The Takeover Thread - Recon Group - NOW WITH NEW POLL

[paul_e]

I really hope we are being sold we need a major overhaul of the whole club we're just drifting aimlessly along, there doesn't seem to be any plan whatsoever.  I think the next few weeks will have a big impact on our future if we aren't being sold I think next season we will go down and that team will not bounce straight back.

You have to be really really bad to go down though

I mean we apparently have the worst squad for 50 years,
we went on a 5 game losing streak right at the end of the season,
we have a clueless manager with bully boy coaches who no one likes,
pay peanuts wages for shit players,
 all are best players have long term injuries
an owner that never comes and doesn't care anymore


Yet still we stay up with games to spare

It makes you wonder how much more we can do to make ourselves any rubbisher to try and get over the line next time

No rubbisher. The thing is we could have been relegated with TSM's total or what we have now. Clubs have been relegated with more points than that. Keep getting less than 40 points and we will be relegated sooner or later.

That last bit just isn't backed up by any evidence, the number of points required to avoid relegation in the last 10 years has been (going backwards): 37, 37, 37, 40, 31, 35, 37, 39, 35, 34 - so 1 season where 40 points were required and 1 more where our total this season under Mcleish would've been too low (and actually we'd probably have survived on goal difference). I suggested around Christmas that 35 points would be enough this season and I'm pretty certain that will prove correct, and with a bit of leeway.

[Big Dick Edwards]

Flirting with relegation every season may be acceptable to fans of clubs like Albion, Sunderland and West Ham but I for one will never be content with Aston Villa accepting such mediocre standards. It's just not acceptable.

[john e]

Flirting with relegation every season may be acceptable to fans of clubs like Albion, Sunderland and West Ham but I for one will never be content with Aston Villa accepting such mediocre standards. It's just not acceptable.

So what areas do you think we need to concentrate on to be even worser than we are now to make it into the bottom 3

[KevinGage]

I think we all know who he got it from too

Morgan Freeman?

[saunders_heroes]

Flirting with relegation every season may be acceptable to fans of clubs like Albion, Sunderland and West Ham but I for one will never be content with Aston Villa accepting such mediocre standards. It's just not acceptable.

Hear hear!

[mike]

I really hope we are being sold we need a major overhaul of the whole club we're just drifting aimlessly along, there doesn't seem to be any plan whatsoever.  I think the next few weeks will have a big impact on our future if we aren't being sold I think next season we will go down and that team will not bounce straight back.

You have to be really really bad to go down though

I mean we apparently have the worst squad for 50 years,
we went on a 5 game losing streak right at the end of the season,
we have a clueless manager with bully boy coaches who no one likes,
pay peanuts wages for shit players,
 all are best players have long term injuries
an owner that never comes and doesn't care anymore


Yet still we stay up with games to spare

It makes you wonder how much more we can do to make ourselves any rubbisher to try and get over the line next time

No rubbisher. The thing is we could have been relegated with TSM's total or what we have now. Clubs have been relegated with more points than that. Keep getting less than 40 points and we will be relegated sooner or later.

That last bit just isn't backed up by any evidence, the number of points required to avoid relegation in the last 10 years has been (going backwards): 37, 37, 37, 40, 31, 35, 37, 39, 35, 34 - so 1 season where 40 points were required and 1 more where our total this season under Mcleish would've been too low (and actually we'd probably have survived on goal difference). I suggested around Christmas that 35 points would be enough this season and I'm pretty certain that will prove correct, and with a bit of leeway.

Well in that case it's been a great season.

[silhillvilla]

Flirting with relegation every season may be acceptable to fans of clubs like Albion, Sunderland and West Ham but I for one will never be content with Aston Villa accepting such mediocre standards. It's just not acceptable.

I don't think anyone is doing it on purpose. A lot of the damage has been self inflicted though via a catalogue of poor decisions on Many fronts . Mostly footballing ones. Some of our non footballing work has been stellar.

