Goodbye Paul Faulkner.

[Clampy]

Keane is definitely a pork scratching man. Maybe he wasn't overly impressed with Faulkner nibbling away on Quavers and said so.

[supertom]

I reckon what happened is, Roy Keane walked into the Villa and said "I'm having this feckin office ere!" It happened to be Faulkners. Faulkner then confronted Roy, only to be greeted with the following stare:


The resultant emptying of Faulkners bowels and subsequent embarrassment, combined with the fear of further Keano intimidation has left him no choice but to leave.

[supertom]

Keane is definitely a pork scratching man. Maybe he wasn't overly impressed with Faulkner nibbling away on Quavers and said so.

Unquestionably true. I would add that Faulkner probably enjoys the occasional packet of skips too.

[pauliewalnuts]

This is bizarre; 2 more Facebook updates from Delph in the last hour. Firstly;

"The news has been revealed, fresh start?"

Followed by,

"Villa fans, I can't sign a contract if I haven't been offered one, hopefully now this means I can put pen to paper."

He's obviously insinuating that it was Faulkner not offering him a new contract....!! utterly, utterly bizarre.

That's assuming the Delph page is real.

Which I strongly doubt.

I'm fairly sure it's him. He's constantly putting videos of himself up. If it's not him, it's someone with access to that kind of stuff.

They're simply lifted from this personal trainer's Instagram account:
http://instagram.com/jamie_velocity

Dear oh dear.

What?!

Dear oh dear, if the facebook update is really him, then that's disappointing.

[RussellC]

Which facebook page is it suppose to be? The only official looking one has got a black and white photo of him in training and there's no posts on there from him, just people saying thank you being added.

That's the one Clampy. Keep scrolling down and you'll see his own status updates, some from today. It all looks real to me, but I could be being gullible! Certainly it seems fairly pointless to set up a fake account just to post what are (usually) very mundane updates.

[pauliewalnuts]

Which facebook page is it suppose to be? The only official looking one has got a black and white photo of him in training and there's no posts on there from him, just people saying thank you being added.

That's the one Clampy. Keep scrolling down and you'll see his own status updates, some from today. It all looks real to me, but I could be being gullible! Certainly it seems fairly pointless to set up a fake account just to post what are (usually) very mundane updates.

I can't see any updates on there from him.

[john e]

After reading the thread I can't make my mind up if he's done a good or bad job, I find myself agreeing with everyone especially if they put a good case forward whether positive or negative

I do know one thing though, and that is i rock in my old armchair and laugh my bollocks off every time I read that ' he's not a football man' nonsense' that's trotted out every time Faulkener is discussed
Unless your an ex player no one starts out a 'football man' you become one through experience working within football, how long does it take to lose the tag, how any years ?

Is Richard Branson a plane or train man I wonder,
Faulkener might well have made mistakes through lack of experience chiefly the Mcliesh one, but he's not the only one, doug made a few and he was mr Aston Villa don't you know, a proper football man

What made David Dean a football man ?
Probably a load of years doing the job, well Faulkener has a few under his belt now, not saying he is any good at the job like I say I don't know how I judge him, but to keep warbling on about how he doesn't understandy football is jumping on the band wagon of say it enough times and it becomes a fact

He probably has a good understanding by now of the workings of a football club and of football people to be accepted as one of them, whether his judgments and decisions are good ones is another matter entirely

[Ger Regan]

Hmm, the only thing making me think it is him is that he's been tagged in posts by the official villa page. Can't see any of his statuses though, only others thanking him for the add and some profile picture updates.

[RussellC]

Which facebook page is it suppose to be? The only official looking one has got a black and white photo of him in training and there's no posts on there from him, just people saying thank you being added.

That's the one Clampy. Keep scrolling down and you'll see his own status updates, some from today. It all looks real to me, but I could be being gullible! Certainly it seems fairly pointless to set up a fake account just to post what are (usually) very mundane updates.

I can't see any updates on there from him.

There definitely are. maybe you need to be friends with him to view them.

That said, I'm becoming more sceptical. He got everyone's hopes up last night with his "Good news coming soon" status, knowing that people would assume it was referencing a new contract.

Then again, he obviously had insight to something happening today. Ger - i think anyone can be tagged into those AVFC statuses by anyone else, so i wouldn't read too much into that.

As I said earlier, the whole thing is just bizarre.

[supertom]

Hmm, the only thing making me think it is him is that he's been tagged in posts by the official villa page. Can't see any of his statuses though, only others thanking him for the add and some profile picture updates.

From his actual posts there's nothing that seems iffy and it all seems quite genuine. If it's not him, it's someone close to him posting on his behalf, but I think it's genuine.
Normally on a fake account posts will sometimes start getting progressively sillier as the culprit behind it gets bored keeping up the ruse of normality.

He did post a day or two ago that news was coming, and then we had the announcement today. Could have been a co-incidence but you never know.

[PaulWinch again]

I hope that Delph account isn't genuine.

[RussellC]

After reading the thread I can't make my mind up if he's done a good or bad job, I find myself agreeing with everyone especially if they put a good case forward whether positive or negative

I do know one thing though, and that is i rock in my old armchair and laugh my bollocks off every time I read that ' he's not a football man' nonsense' that's trotted out every time Faulkener is discussed
Unless your an ex player no one starts out a 'football man' you become one through experience working within football, how long does it take to lose the tag, how any years ?

You make a good point, and I suppose you're right in that the only difference between David Dein and Paul Faulkner, in that sense, was the one made good footballing decision, and is therefore deemed to be "a football man" and the other didn't so isn't.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

His comments about things off the field being class seem to be a combination of patting himself (and all the staff involved!) on the back for doing that stuff and a nudge in the direction that on-field issues had very little to do with him and, if they'd been better, his job would have been a bit easier and the club would have been in a better position overall.
When I was helping amfy with the safe-standing stuff he was 100% behind the whole thing and indeed had raised it at the PL CEO's meeting about 3 seasons ago - a pretty brave move for a new boy. Other clubs have since become involved in what was an initiative in the interests of supporters and it was being led in the Prem by Aston Villa. I'm quite proud of him/the club for doing that. Through the safe-standing move I met him twice - he always came across as incredibly supportive, appreciative of what we were doing and prepared to stand up for the cause and shout loudly in favour of it.
IMHO his leaving may well be an indication of an imminent takover but  for me tinged with a little sadness as I thought he was doing a good job with off the field activities.
As john e points out, he's now a much more experienced "football man" than when he joined us. The timing of his announcement is therefore the thing that worries me - more shit for the club to deal with, heaped on top of the massive load we already have. He obviously feels he cannot continue with what RL wants him to do.
I wish him well in the circumstances.
 

[hilts_coolerking]

Once he finished his GCSEs he was always going to move on.

Yeah, nobody under the age of fifty should be allowed to have a decent job.

Which of course is *exactly* what I meant.  Good grief.

[silhillvilla]

People bang on about the best kit deal, the best sponsorship deal. In a time when the PL is at an all time high in terms of TV deals and global exposure. Literally every current PL club can boast they've done the same. I can see very little Faulkner has brought to the club other than 3-4 years of absolute madness, lack of direction, leadership any form of plan or strategy and a series of bungled appointments which has all resulted in 3 years of relegation battles, internal bullying at a high level, senior players ostracised and then reintegrated etc etc. absolute joke.