deliberately keeping the media and fans in the dark about what is happening at the club (the way the whole McLeish affair was handled was a prime example). 

My main point behind this is that a lot of these issues were present before Paul Lambert arrived at the club and that he should not be the only one getting hammered for the current mess we find ourselves in. 

[aj2k77]

I get the feeling there's and us v them attitude from the management team aswell and they are not taking the criticism well they get from the record breaking bollocks performances we put in.

This isn't hill billy Norwich you ******, we demand higher than what we are seeing at the moment. Shape up or ship out.

[bertlambshank]

The problem is the local press see the club as the door is almost closed.
Make any trouble and it is slammed shut.
It's been like that since MON to by fair.

It has seemed to me that an "us versus them" attitude has been prevalent amongst the heirarchy at the club, with them deliberately keeping the media and fans in the dark about what is happening at the club (the way the whole McLeish affair was handled was a prime example). 

My main point behind this is that a lot of these issues were present before Paul Lambert arrived at the club and that he should not be the only one getting hammered for the current mess we find ourselves in. 

Lack of football experience on the board is still showing it's self up in all aspects of the club.A football man on the board would know you have to take the local/national press with you.The club does get things right,but the press will always be looking for the bad if they think they can't get access.Cue the bunker mentality the club has had for so long.

[Toronto Villa]

The problem is the local press see the club as the door is almost closed.
Make any trouble and it is slammed shut.
It's been like that since MON to by fair.

It has seemed to me that an "us versus them" attitude has been prevalent amongst the heirarchy at the club, with them deliberately keeping the media and fans in the dark about what is happening at the club (the way the whole McLeish affair was handled was a prime example). 

My main point behind this is that a lot of these issues were present before Paul Lambert arrived at the club and that he should not be the only one getting hammered for the current mess we find ourselves in. 

I certainly think he deserves a fair amount of stick. If you are part of the decision process then you deserve the flak when things don't go well. Likewise he deserves credit for good decisions he has made for the club, but when things go bad those are often overlooked. The board made the choice of manager we as fans wanted, or at least one that was a popular choice. They have backed him within parameters that they set in line with other financial priorities. If it doesn't work out with Lambert then it wasn't because they hired the wrong manager at the time. It's because he hasn't been able to do the job.

[pauliewalnuts]

Since they've been here, we've had one OK season, three good ones, and then four abysmal ones.

In the course of doing that, we've spent hundreds of millions of pounds, to the point that if the money weren't provided by Lerner himself, we'd be doing a Portsmouth by now.

Over that time, we've watched god knows how many players come for that 6-10m bracket, stay, do fuck all, and then leave for nothing or next to nothing.

Despite having spent all that money, we now find ourselves with a squad choc full of really, really mediocre players. Think about it, if we sold them all now, how much would we actually get in? Guzan, Delph, Benteke, Vlaar would fetch some money and have people wanting them, but the rest of them?

Managers come and go, but the upper leadership has been there the whole time. None of us complained and asked them to stop spending, but then again, none of them had the overview of the finances that they had.

The buck stops with them, ultimately. I don't really give a shit if it is Faulkner who is to blame, or if it is Randy, or the other bloke on the board, I honestly do not care, but what I do care about is that over the course of eight years, somehow we seem to have managed to have burned through a huge pile of money, achieved nothing, and arrived largely exactly back where we started - staving off relegation, without any money to spend, and with a manager pretty much nobody wants. I almost said with a piss poor squad, but I am not even sure if this squad is better than the 2006 one.

You can only really judge people like Faulkner or Lerner on results. If you look at the spending, then he provided plenty of it for a few years, you can't deny that, but it is ultimately about where he has taken us as a club, and that is precisely nowhere.

Spending money is fine, but it takes much more than that. Any rich idiot can chuck money senselessly at something. The Man City idiots are extremely rich, and have thrown money at it to mental extents, but even they have done so with at least an idea of where they wanted to go and how they would do it. Writing cheques, if you are rich, is easy. But what about showing some intelligence? Having a plan?

