Goodbye Paul Faulkner.

[Legion]

Nice enough bloke, perhaps a bit out of his depth. Heart in the right place and I wish him well for the future.

[bob]

He's been trying to weedle his way into an FA job for years now. He knew we were working towards being in this shit situation ages ago. A man way out of his depth, without the heart to admit it to an ignorant and permissive boss.

Fuck off Faulkner, yer ginger c***.

Nobody goes to work to do a bad job and - even if he were out of depth, and I'm not sure whether he was - if he was poor it was because of his boss.

Ah, sorry. I must have misunderstood the final resting position of THE BUCK.

[Richard E]

He's been trying to weedle his way into an FA job for years now. He knew we were working towards being in this shit situation ages ago. A man way out of his depth, without the heart to admit it to an ignorant and permissive boss.

Fuck off Faulkner, yer ginger c***.

Nobody goes to work to do a bad job and - even if he were out of depth, and I'm not sure whether he was - if he was poor it was because of his boss.

Ah, sorry. I must have misunderstood the final resting position of THE BUCK.

I think you did, the buck stops with Mr Lerner. I think Paul Faulkner has been the least of our problems, he's done a perfectly competent job on the commercial side. If he'd had a director of football alongside him he'd have been fine.

[Legion]

Wouldn't you be tempted to move on from your job if your long term future wasn't guaranteed and a chance to further your career came along?

Yeah, you're right and I don't disagree that PF would be silly not to look after his own interests. I'm just approaching this as a Supporter, and how I see his legacy. For me, he's overseen some of the strangest decisions in the club's recent history (the change of strategy from Houllier to McLeish still baffles me) and whether or not these decisions were made above his head, he was still in the chair and seen to be supporting them.

This is spot on. It's one thing considering the decisions an individual is faced with and agreeing that one might be best for them, but we are Villa fans and we want someone to actually give a shit about Villa. That's what we would do. That's what some clubs have got. And that's what equals success.

Look at Faulkner's spell at Villa. He is 100% in the top 10 biggest knobheads ever to have worked for us.

Name the other 9, giving reasons for each choice including Paul Faulkner.

[bob]

Why didn't he take this step at the New York meeting when the season ended?  Surely the short-term future of the club would have been uppermost in any discussions.  I wonder what has happened to bring about such an about turn?  Smoke and mirrors methinks.

Exactly.

This departure is Faulkner's wish. What evidence is there to make us believe that Lerner would, at this time, decide to instigate Faulkner's departure? Lerner has shown us that he is playing less of a part. That doesn't make me think he'd be keen to have to deal with a CEO leaving.

It seems to me that Faulkner is leaving us at a bad time after making some the most ridiculous decisions that any man who has had to make decisions for us has ever done. The cherry on the icing on the top of the cake.

[bob]

The cherry on the icing on the top of the cake.

That was from the commentary from the season review one year. Did we win 5-2 at White Hart Lane with Regis scoring the last?

Wonderful stuff.

[Damo70]

Nice enough bloke, perhaps a bit out of his depth. Heart in the right place and I wish him well for the future.

That pretty much sums up my feelings. I think we could all come up with ten names of people who probably banked a lot more money in wages from our club without working as hard or caring as much as he did. Professional criticism of his overall performance is one thing but I don't think he deservers personal stick.

[bob]

Wouldn't you be tempted to move on from your job if your long term future wasn't guaranteed and a chance to further your career came along?

Yeah, you're right and I don't disagree that PF would be silly not to look after his own interests. I'm just approaching this as a Supporter, and how I see his legacy. For me, he's overseen some of the strangest decisions in the club's recent history (the change of strategy from Houllier to McLeish still baffles me) and whether or not these decisions were made above his head, he was still in the chair and seen to be supporting them.

This is spot on. It's one thing considering the decisions an individual is faced with and agreeing that one might be best for them, but we are Villa fans and we want someone to actually give a shit about Villa. That's what we would do. That's what some clubs have got. And that's what equals success.

Look at Faulkner's spell at Villa. He is 100% in the top 10 biggest knobheads ever to have worked for us.

Name the other 9, giving reasons for each choice including Paul Faulkner.

haha! I bet you could.

[ciggiesnbeer]

Nice enough bloke, perhaps a bit out of his depth. Heart in the right place and I wish him well for the future.

That pretty much sums up my feelings. I think we could all come up with ten names of people who probably banked a lot more money in wages from our club without working as hard or caring as much as he did. Professional criticism of his overall performance is one thing but I don't think he deservers personal stick.

That is very true.

[Legion]

I'm asking you to.

[bob]

I maybe wrong but I'm beginning to think that the word omnishambles is becoming appropriate to what's happening within the club.

Omnishambles. Is that French for cluster-fuck...?

I take it you're not a "The Thick of It" fan?

Weird that all your comebacks include the titles of sitcoms

[Clampy]

He's been trying to weedle his way into an FA job for years now. He knew we were working towards being in this shit situation ages ago. A man way out of his depth, without the heart to admit it to an ignorant and permissive boss.

Fuck off Faulkner, yer ginger c***.

He's been trying to weedle his way into an FA job for years now. He knew we were working towards being in this shit situation ages ago. A man way out of his depth, without the heart to admit it to an ignorant and permissive boss.

Fuck off Faulkner, yer ginger c***.

That's the kind of unintelligent response you'd sometimes read on the clubs facebook page. Well done for winning dumbest post of the day, you must be proud.

[bob]

It makes me laugh all the shit that Faulkner takes, it must be a modern thing, because I don't remember people pinning the blame of relegation on Steve Stride's head at all.

You have to wonder what the world would have looked like had the internet existed in the mid 80's. Not dismissing the merits of Stride but you'd think he is the answer we are all craving from some people's posts. Like you said he's never given any grief considering we went down.

There's a big difference.

Doug was a megalomanic, it is clear that he was the one making the decisions.

I don't think Randy likes coming out from under the duvet and that Faulkner has had relatively more influence in the two relationships.

[pauliewalnuts]

This:

He's been trying to weedle his way into an FA job for years now.

Doesn't tally with this:

Why didn't he take this step at the New York meeting when the season ended?  Surely the short-term future of the club would have been uppermost in any discussions.  I wonder what has happened to bring about such an about turn?  Smoke and mirrors methinks.

Exactly.

This departure is Faulkner's wish. What evidence is there to make us believe that Lerner would, at this time, decide to instigate Faulkner's departure?

As I'm sure you know, in leaving his Villa position, he automatically loses his FA position.

So, despite you thinking it's all about an FA position for him, you've decided that it was his decision to leave - something which we do not know is true - despite that meaning him losing that FA position you've just been telling us he covets.

[Gareth]

I'm not sure I've heard anything that shows he was a) out of his depth b) perfectly competent or c) the devil incarnate.

Personally I had no dealings with the bloke so am in no position to judge if he was good / bad / indifferent but judging by some of the comments I look forward to reading some of the stories of how he personally wronged a few.

Like everything around our club this summer none of us know (despite what some might have claimed elsewhere) what's going on which is the ultimate frustration.

Wonder if we'll buy someone tomorrow to make it a hat trick of unexpected press releases in 3 days :-)