The Takeover Thread - Recon Group - NOW WITH NEW POLL

[CJ]

I'd be much happier with King and Bernstein instead of Samuelson and Wyness on the board. I still have concerns and there's a slight whiff of money laundering but time will tell I guess

[lovejoy]

I'd be much happier with King and Bernstein instead of Samuelson and Wyness on the board. I still have concerns and there's a slight whiff of money laundering but time will tell I guess

Is it too much of a leap to think it was the involvement of Samuelson and Wyness which made King and Bernstein jump ship in the first place?

[Mostinho II]

I don't mind if we're run by crooks as long as they're good at it. They can launder as much money as they like as long as it pays for decent players who want to play for the club. If Lerner wasn't such an inept businessman you would assume that's what he's been doing for the last decade. You can't waste that much money and not get some in return through the back door, surely?! No, he really did just waste his money.

[Ron Manager]

I'd be much happier with King and Bernstein instead of Samuelson and Wyness on the board. I still have concerns and there's a slight whiff of money laundering but time will tell I guess

Is it too much of a leap to think it was the involvement of Samuelson and Wyness which made King and Bernstein jump ship in the first place?

I wouldn't be at all surprised. I wish either of those two gentlemen would say something about the sale.

[DeKuip]

I'd be much happier with King and Bernstein instead of Samuelson and Wyness on the board. I still have concerns and there's a slight whiff of money laundering but time will tell I guess

It's a crying shame that we briefly had the type of board we've needed for years and are now back to what appears to be a lack of footballing knowledge at the top of the club.
Hopefully my fears will prove to be totally unjustified, but there's not one thing I've heard or read so far that gives me any feeling of trust in the new people.
Don't get me wrong, I am excited by the unknown, but I do have a gut feeling there's stormy waters ahead and when we do eventually reach land again it could well be in another boat's life raft.

[villainjock]

I think it makes sense having Samuelson and banfil on board. As dr T said he would like to buy more football clubs around the world to affiliate with us, so while he is running the mighty AVFC they can do what there good at. Socfin are also involved in sourcing sponsorship and other commercial projects.
Also where the FL say he is able to finance the club for 2 years, I believe that is a minimum requirement to pass the fit/ proper test. It doesn't mean he can only finance it for 2 years.

[Mostinho II]

Richards, Lescott, Gabby and Bacuna - there's a £15-20million write off right there. I don't care how dirty that money is.

[Zouch Villa]

Surely if their intention was one of money laundering, they would have gone for a lower profile business rather than a high profile football club with frequent media attention.  Isn't it more likely they either see an opportunity to turn a quick profit (most achievable via success on the pitch) or it's a rich mans vanity project?

[Mostinho II]

Well I'm happy to pay for the Persil.

[Phil from the upper holte]

''The new Villa vice-chairman is Chris Samuelson, an international financier who has been involved in a failed proposed takeover at fellow Championship club Reading and also an attempted financial injection into Premier League Everton more than a decade ago.''

''Samuelson was instrumental in getting Dr Xia interested in the Villa project.''


These are the bits that worry me when we don't know details of Xia's wealth.

I hope it would be safe to assume that the premier and the football league do and that they are confident that he does have the funds and that Samuelson isn't a crook

[Ads]

Well he's not been convicted of anything, so you can't go around suggesting he is.

What's the problem with Wyness? Seemed a success at Everton. He took flack over the Kirkby plan, but if they'd gone through with it they would have enjoyed 20,000 extra on the gate for the past 7 or 8 years. With all the extra corporate seats too, maybe they wouldn't be lower mid-table shite and would have instead kicked on from their base of 6th/5th.

We appear to.have a good management team, coaching staff of a high calibre and now Xia has the funds to get the blood flow.back again.

[robbo1874]

I think a lot of us and I would include myself in this group, are maybe so used to having the club run by Doug for a long time and subsequently Lerner, that we're naturally wary of very different types of people coming into run the club.

It might go tits up blues-style, but then again it might not. I think a lot of people are pretty happy with RDM and Clarke on the player management side.

Xia obviously seems comfortable dealing with Samuelson,
Wyness and Banfil. Just because they've failed at other clubs, is no guarantee they'll fail here.
The people that end up winning big in business often have failures behind them. I'm prepared to give the benefit of doubt to them. Be nice to get someone like Little or another football person onto the board though. Taylor would be my ideal choice. Let's just wait and see,
We've no other option really.

I do hope it's not left to Samuelson to file the accounts though haha!

When you say they've failed at other clubs, I think that essentially means they have previously acted in their own interests and not those of the  clubs. We are left to hope they don't repeat that.

well that's obviously your interpretation of what I said Nick and not what I actually said. You might well be proved right in your assessment over time.

I'll admit I only know about these characters (including Xia) from what I've read in the last few weeks, but the fact is they are in place now, for better or worse. All we can do as fans is flag our concerns now, give them a chance and see how things pan out.

For me, the most encouraging sign is the recruitment of RDM and SC on the football side. More than happy to see what they can do with 30 mill and a pair of new brooms each.

Realistically we need to get promoted within 2 seasons. And if we do, we have a chance to kick on. If we don't, we could end up being up for sale again at the end of that time frame.

We seem to be in a much better position today than we were 6 weeks ago. Even the most pessimistic people would have to admit that- and I don't necessarily mean that about you personally Nick.

[SheffieldVillain]

I'd be much happier with King and Bernstein instead of Samuelson and Wyness on the board. I still have concerns and there's a slight whiff of money laundering but time will tell I guess

It's a crying shame that we briefly had the type of board we've needed for years and are now back to what appears to be a lack of footballing knowledge at the top of the club.

Are we? Hasn't Wyness done the same role at 2 or 3 other clubs? So similar experience to Bernstein.

[not3bad]

I'd be much happier with King and Bernstein instead of Samuelson and Wyness on the board. I still have concerns and there's a slight whiff of money laundering but time will tell I guess

Is it too much of a leap to think it was the involvement of Samuelson and Wyness which made King and Bernstein jump ship in the first place?

I wouldn't be at all surprised. I wish either of those two gentlemen would say something about the sale.

Good point, I was hoping one of them would have passed comment by now.

[robbo1874]

I'd be much happier with King and Bernstein instead of Samuelson and Wyness on the board. I still have concerns and there's a slight whiff of money laundering but time will tell I guess

Is it too much of a leap to think it was the involvement of Samuelson and Wyness which made King and Bernstein jump ship in the first place?

no not at all, but the reasons for that may not necessarily have been down to the fact that they didn't want to be associated, as your post would appear to imply. Might have just been that Xia wanted his own choices of people to run the club. Also, how many people do you need on the board of a championship club? I fully accept your point though. Guess only time will tell?