The Long Awaited Accounts....

[aj2k77]

I'm still concerned that they're conducting a full review without an experienced football executive on board. Who's going to provide expert opinion that the new plan is any better than the old one ?

An accountant and the former governor of the bank of England. What could go wrong...

[ez]

Still, we've saved a bit from win bonuses.

[MillerBall]

Thanks for some very good quality analysis folks.

Lerner has very sadly appointed some key figures who have not been able to deal with the situations they have found themselves in.

When the Club were signing players and indeed even paying the Tea Lady there must surely have been a Management Accountant responsible for ensuring the details of the full financial commitment we were required to adhere to and this would apply to all services and goods used by the Club other than just the pay bill (there will be huge spend on non pay (maintenance, travel etc). I am not suggesting that nobody was tracking all of this but there must surely have been a weekly projection about how things were going. It is basic accounting to record and project that data, it has to be done to comply with Vat for instance.

The club must have known the importance of recruiting the right players and Admin folks given our Financial situation and still they get it wrong (but I guess that is what the wrong people do by the very nature of their being the wrong person for the role). It seems to be a self perpetuating vortex of incompetence.

I was going to say "never have so few achieved so little with so much" but at the end of the day it must come down to the decision making and managing and Professionalism of the people concerned and as with the playing squad the folks at Board Level would appear to have been as effective as a Gabby in a Premiership game

[old man villa fan]

Part of the problem going back a few years now is not having a continual flow of young players coming through.  We have gone out and bought quite a few squad fillers (at best) that have cost us a fair bit in wages.

[cdward]

At least the relegation clauses written in to the players contracts will kick in and the wages will reduce accordingly............no I'm not holding my breath either.

[Meanwood Villa]

Still, we've saved a bit from win bonuses.

Haha

[ciggiesnbeer]

Still, we've saved a bit from win bonuses.

Nicely done.

[The Edge]

The scary thing is we ditched 2 decent players at say 150k per week and replaced them with 8 or 9 mediocre ones at around 30k each so the wage bill will go up.

Yep that's the kind of genius thinking going on at Villa Park these days.
I got told off for calling them morons earlier!!!

[Matt C]

Well the appointments of Hollis and King make more sense in light of these results.

Has there been any word on who is replacing Russell?

I suppose theres an argument that a CFO isn't required given the respective backgrounds of Hollis & King.

Save the wages...

[fbriai]

I'm still concerned that they're conducting a full review without an experienced football executive on board. Who's going to provide expert opinion that the new plan is any better than the old one ?

I agree. Surely this is where Lerner has fallen down ever since he first walked in the door.

[Witton Warrior]

I'm still concerned that they're conducting a full review without an experienced football executive on board. Who's going to provide expert opinion that the new plan is any better than the old one ?

I agree. Surely this is where Lerner has fallen down ever since he first walked in the door.

The cynic in me wonders if this is a deliberate ploy from all the money-men not to have an "outsider" poking around in their private domain. "You don't need some oik of a footballer who doesn't understand financial considerations ruining things Mr Lerner, goodness me they're hardly better that the fans!"

[cdward]

Heaven forbid, but a Karren Brady is what is needed at Villa. She seems to have full control over aspect of the football club and crucially, monitors the finances very closely. She would run rings around Faulkner and Fox. I'd say she takes no bullshit.

[sickbeggar]

Who is our accountant now? Did he come with the usual letter of recommendation from Man U in the form of a hand written note from the Glazers?

[AVH87]

Bloody hell. Well thats those ground for optimism gone then. More cuts ahead. I have this feeling of sympathy for Lerner. Thats a lot of money he has lost.

If he spent a bit more time running the club he owns and also put a proper structure in place things like commercial income would have risen a lot quicker than the miniscule 6% it has in the last 10 years, meaning he wouldn't be losing big sums like £27 million each year. He deserves zero sympathy.

Giving Lerner sympathy is akin to me buying a house for £150k, leaving it derelict, allowing problems such as damp to build up and then employing people with no experience in the area to fix it, then being surprised when I lose money on it.

The guy has been a disaster for this club and shows no signs of learning from his continual mistakes.

[The Laughing Policeman]

What about the workers?
I was speaking to a club employee during the week who told me that that at the end of the season all of them have to reapply for their jobs, with as far as he can see there being two applicants for the posts that are vacant.
That sounds like a very drastic cuts programme getting on for fifty percent.
Once again it's the people at the coal face that have to pay the cost of mismanagement at the top.