Tony’s Statement.

[pauliewalnuts]

Crikey.

[chrisw1]

Alfititmus where have you been? If I am the new billionaire  owner I can rename the Ticket Office car park as “Olaf’s allotment” and pay £50M a year for it through one of my off shoot concerns somewhere in the world. Billionaires usually have more than a corner shop they look after. Nothing to stop me if that is what I wanted to do.

No there’s nothing to stop you.  But it wouldn’t help FFP as it’s clearly not fair market value for the sponsorship so the funding would be excluded from any FPP calculation

[Mister E]

What I like about this site is the diversity of opinion and presentation style of posters.


I think.

[tomd2103]

Question marks over the Doc’s decisions but he came in, livened things up, loved the club, was desperate to win, ultimately failed but then sold on quickly to extremely rich owners (despite all the stuff about selling a majority share being too humiliating). Plenty worse out there.

Deserves some credit for seeing the error of his ways and arranging a quick sale, but it is now clear that he was only really interested in getting a seat at the big table of the Premier League and that is as far as his plans went.

Something didn't sit right with me after I was told during our first season I the Championship that I couldn't buy a season ticket for the next season at the back of the lower North Stand as work was being done that summer to make it an area for disabled supporters.  Come the new season and nothing had been done at all. 

As I said, I think it is clear that any plans were reliant in us going up and even then I suspect it would have been a case of us just simply surviving while those in charge looked at opportunities around visits from the likes of the Manchester clubs and Liverpool. 

[kipeye]

I believe the main financial motivation is to build infrastructure around the location of a football club. Particularly to Chinese and Middle Eastern investors who want to invest large scale to diversify assets. It is not the Glazier model but is the Man City one. Tony's tactics look very similar and he may well stick around to achieve this. I hope he does and the two new guys get to enjoy the glory and kudos of a successful premier league club.
I can hope - can't I?

[mr underhill]

of course - but it 'll kill ya.

[old man villa fan]

Although I am not saying that Xia didn't add to our financial problems but he inherited a financial time bomb of existing players' contracts. I think this gets forgotten with what has gone on since.

[Toronto Villa]

Although I am not saying that Xia didn't add to our financial problems but he inherited a financial time bomb of existing players' contracts. I think this gets forgotten with what has gone on since.

Agreed. He also provided more than enough resources to get us back up. Hiring RDM was a risk, but not a massive one. He got Albion promoted so even if you dismiss his CL win as coach the promotion record can't be questioned. Bruce was an even safer appointment given his record and Xia trusted him to do the job. I don't clear Xia of fault in all of this but he did do a lot of what we would expect of an owner. He should also be given immense credit for selling a major portion of a Championship club in financial turmoil to two incredibly wealthy men in the space of a few weeks. Something Lerner couldn't do with a PL team for the better part of 2 years.

I believe Xia cares about the club. He's made mistakes, one of which is in trusting Wyness as much as he did and not putting in a proper management infrastructure at the club. But not all he's done has been bad even if it ultimately turned out that way because on the pitch we couldn't get it done.

[Risso]

Although I am not saying that Xia didn't add to our financial problems but he inherited a financial time bomb of existing players' contracts. I think this gets forgotten with what has gone on since.

It's not forgotten, but Xia bought the club, and when you do, you buy all of the assets and liabilities that it has.  He'd have done his due diligence so none of it should have been a surprise.

[Toronto Villa]

Although I am not saying that Xia didn't add to our financial problems but he inherited a financial time bomb of existing players' contracts. I think this gets forgotten with what has gone on since.

It's not forgotten, but Xia bought the club, and when you do, you buy all of the assets and liabilities that it has.  He'd have done his due diligence so none of it should have been a surprise.

That's true so none of it should have been a surprise. But the approach he took was to invest to get us out as opposed to a more conservative approach. Which could have been the way to go. No doubt there was naivety in a number of his decisions along with mistakes.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

He'd also have known back in January the financial impact of not getting promotion.

If we're going to thank anybody for bringing in NSWE I'd start with Vladimir Putin.

[mr underhill]

I'd actually start with the two guys who bought the controlling share.

[adrenachrome]

Alfititmus where have you been? If I am the new billionaire  owner I can rename the Ticket Office car park as “Olaf’s allotment” and pay £50M a year for it through one of my off shoot concerns somewhere in the world. Billionaires usually have more than a corner shop they look after. Nothing to stop me if that is what I wanted to do.

Mr. Aftab, the sky is the limit for you, and I for one am 110% behind your initiatives and ventures.
Control the corners, and you control the trade: see the follow up telly-visi-on program to "The Wire" for evidence.

[olaftab]

Haha...I am going to turn the car park into a million cabbage plots charging customers £100 each per annum. Job done.

[adrenachrome]

Haha...I am going to turn the car park into a million cabbage plots charging customers £100 each per annum. Job done.

Innovative thinking yet again.

This is the NHS hospital strategy writ large.

We shall rip the customers a new one, and laugh all the way to the bank. And claim a subsidy for the green cabbages. Onions and garlic would be good as well, as they ward off mozzies,  vampires and Moss type fungi.