How many of us would have, in 2006, looked into a crystal ball, seen how the next eight years were to pan out, and thought "Yeah, that'd be a pretty good bit of work to have that happen"?

None of us.

[bertlambshank]

Rumour on VT Faulkner is going in the summer to move full time to the FA.
I took one for you all all feel dirty.

[Toronto Villa]

Rumour on VT Faulkner is going in the summer to move full time to the FA.
I took one for you all all feel dirty.

That's very believable. He probably fits that kind of job more than the day to day operations at a football club.

[bertlambshank]

Rumour on VT Faulkner is going in the summer to move full time to the FA.
I took one for you all all feel dirty.

That's very believable. He probably fits that kind of job more than the day to day operations at a football club.

He could do both the FA only work 4 hours a month.

[tomd2103]

Since they've been here, we've had one OK season, three good ones, and then four abysmal ones.

In the course of doing that, we've spent hundreds of millions of pounds, to the point that if the money weren't provided by Lerner himself, we'd be doing a Portsmouth by now.

Over that time, we've watched god knows how many players come for that 6-10m bracket, stay, do fuck all, and then leave for nothing or next to nothing.

Despite having spent all that money, we now find ourselves with a squad choc full of really, really mediocre players. Think about it, if we sold them all now, how much would we actually get in? Guzan, Delph, Benteke, Vlaar would fetch some money and have people wanting them, but the rest of them?

Managers come and go, but the upper leadership has been there the whole time. None of us complained and asked them to stop spending, but then again, none of them had the overview of the finances that they had.

The buck stops with them, ultimately. I don't really give a shit if it is Faulkner who is to blame, or if it is Randy, or the other bloke on the board, I honestly do not care, but what I do care about is that over the course of eight years, somehow we seem to have managed to have burned through a huge pile of money, achieved nothing, and arrived largely exactly back where we started - staving off relegation, without any money to spend, and with a manager pretty much nobody wants. I almost said with a piss poor squad, but I am not even sure if this squad is better than the 2006 one.

You can only really judge people like Faulkner or Lerner on results. If you look at the spending, then he provided plenty of it for a few years, you can't deny that, but it is ultimately about where he has taken us as a club, and that is precisely nowhere.

Spending money is fine, but it takes much more than that. Any rich idiot can chuck money senselessly at something. The Man City idiots are extremely rich, and have thrown money at it to mental extents, but even they have done so with at least an idea of where they wanted to go and how they would do it. Writing cheques, if you are rich, is easy. But what about showing some intelligence? Having a plan?

How many of us would have, in 2006, looked into a crystal ball, seen how the next eight years were to pan out, and thought "Yeah, that'd be a pretty good bit of work to have that happen"?

None of us.

It is telling that a basic internet search of "Randy Lerner Cleveland Browns" will bring up pages and pages of similar sentiments to those expressed above.  It can't be coincidence, the situation described is almost identical just with a different team name.  I don't condone personal attacks on Randy Lerner, Paul Faulkner or Paul Lambert, I just wish they would provide some clarity and honesty - both with us as fans and probably with themselves.   

[tomd2103]

Rumour on VT Faulkner is going in the summer to move full time to the FA.
I took one for you all all feel dirty.

That's very believable. He probably fits that kind of job more than the day to day operations at a football club.

He could do both the FA only work 4 hours a month.

I was quite surprised (or not) to read that none of the FA board of directors has ever played football professionally. 

[pauliewalnuts]

Rumour on VT Faulkner is going in the summer to move full time to the FA.
I took one for you all all feel dirty.

That's very believable. He probably fits that kind of job more than the day to day operations at a football club.

/opengoal

Yes, I can see how he'd fit the profile for being in the FA top brass, very well.

[bertlambshank]

Rumour on VT Faulkner is going in the summer to move full time to the FA.
I took one for you all all feel dirty.

That's very believable. He probably fits that kind of job more than the day to day operations at a football club.

He could do both the FA only work 4 hours a month.

I was quite surprised (or not) to read that none of the FA board of directors has ever played football professionally. 

Does Faulkner bring the average age of the board down to 87?