New chairman and Lerner ramblings

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

Stop praising him. At this rate  he is going to write even longer emails!

But it's good😊

Spot on olaf!
Very good indeed and so much common sense!

[tomd2103]

Does anyone know of an organisation that has both a chairman and a CEO? How can a CEO be a CEO when he reports to a chairman?

Whatever Hollis' (and Fox's) capabilities are, we have a structure in place that lends itself to conflict and politics and not to good corporate management.

They are completely different positions in most organisations, and for examples of companies having both I give you:

M&S
British Airways
Arsenal
Easyjet

Etc. In fact I'd be surprised if most big companies didn't have both.

It has been a few years since I retired Risso, and it looks like a certain amount of job title engineering has been going on there.

The 'chairman' of M&S, for example is a non executive director. It begs the question therefore of what exactly he is chairing. I can understand a role that acts as a conduit/sanity check between what the CEO is doing and what significant shareholders are comfortable with. In an age where the cost of failure is a good deal more than profits dipping by a few mil it makes sense.

Getting back to my original post and the Villa, a relatively small organisation with a single shareholder, it is hard to see how a structure with an owner, a chairman and a CEO will work. If Hollis has any job to speak of, Fox loses powers that (presumably) he once held. If on the other hand he is a non exec director, Lerner's man on the spot with peripheral executive powers, he isn't going to be doing much.

Lerner has previous with the Browns for setting up management structures that guarantee conflict. It did not work well.

I agree this type of structure for a business the size of a football club with one shareholder  is meaningless.  A plc Chairman is usually in place to moniter and question the CEO on behalf of the shareholders who are widely spread . Ultimately he can act to remove the CEO but is not involved in the day to day running of the business.

As many have said its just another layer of management .Ultimately Lerner still controls the club.

I may be wrong, but I see this as Lerner finally arriving at his end game of detaching himself from the club.  The club will be run over here, spending what it earns (with a buying fairly cheap and selling for profit policy) and living within it's means.  Meanwhile, Lerner will be totally removed in the US, waiting for a buyer to come along. 

[olaftab]

Yes in my view Lerner has effectively replaced himself with Hollis with budget autonomy to spend earnings as he sees fit.

[ROBBO]

That's how I see it as well, this will be Lerner's last public statement unless of course we start winning a lot of games. He has been a massive failure for this club I wish the new chairman all the best he certainly couldn't do any worse. I hope the lads do the job on Saturday and give him a great start at Villa.

[ciggiesnbeer]

Possibly disrespectful of me but all I could think when reading that news and statement is "yeah yeah, whatever, where are the new signings?"

[richard moore]

No it's an Internet forum it's about opinions.  This is mine.  But if I've done something wrong I'm sure you'll let me know.

I can't see that you've anything wrong, and it's a bit odd that you think you might have.

I just assumed that if you had an opinion you might have reasons for it. If not, that's still perfectly fine, you might just want to question why you hold that opinion.

Okay sorry been a long day.  I was just interpreting the bit about wasting money - depends whether he will conclude whether our summer recruitment policy was a success I suppose.

I don't think you have to justify yourself or say sorry, it's your opinion as you say and I think a very valid one

[Witton Warrior]

"Aston Villa are not afraid of relegation"

Looks like the fight is over in some quarters then...

[brian green]

The cynic in me says Hollis is another layer of armour between Randy Lerner and what happens at the club.  Another pair of hands for the buck to pass through.  So long as he does not obstruct or hinder Remi Garde he can get on with, as another has said, making paper darts.

[Witton Warrior]

The cynic in me says Hollis is another layer of armour between Randy Lerner and what happens at the club.  Another pair of hands for the buck to pass through.  So long as he does not obstruct or hinder Remi Garde he can get on with, as another has said, making paper darts.

Don't think you have to be a cynic to think that Brian - Hollis is here to run the club and Randy will never be heard of again until we are sold when he says goodbye and thanks for the seat at Wembley. I doubt that Randy has any real idea of the feeling towards him from fans at all, possibly a vague sense of threat ;-)

Lean times ahead methinks

[brian green]

Agree WW.  If you examine forensically the recent history of the club for evidence of impending change Paul Lambert left a trail of crumbs to follow.

I shall always believe Lambert was a Lerner arse licker as was his predecessor, and by being so got a completely undeserved contract extension and remained in place for at least a year too long.  He let the cat out of the bag sucking up to Lerner when he claimed credit for lowering the fans' expectations. For me that was the writing on the wall. Financially manageable mediocrity was to be our holy grail.  Glory was for others.

Hollis is to cement in place a policy of not doing anything to frighten the accountants.

[Rioch is King]

"Aston Villa are not afraid of relegation"

Looks like the fight is over in some quarters then...

I read this as a positive comment... like -  knock me down and I'll get back up. Under the circumstances not a bad thing to say at all. But different people read things in different ways. "We're not afraid" sounds OK to me.

[Jimbo]

Aston Villa are not afraid of relegation - all our high salaries and jobs are safe.

[PaulWinch again]

To have a man who genuinely loves Aston Villa join the board would be brilliant. And he walks on water. I hope this is true.

And for me it's like getting a bit of our club back because Brian is there.

And that's why it would be a smart move.

[MarkM]

"Aston Villa are not afraid of relegation"

Looks like the fight is over in some quarters then...

 "We're not afraid" sounds OK to me.

If they are really not afraid, they should be.

[dave shelley]

Maybe not afraid, ashamed yes, but not afraid.