Sir DOUG RIP

[HK Villan]

Very sad news, and RIP Doug.  As far as old school chairmen went, he was a legend.  He probably should have sold out and moved aside earlier, but many a time I have looked back since then with fondness to his days as chairman and the stability we had in those days.

As many others have said, I have huge respect for how he continued to travel up and down the country to follow the team well into his 90s.

Sincere condolences to his family.  One hell of a good innings.

[Tayls_7]

Sad news.  Condolences to Mr.Ellis' family.

[PeterWithesShin]

Condolences to his family.

[SoccerHQ]

Very sad news, and RIP Doug.  As far as old school chairmen went, he was a legend.  He probably should have sold out and moved aside earlier, but many a time I have looked back since then with fondness to his days as chairman and the stability we had in those days.

As many others have said, I have huge respect for how he continued to travel up and down the country to follow the team well into his 90s.

Sincere condolences to his family.  One hell of a good innings.

I agree. I know people were massively disappointed by how he went about dismantling our legendary 80s team but at least we bounced back relatively quickly.

If you look back in the 90s we had a superb spell, two 2nd places and constant top 6 finishes and two league cups. Superb managerial appointments in SGT, Big Ron and Brian Little. Also Gregory for a spell.

If people are quick to take out the wrecking ball for his decisions in the 80s they also should praise (through gritted teeth) the many decisions he got right that had us truly as one of the top teams throughout the 90s.

The 2000 cup final was the turning point imo. From then on we were really treading water for many seasons (appointing O'Leary was probably his last role of the dice to get us back to the top) but the decent spending had also stopped. Around that period we had all those mass Ellis out demonstrations so certainly a difficult point in his tenure and he certainly should've sold up there and then.

History will judge his reign more favourably given how the last 10 years have panned out. Since 2008 Lerner and Xia have given textbook case studies of how not to run a football club by ballsing up pretty much all the major decisions. Not quite the path to greatness many of us thought it would be post Ellis.

A divisive figure for sure but even though I never meet him he was a figure who was simply a big part of my life growing up as wierd as that sounds. Feels a little like a death in the family. Let's hope the minute's silence v Swansea is well respected by all.

R.I.P Doug.

[Chris Harte]

RIP Sir Doug.

I actually thought the old bugger was gonna outlive all of us.

[Border villan]

So did Doug

[BlackCountryVilla]

A sad day - part of the club for so many years.

Claret and Blue through and through.

RIP Doug.

[Villa Lew]

Thought Midlands Today and Central both gave excellent tributes to Doug.

Certainly one of the most well known chairman there has been in the football. There will be a big turn out at his funeral, he was well respected in the game.

[BoVillan esq]

Thought Midlands Today and Central both gave excellent tributes to Doug.

Certainly one of the most well known chairman there has been in the football. There will be a big turn out at his funeral, he was well respected in the game.

Agree with this RIP Doug, my dad knew him personally, always used to crack a joke because dad was a nose, 'when you going to come over to supporting a real football club' that kind of stuff. 

[Pvb1968]

Doug passes away as the most powerful owners we have ever had implement the most progressive management structure we've ever had. Weird.
Now is the time to pay respect but it's so sad that the Bartons family memory of the man will not be filled with happiness.

[Fred Crump]

End of an era, goodbye Doug and condolences to your family. RIP

[Hinckley Dave]

RIP Doug. Will always be mixed opinions of him but without doubt he was a character and a Villa man.

[SoccerHQ]

I sincerely hope he is shown full respect, even by his detractors.

Official site states a minutes silence for him on Saturday - I really hope the morons respect it

Whatever any ones views on him he was a gentleman to the end.

He never really came back from the point of losing his son Peter

RIP Herbert

Interesting. Didn't know his son had passed end of last year. Is Heidi still alive, she must be on a fair old innings herself if she is.

[PeterWithesShin]

My views on him have been said many times but today isn't a day to go into them again, however this is great timing by the Evening Mail, running a story today with this headline "Sir Doug Ellis on getting death threats from angry Aston Villa fans"

[Legion]

My views on him have been said many times but today isn't a day to go into them again, however this is great timing by the Evening Mail, running a story today with this headline "Sir Doug Ellis on getting death threats from angry Aston Villa fans"

Would you expect anything else from that vile rag?