Tom Fox announced as new Villa CEO

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Who is Paddy Reilly?

[Ads]

He was Head of Scouting at the Dipperdome.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Cheers, Ads.

Hopefully Lambert won't be telling him he has £100m to waste, assuming Reilly was in the same role under KKK.

[dekko]

I don't think it'll take much to get us finishing comfortably top half every year.  We don't even have to spend that much, we just need to have some good sense and stability behind the scenes and the rest will take care of itself.

This guy seems to get it, and says all the right things, but obviously that doesnt mean a thing if you can't deliver.  Lets see how he does........

[The Left Side]

I don't think it'll take much to get us finishing comfortably top half every year.  We don't even have to spend that much, we just need to have some good sense and stability behind the scenes and the rest will take care of itself.

This guy seems to get it, and says all the right things, but obviously that doesnt mean a thing if you can't deliver.  Lets see how he does........

Time will tell but can't argue with that.

[dave.woodhall]

He knows what he wants but he isn't making rash promises.

[ez]

I'd like to think finishing top half and challenging for Europe was a condition he insisted on when he joined.

[ciggiesnbeer]

Comes across well. Definitely there seems to be a feel good factor around the club right now. Randy is an odd fellow, from Fox's comments Randy sounds committed and engaged, wants to "have fun again" well fair play Randy.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I'd like to think finishing top half and challenging for Europe was a condition he insisted on when he joined.

If he only picked the team. His job however is to provide the revenue for the manager and make sure that money is bringing in the right return. It's certainly encouraging that he seems to embrace the Villa and his aims are more than realistic and achieveable by a well run club of our size and standing.

[leylandalbion]

Just watched video, encouraging, however look at tickets sold for tomorrow.....early 30k at best....hopefully a late surge!

[Toronto Villa]

Comes across well. Definitely there seems to be a feel good factor around the club right now. Randy is an odd fellow, from Fox's comments Randy sounds committed and engaged, wants to "have fun again" well fair play Randy.

you have to wonder how much the combination of the financial impact of the post MON years plus the deterioration in his personal situation affected him? Maybe he's now through the other side and wants to be a part of things again. It is a weird place to be though. On the one hand wanting to have fun, yet still looking to sell.

[eamonn]

Like the cut of his jib. A bit surprised that he was so open about Randy being enthused "again", when the club would hardly like to admit that he's found owning the club a heavy chore over the past few years.

I wonder if Randy and O'Neill buried the hatchet since. I can't imagine he would let him view training games at Bodymoor otherwise but he always was too nice for his own good, wann'e ?

[ciggiesnbeer]

Comes across well. Definitely there seems to be a feel good factor around the club right now. Randy is an odd fellow, from Fox's comments Randy sounds committed and engaged, wants to "have fun again" well fair play Randy.

you have to wonder how much the combination of the financial impact of the post MON years plus the deterioration in his personal situation affected him? Maybe he's now through the other side and wants to be a part of things again. It is a weird place to be though. On the one hand wanting to have fun, yet still looking to sell.

It is weird. It is possible something happened this summer to re engage Randy. I have no idea what that could be though.

[LTA]

Have to say he impressed me more in the space of 15 minutes than Faulkner did in 4 years.  We should remember though that this role is far broader than the one he had at Arsenal (a club already established in the Champions League and a lot easier to market and sell), so it will be a far bigger challenge for us.  Seems prettu confident though and I think thats a big plus.

[pauliewalnuts]

Just watched video, encouraging, however look at tickets sold for tomorrow.....early 30k at best....hopefully a late surge!

Ultimately, that is his job, and the job of everyone at the club.

Football isn't like it was 40 years ago any more. People will not just rock up week after week regardless. It doesn't cost the same as a packet of fags any more, for starters, it costs a lot of money, and in the meantime, money has infused the game so much, it is the dominant factor.

We know - from experience - that when people have hope, when they think it is going to be fun, they will be more likely to buy tickets. They will also be more likely to buy season tickets, which i think (in the sense of lower sales of Sts) is going to cause us trouble this season.

Ultimately, the club have got to get people to want to go to matches. This season has been a decent start, but we've just shipped six and scored none in our last two matches. In our good start, we managed six or so shots on target across four games.

They're asking people to pay 30 or 40 quid and, in many cases, spend a lot of time travelling to turn up at 5.30 on a Saturday to watch us play a team who will almost certainly take us to the cleaners.

That's the challenge. They've lost a lot of support over the last four years, and, frankly, it isn't surprising, because the last four years have been horrific, especially at home.

In years gone by it wasn't like this, but it wasn't the fans who turned it into something resembling a "business to customer" relationship rather than a special "supporter-club" one, it was the clubs. This is the flip side of those huge ticket prices, of that blanket television coverage.

Good luck, Tom, because you're going to need it.