Tony's Tweets

[Jimbo]

Maybe it's a Chinese cultural thing (and no, that's not me being racist, it's me referring to the somewhat different political and cultural approach to social media in China).

I think this is an important point. Also, we might do well to bear in mind that 'truth' in the west is a slightly different concept to 'truth' in the east (I say that in a similar non-racist vein to Paulie above).

There are a whole load of cultural, historic even geographical reasons for that, but the west tends to see truth in literal, binary terms, and in the east it is more closely linked with personal relationships and influence. Maybe some of our Far Eastern Villans can shed some light on that?

There's been a lot of talk about the 'post truth' era in the west. The idea that even if something can be proved to be untrue, it doesn't matter as much as the person who says it, and the people he says it to.

Take Trump or ISIS. Both are full of shit, but that doesn't matter as long as there are people who will go along with the narrative. It's the narrative that's important (even if it's a false one), and increasingly it's based on the relationship between the teller and the audience. Truth takes a back seat.

In a way, social media is beginning to change the concept of truth in the west to something closer to the Asian model.

On the Twitter point, as I said before, as long as you avoid racism, sexism, homophobia, religion and politics, and keep your tweets relatively clean, you can say pretty much anything you like. There are so many voices now on social media, the spat someone has today is forgotten tomorrow, a bit like newspapers being tomorrow's chip paper.

When Dr X first appeared, the biggest concern among fans was a lack of transparency. Who was this bloke? Now he's letting everybody know. He's reconnecting us with the club, and building a direct relationship between himself and the fans.

Depending on the success of his actions (and the club), the relationships he builds will be more important than the veracity of his words.

Sorry about these amateur philosophical ruminations on a Saturday morning, but I'm loaded up with cheap Aldi coffee. It's good.

[Axl Rose]

I have to admit to finding the good Dr's tweets a refreshingly candid and unsanitised change from the dull ramblings of his predecessor.  However, I think it has only gone unchallenged because we're a big fish in a small pond being in the Championship. If he were to continue once back in the Prem he would soon find himself in a media shit storm.  Hopefully he'll tone things down a little when it matters.

I'm very much in this boat regarding the Doctor. It's massively interesting to be a Villa fan at the moment compared to the misery of last season.

[London Villan]

I wonder when this will filter to other clubs, (it may be happening already). This direct communication is social media at its best, challenging press speculation, releasing information to fans before anyone else hears and responding directly to questions. Will it last though? I hope so, but I can see him becoming overwhelmed with the mundane responses from fans.

[paul_e]

Or it could just be that we were talking with the club but they were dicking about and rdm said we were happy to keep them as part of the negotiation.

The Bennett thing, I suspect, is that we were close to an agreement with wednesday and agreed to the medical whilst we were still talking but then we had an offer (from Cardiff) where we didn't have to sub his wages so we told them to match it or walk away.  The delay is probably that Bennett wanted to go to Wednesday not Cardiff so there was work to do getting him to sign.

I tend to believe the simplest solution in cases like this and he above is the obvious choice for that.

I did say, "probably paranoid".

Nonetheless, could you supply an example of a player undergoing a medical at BH, at which stage our Chairman/CEO announced, "Deal off, chaps" followed by a pop in in the social media of the day? 

In fact, in the history of transfer activities in the top leagues, how many have broken down at the medical examination where the  reason  is not erm ... medical?

Lescott about 2 weeks ago? Adebayor last summer? The specifics are different but player having a medical and then not going to the club happens every window, sometimes it looks done and then something scuppers it.  Hell go back a bit further didn't we cause Harewood to leave the motorway going to a medical elsewhere to come to us instead?

[Jarpie]

I like the way Xia is handling a lot of the twitter stuff, makes fans feel more involved even if he or the club doesn't take notes from the fans. Commenting on transfers etc comes with a risk but it takes a lot away from the rumour mongers and shitty tabloids, which is (almost) never a bad thing.

Besides, it's just football, and there are more important things to worry about.

[olaftab]

Xia is out of control and one of his underlings needs to have a quiet word. Are we a professional outfit or his personal plaything? Leave the tweeting to morons and trolls. That's what it is designed for.

Agree with most of what you said Lee however two things. There is a big cultural gap and behaviour we expect as norm is not necessarily the same in other cultures. Secondly being a billionaire in his 30s you would expect some brashness.
And oh yes actually we are his personal plaything😊

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Xia up until now has done one thing that is for me the most important thing - he's delivered on everything he's promised. More than that he's delivered everything we were all calling for back in May. That needs to be applauded. He's taken the pressure off RDM/Clarke to leave them to get on with their jobs at the busiest time of year, plus he's made sure, together with them, we've been very astute with transfers and sales to basically rebuild a squad with very little money, £26.5m by my numbers.

Only the most naive among us would not be concerned about the lack of transparency regarding Recon. The contradictions regarding Samuelson's position don't fill me with confidence but I'm more than happy to see he's no longer associated with the club. Jamie Banfill is however a "legal advisor" which is a strange one. I have no worries about Xia going back on his claim that he would be spending one year based in Birmingham to return to China to take care of business there. His job here is almost complete for now so it makes little sense to hang around when he has others that can take care of his plans on a day to day basis.

As for his tweets, they've been both informative and amusing. My favourite, straight out of the School of Beijing Red 4 Lyf was this beauty:

Dr. Tony Xia ‏@Dr_TonyXia Aug 20

Study math harder! Already 6 ins, 2more will be 8! We hope can achieve more. No more moaning!!!

Who'd have thought back in May we'd have had such a busy and fun summer. Yes, he's the complete opposite of Randy Lerner in terms of communication which is still extreme. Whether anybody has the courage to tell him to tone it down a little, I very much doubt, at least not until it backfires. Until then we'll just have to accept we have a rather maverick owner, who despite the little we really know about him, appears to get the job done with little fuss.

[pauliewalnuts]

I hope he turns Twitter notifications off on his phone tonight.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Yup, it will all go Beijing Red but in a bad way.

[jwarry]

Another big talk needs apparently .....

[Rudy Can't Fail]

He's back..

Dr. Tony Xia ‏@Dr_TonyXia 53s54 seconds ago

Shame for the 2nd half! Need BIG talk again!!!

[Brend'Watkins]

He's back..

Dr. Tony Xia ‏@Dr_TonyXia 53s54 seconds ago

Shame for the 2nd half! Need BIG talk again!!!

Shame?!

It's a disgrace.  Forget talk, action is required in the shape of a striker who has pace and a will to win.

[curiousorange]

He's back..

Dr. Tony Xia ‏@Dr_TonyXia 53s54 seconds ago

Shame for the 2nd half! Need BIG talk again!!!

Shame?!

It's a disgrace.  Forget talk, action is required in the shape of a striker who has pace and a will to win.

Depends who the BIG talk is directed towards. If it's Hernandez's agent, then I'm all for it. If it's at Di Matteo, or the players, I suspect it'll be white noise to them.

[Chico Hamilton III]

I hope he's not speaking to the players. He should be nowhere near the dressing room

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I hope he's not speaking to the players. He should be nowhere near the dressing room

He's already given them one Powerpoint presentation that I know of.