[supertom]

The entire bottom 10 have largely been drek this season. We've been among that the whole season. However you'd look at things since the turn of the year and Sunderland and Palace may well be more solid next year on the whole. They've laid foundations to be more solid, and step away from a relegation battle (potentially).
Likewise Stoke will remain solid under Hughes.
Swansea have plenty of quality already in place and have underperformed. There's potential for them to be a top half club, and not dicing with the drop most of the year.

Hull will struggle again I think. Newcastle may struggle without a fresh approach, but have quality in place that should help. West Brom will struggle.

But in terms of the way the league will split, this year there's been a breakaway top 7. A middle group of 2-3, and then the rest have mostly been in the relegation fight for much of the year. I think next season that middle group will be bigger. I think there'll be more clubs safe, who are vying for 8th-12th. I can see the drifters being a bottom 6-7, as opposed to 9-10.

What we really don't want is to be part of the relegation scrapping group all year. Teams who have been in this grouping for much of the season are looking better now. Others have the talent and finances to improve. We need to be competing, at the very least, in the middle grouping.

We cannot be desperately clawing for points again. We can't expect to pull off results against the bigger clubs as often as we did this season, while middling clubs may improve next year. That we've also struggled against the bottom feeders at times also doesn't bode well. Changes need to happen. If Randy stays we still need a new manager and some squad investment. Benteke won't be back till the end of the year (if that).

[pauliewalnuts]

Flirting with relegation every season may be acceptable to fans of clubs like Albion, Sunderland and West Ham but I for one will never be content with Aston Villa accepting such mediocre standards. It's just not acceptable.

I don't think anyone is doing it on purpose. A lot of the damage has been self inflicted though via a catalogue of poor decisions on Many fronts . Mostly footballing ones. Some of our non footballing work has been stellar.

I agree,

It's nuts to suggest anyone would deliberately want this - not that BDE did suggest that - it is all about incompetence, sadly.

[Eigentor]

Flirting with relegation every season may be acceptable to fans of clubs like Albion, Sunderland and West Ham but I for one will never be content with Aston Villa accepting such mediocre standards. It's just not acceptable.

I doubt that any Villa fan is content with seeing us fighting relegation, but there is no rule saying that only teams like Albion, Sunderland and West Ham should be involved in a relegation battle. Whether we accept it or not, our current team is lower mid-table quality at best. That is the reality.

FWIW, I think that the announcement will be that the club is for sale, but that confirmation about who has bought us will come later, as this seems to be the consensus. I doubt that the new owners will be like Man City's, but hopefully we will see modest investment in more experienced players, which could give our playing side more stability and reduce the risk of relegation. From a financial/business perspective that would make sense: spending money on risk mitigation. However, I don't know if buying a football club makes sense from a financial/business perspective to begin with.

[hilts_coolerking]

I doubt that any Villa fan is content with seeing us fighting relegation, but there is no rule saying that only teams like Albion, Sunderland and West Ham should be involved in a relegation battle. Whether we accept it or not, our current team is lower mid-table quality at best. That is the reality.

There is a rule saying that by and large if you pay low wages then you will get low quality players.  Despite this being acknowledged across the known universe, it's a policy we have stuck to for pretty much three seasons with predictable consequence.

[brian green]

I did not get the Morgan Freeman reference but he did say as Red in The Shawshank Redemption "we gotta get busy living" (as opposed to dying) and that pretty much fits our situation.   We gotta get busy being Aston Villa again.   Not some poor bedraggled, downtrodden, push over, demoralized lost souls in glorious but faded to almost invisible colours.

[London Villan]

Im in the US at the moment and i think that will be the key growth area. Premiership football has more and more coverage here than ever before and with that comes more opportunities to make money as a 'franchise' for the new owners.

[silhillvilla]

Im in the US at the moment and i think that will be the key growth area. Premiership football has more and more coverage here than ever before and with that comes more opportunities to make money as a 'franchise' for the new owners.

Nowhere near the growth potential that China and the Far East offers.
US has it's own core sports which will always dwarf "soccer"

[kippaxvilla2]

The inspirational, motivational Sir Graham Taylor is being guarded but knows I think.