Goodbye Paul Faulkner.

[pauliewalnuts]

Why didn't he take this step at the New York meeting when the season ended? 

Perhaps he did and they're just announcing it now?

Possible.

Would the time difference between the two be the sort of notice period somebody in that sort of role be expected to give?

Maybe he agreed to stay on until the players reported back? Although I don't know why.

[Ads]

Occam’s Razor;

Faulkner intimated to Randy in New York that he wanted to move on, from the statement it seems that Randy began to offer varying roles in other ventures, none of which Faulkner wanted to go for. You cannot twist in the wind indefinitely, so he handed in his resignation.

[ozzjim]

Why didn't he take this step at the New York meeting when the season ended? 

Perhaps he did and they're just announcing it now?

Possible.

Would the time difference between the two be the sort of notice period somebody in that sort of role be expected to give?

I would think 3-6 months would be the likely gap. I certainly think it was known during that meeting, and Lambert came back alone didn't he?

[Clampy]

Was he that bad at his job anyway? Apart from the Mcleish appointment (which probably surprised even Mcleish himself) he's not done that much wrong.

[cdbearsfan]

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?

[supertom]

Goodluck to him. He often seemed to be scape goat of sorts but he was just doing the jobs asked of him. It can't have been easy working in his capacity at this club for the last couple of years particularly. It's been a mess.

[RussellC]

Goodluck to him. He often seemed to be scape goat of sorts but he was just doing the jobs asked of him. It can't have been easy working in his capacity at this club for the last couple of years particularly. It's been a mess.

I guess it comes down to how (if at all) accountable he should be for that mess. As many people have said in recent years, the lack of a "football person" has been worrying.

We'll never really know how much influence he had in the big decisions, or how much autonomy he had in terms of signings, players contracts, etc. but the fact remains that whilst he's been employed by the club in a senior executive role during several years of poor performance, on and off the field.

[Brend'Watkins]

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?

Omnishambles is included in the Oxford Dictionary.  I think since 12 months ago or so.

[Clampy]

Goodluck to him. He often seemed to be scape goat of sorts but he was just doing the jobs asked of him. It can't have been easy working in his capacity at this club for the last couple of years particularly. It's been a mess.

I agree mostly. You could argue that during the past couple of years he's been working under the same financial restraints as Lambert. No-one knocked him when he was arranging deals for Milner, Bent and Young.

[AV82EC]

Goodluck to him. He often seemed to be scape goat of sorts but he was just doing the jobs asked of him. It can't have been easy working in his capacity at this club for the last couple of years particularly. It's been a mess.

I guess it comes down to how (if at all) accountable he should be for that mess. As many people have said in recent years, the lack of a "football person" has been worrying.

We'll never really know how much influence he had in the big decisions, or how much autonomy he had in terms of signings, players contracts, etc. but the fact remains that whilst he's been employed by the club in a senior executive role during several years of poor performance, on and off the field.

I'd agree on field but off field he's certainly I think moved things forwards, nowhere near as fast as I'd like but I don't think he can be criticised too much for that.

[RussellC]

Goodluck to him. He often seemed to be scape goat of sorts but he was just doing the jobs asked of him. It can't have been easy working in his capacity at this club for the last couple of years particularly. It's been a mess.

I agree mostly. You could argue that during the past couple of years he's been working under the same financial restraints as Lambert. No-one knocked him when he was arranging deals for Milner, Bent and Young.

Didn't we sign both Milner and Young pre-Faulkner?

[paul_e]

Goodluck to him. He often seemed to be scape goat of sorts but he was just doing the jobs asked of him. It can't have been easy working in his capacity at this club for the last couple of years particularly. It's been a mess.

Exactly, he got the job just at the point where it was obvious we were going to have to go through a big cutback and restructure of the playing squad, that's the job he was appointed to do and, if Robin Russell was honest on the release of the last accounts, it's a job he's largely completed.

I've said before, all the comments I've seen from the club suggest that Lerner views The CEO and Manager as being on the same level, the latter having full executive control of the playing side and the CEO being responsible for everything else.  Everything they've said in interviews comes across this way.

Things like the ongoing relationship with Acorns, the Carbon Neutral status and the various community initiatives all deserve credit that he won't get because the team have performed poorly.

I've always felt the criticism he gets has been unfair, but I understand why he gets it, so for me I wish him well.

[AV82EC]

Goodluck to him. He often seemed to be scape goat of sorts but he was just doing the jobs asked of him. It can't have been easy working in his capacity at this club for the last couple of years particularly. It's been a mess.

Exactly, he got the job just at the point where it was obvious we were going to have to go through a big cutback and restructure of the playing squad, that's the job he was appointed to do and, if Robin Russell was honest on the release of the last accounts, it's a job he's largely completed.

I've said before, all the comments I've seen from the club suggest that Lerner views The CEO and Manager as being on the same level, the latter having full executive control of the playing side and the CEO being responsible for everything else.  Everything they've said in interviews comes across this way.

Things like the ongoing relationship with Acorns, the Carbon Neutral status and the various community initiatives all deserve credit that he won't get because the team have performed poorly.

I've always felt the criticism he gets has been unfair, but I understand why he gets it, so for me I wish him well.

And for me you've summarised there with one sentence why Lerners project was bound for failure, the lack of executive oversight of the Manager other than the owner.  No major gripes with Faulkner, the club is well run off the pitch, turnover still not good enough, the criticism he can be given is being part of an executive team which has failed miserably with on field matters.

[Lee]

Good luck to him. Thought he got undeserved stick on here. Why people think a Chief Executive is likely to be in charge of things like appointing managers and deciding how much transfer money we have to spend I don't know. It's obvious that the Chairman is likely to be making decisions like that. Who'd spend hundreds of millions on a club and not even want to decide who the manager was?

He got us the biggest shirt sponsorship deal in our history, the biggest kit manufacturer deal in our history and generally modernised the presentation of the club... so you can now read all about Villa on our official Chinese website if you want to, for instance.

Hopefully his departure indicates that a deal may be completed at some point before Christmas.

Sorry I disagree, I actually think that he has been very mediocre to say the  least. The Chinese exposure, considering the fortunes of the "EPL" over the last few years, has come very late in the day.

Also "McLeish".

[paul_e]

Goodluck to him. He often seemed to be scape goat of sorts but he was just doing the jobs asked of him. It can't have been easy working in his capacity at this club for the last couple of years particularly. It's been a mess.

I agree mostly. You could argue that during the past couple of years he's been working under the same financial restraints as Lambert. No-one knocked him when he was arranging deals for Milner, Bent and Young.

Didn't we sign both Milner and Young pre-Faulkner?

He officially became CEO at the end of the 09-10 season, he was COO for a couple of years before that.

A change that was, in my opinion, purely so he could put more pressure on mon to clear out the overpaid dross in the squad.  I think that small power shift is what led to mon leaving, basically a guy who mon had used as an assistant in the transfer process was suddenly promoted above him meaning the rules changed.

That's purely speculation on my part but the timings all seemed to fit it being a breakdown of the relationships following the boardroom changes.