Tony's Tweets

[JUAN PABLO]

The Villa engine seems ok for 10 minutes . Its the other 70 minutes which is the problem.

[Dougs Socks]

The Villa engine seems ok for 10 minutes . Its the other 70 minutes which is the problem.

Whomever came up with the phrase, should be sacked on the spot, since it shows a total lack of reality to what has been occurring on the pitch. Its a piss take.

[Nelly]

The first team don't even train/play The Villa Engine, do they? If they do, fuck me, what's the point!

[ChicagoLion]

The Villa engine seems ok for 10 minutes . Its the other 70 minutes which is the problem.

Whomever came up with the phrase, should be sacked on the spot, since it shows a total lack of reality to what has been occurring on the pitch. Its a piss take.

When I saw that interview with him when he came out with that bollocks I knew we were in deep shit.

[TonyD]

I reckon he may have gambled what little he did or didn’t have and is now left hoping it works out as there is nothing left.  Any go getting chairman would have pulled the trigger a long time ago.

[curiousorange]

As Paulie has said many a time, without transparent accounts for Recon we have no idea how much Xia has or does not have. FFP seems to be a convenient fig leaf at the moment - we may have billions in reserve but no permission to spend it. Our owner makes the right noises and has put up a load of cash thus far, and that's more or less all we can go on.

[Whiney MacWhineface]

We don’t know for sure that the owner “has put up a load of cash”. There are the parachute payments and that loan from HSBC.

[Dougs Socks]

We don’t know for sure that the owner “has put up a load of cash”. There are the parachute payments and that loan from HSBC.

Personally, i have always seen him as nothing more than the public face for others. Those others now seeing any investment is high risk, and pulled the plug, leaving tony with a headache. By next xmas, we will have new owners, and the whole sorry process begins again.

[kipeye]

Don't agree with the owner-bashing on here. I like his tweets which strike a good balance between regular business communication and friendliness. I have no reason to criticise him-he seems to be focused and prepared to back up his words. His mistakes so far? Not picking the right manager-which puts him in the same bracket as Lerner. The only good word I have for Doug is that he was very good at spotting a manager and at least Xia seems to be prepared to act. Bruce and RDM looked like reasonably good picks for the short term but like many others I would have preferred Rowett or one of the more energetic managers who will only play gratfers rather than expensive has-beens. Mind you-Terry seems to be an exception here and wouldn't mind seeing him in a caretaker role to the end of the season.
My bet is Bruce goes after Boro-but we'll see.

[pauliewalnuts]

It isn't owner bashing to point out that there is no evidence of him putting any of his own money into the club yet - until we see the accounts - when people say he has.

I am in no way suggesting he is any kind of shyster, I am just pointing out that some people routinely refer to him as munificent when actually, there is no evidence to back that up.

Correspondingly things like HSBC taking a charge on the club are glossed over.

[Damo70]

Don't agree with the owner-bashing on here. I like his tweets which strike a good balance between regular business communication and friendliness. I have no reason to criticise him-he seems to be focused and prepared to back up his words. His mistakes so far? Not picking the right manager-which puts him in the same bracket as Lerner. The only good word I have for Doug is that he was very good at spotting a manager and at least Xia seems to be prepared to act. Bruce and RDM looked like reasonably good picks for the short term but like many others I would have preferred Rowett or one of the more energetic managers who will only play gratfers rather than expensive has-beens. Mind you-Terry seems to be an exception here and wouldn't mind seeing him in a caretaker role to the end of the season.
My bet is Bruce goes after Boro-but we'll see.

I can't speak from personal experience of Doug first time around, but as for being really good at spotting a manager he didn't do too well with Turner, McNeil and Venglos and was lucky SGT, BFR and MON (who he takes took the credit for but I don't think would have joined if it wasn't for the imminent takeover) all wanted the job so much. DOL had one decent season then it all went sour. So I would say his strike rate second time around was three out of seven.

[paul_e]

Don't agree with the owner-bashing on here. I like his tweets which strike a good balance between regular business communication and friendliness. I have no reason to criticise him-he seems to be focused and prepared to back up his words. His mistakes so far? Not picking the right manager-which puts him in the same bracket as Lerner. The only good word I have for Doug is that he was very good at spotting a manager and at least Xia seems to be prepared to act. Bruce and RDM looked like reasonably good picks for the short term but like many others I would have preferred Rowett or one of the more energetic managers who will only play gratfers rather than expensive has-beens. Mind you-Terry seems to be an exception here and wouldn't mind seeing him in a caretaker role to the end of the season.
My bet is Bruce goes after Boro-but we'll see.

I can't speak from personal experience of Doug first time around, but as for being really good at spotting a manager he didn't do too well with Turner, McNeil and Venglos and was lucky SGT, BFR and MON (who he takes took the credit for but I don't think would have joined if it wasn't for the imminent takeover) all wanted the job so much. DOL had one decent season then it all went sour. So I would say his strike rate second time around was three out of seven.

Little?  Gregory?

[dave.woodhall]

Please, no more Ellis debate. Please.

[Chris Jameson]

Something I really don't like about some of these new fangled owner types is when they walk on to the pitch to take the acclaim of the crowd. Well done, you've bought a football club that you have absolutely no previous attachment to no doubt in the hope of raising your or whoevers profile and making some money along the way. Unless of course you're Randy Lerner.

[ChicagoLion]

Jury still out on Xia until Accounts are out.
It would be good to see any explanation of the FFP situation if any one has any thoughts.