Fox, Almstadt and Reilly to go?

[Bottom Right 89]

Whether Fox should be singled out as the scapegoat for this season is debatable however the other two are tasked with Player Recruitment and Performance. However you look at it there can be no argument both have spectacularly failed to the point we are an embarassment and if I was the new chairman I'd have booted these two parasites down Trinity Road on my first day. Good riddance.

[aj2k77]

Fox sees him and his team being there next season. The $64,000 question is whether Hollis does.

Fox see's some kind of special plan, the blokes and arse. His judgement must be called in to question with every decision it makes as they appear to be continually wrong. I don't trust the man to get anything right, I think his appointments are tosh, more of the same, boys doing jobs they aren't good at.

Get him gone, let the cull begin asap. Players, management, no one comes out of this fuck up smelling of anything other than manure. Fresh slate, preferably without the chief thicky and culprit Randolph Lerner owning us.

[joe_c]

The only way forward is to rip it up and start again.

I believe that the torpor we are witnessing is symptomatic of deep-rooted problems and therefore fundamental changes have to happen, including offloading dead weight (both on and off the pitch).

Glass of orange juice, anyone?

We can only hope to God that the senior management team at Villa Park are not as dumb as they make out.

[Fred]

Who has leaked this story i wonder?

[dave.woodhall]

Who has leaked this story i wonder?

Depends whether it's true or not.

[Richie]

The only way forward is to rip it up and start again.

Yep.

I don't want to see any of the current squad, French or English,  pull on a Villa shirt ever again. Worst collection of villa players I have ever seen and I wouldn't keep a single one of them if I was running things

I'm with Chico

[Billy Walker]

Of course if one was of a cynical disposition, which I am not, one might think that it was quite convenient this gets leaked to the press just as the heat of fan anger is ramping up, thereby deflecting attention away from The Custodian himself.

I was reading a few American news articles on the net last night (dated from 2009 if anyone fancies a Google search) and it really is astonishing how everything that happened there fits the same pattern as to what is happening at Villa.  It seems, back then, the Cleveland Browns fans were on the point of revolution and protests against Randy, only for him to take the sting out of it all through generating positive media stories and making swift stop-gap appointments. 

From looking at the cases of the Browns and Villa one gets the impression he knows exactly what he is doing:

1) At all times he keeps a distance, acts aloof and maintains the image of being a passionate supporter who is as upset as anyone at (the inevitable) poor on pitch performance.

2) Whilst doing the above, he has a strategy of keeping (and managing) fan expectations low (which in turn means he doesn't have to plough long-term money into his investment).

3) He appoints layers of expendable management to soak up the ire of the fans for the on-pitch failures and to maintain the impression that he has played no part in all the on-pitch woes.

4) He sits back and plays the long game, waiting for the value of his investment to reach a point where he is happy to sell.

[NeilH]

We need to take drastic action, this seasons perfect storm rests on the shoulders of the aforementioned people. If we are to have any chance of restructuring, then they have to fall on their collective swords, as does Garde. All of them are tainted by this nightmare of a season and we need to start off in August with a totally clean slate, if we don’t then we will be cast into the wilderness. My slither of hope right now is that after a long long series of bamboozling appointments, Hollis is the man to take us forward and the review that he and King will do , will be the catalyst for this.

[Pat McMahon]

"The auditors have identified the playing staff as being one of the major issues"

Modern football, right there.

That got me too. Why waste money on auditors when a blind man doing the wall of death on a motorbike could see our playing staff is somewhat sub standard.

[john e]

Of course if one was of a cynical disposition, which I am not, one might think that it was quite convenient this gets leaked to the press just as the heat of fan anger is ramping up, thereby deflecting attention away from The Custodian himself.

I was reading a few American news articles on the net last night (dated from 2009 if anyone fancies a Google search) and it really is astonishing how everything that happened there fits the same pattern as to what is happening at Villa.  It seems, back then, the Cleveland Browns fans were on the point of revolution and protests against Randy, only for him to take the sting out of it all through generating positive media stories and making swift stop-gap appointments. 

From looking at the cases of the Browns and Villa one gets the impression he knows exactly what he is doing:

1) At all times he keeps a distance, acts aloof and maintains the image of being a passionate supporter who is as upset as anyone at (the inevitable) poor on pitch performance.

2) Whilst doing the above, he has a strategy of keeping (and managing) fan expectations low (which in turn means he doesn't have to plough long-term money into his investment).

3) He appoints layers of expendable management to soak up the ire of the fans for the on-pitch failures and to maintain the impression that he has played no part in all the on-pitch woes.

4) He sits back and plays the long game, waiting for the value of his investment to reach a point where he is happy to sell.

Whilst all the time losing somewhere between 200-250 million

It's not a great plan of someone who knows what he's doing is it

[Billy Walker]

Of course if one was of a cynical disposition, which I am not, one might think that it was quite convenient this gets leaked to the press just as the heat of fan anger is ramping up, thereby deflecting attention away from The Custodian himself.

I was reading a few American news articles on the net last night (dated from 2009 if anyone fancies a Google search) and it really is astonishing how everything that happened there fits the same pattern as to what is happening at Villa.  It seems, back then, the Cleveland Browns fans were on the point of revolution and protests against Randy, only for him to take the sting out of it all through generating positive media stories and making swift stop-gap appointments. 

From looking at the cases of the Browns and Villa one gets the impression he knows exactly what he is doing:

1) At all times he keeps a distance, acts aloof and maintains the image of being a passionate supporter who is as upset as anyone at (the inevitable) poor on pitch performance.

2) Whilst doing the above, he has a strategy of keeping (and managing) fan expectations low (which in turn means he doesn't have to plough long-term money into his investment).

3) He appoints layers of expendable management to soak up the ire of the fans for the on-pitch failures and to maintain the impression that he has played no part in all the on-pitch woes.

4) He sits back and plays the long game, waiting for the value of his investment to reach a point where he is happy to sell.

Whilst all the time losing somewhere between 200-250 million

It's not a great plan of someone who knows what he's doing is it

I doubt very much he will lose a quarter of a billion on Villa.  Like I say, I think he will sit back and play the long game.

[supertom]

Fox's line about results not being that important wasn't really the mark of someone you want in the upper echelons of your perennially struggling football club.

[Diablo]

Fox's line about results not being that important wasn't really the mark of someone you want in the upper echelons of your perennially struggling football club.

It wouldn't surprise me if that line went down amazingly in a boardroom meeting prior to that interview. In fact I'd put money on it.

[dave.woodhall]

Of course if one was of a cynical disposition, which I am not, one might think that it was quite convenient this gets leaked to the press just as the heat of fan anger is ramping up, thereby deflecting attention away from The Custodian himself.

I was reading a few American news articles on the net last night (dated from 2009 if anyone fancies a Google search) and it really is astonishing how everything that happened there fits the same pattern as to what is happening at Villa.  It seems, back then, the Cleveland Browns fans were on the point of revolution and protests against Randy, only for him to take the sting out of it all through generating positive media stories and making swift stop-gap appointments. 

From looking at the cases of the Browns and Villa one gets the impression he knows exactly what he is doing:

1) At all times he keeps a distance, acts aloof and maintains the image of being a passionate supporter who is as upset as anyone at (the inevitable) poor on pitch performance.

2) Whilst doing the above, he has a strategy of keeping (and managing) fan expectations low (which in turn means he doesn't have to plough long-term money into his investment).

3) He appoints layers of expendable management to soak up the ire of the fans for the on-pitch failures and to maintain the impression that he has played no part in all the on-pitch woes.

4) He sits back and plays the long game, waiting for the value of his investment to reach a point where he is happy to sell.

1 contradicts itself, 2 is inaccurate as first of all he raised expectations higher than they had been for decades, we're in trouble because he didn't do 3 for way too long and 4 is tenuous at best.

[rob_bridge]

Who has leaked this story i wonder?

Depends whether it's true or not.

Do you have any idea if it likely to be true?