The Owners & CEO Thread | Page 24 | Vital Football

The Owners & CEO Thread

45m overdraft is probably just working money for a PL club on an agreed interest rate? It saves them keep doing shares to inject money into the club. I have an agreed overdraft thats not used very often. Not 45m thankfully.
 
Don’t know how some people can question our current owners. It smacks of entitlement - sign a marquee player, invest more of your money, do more for us poor fans.

They have: saved us from bankruptcy; got us promoted; invested hundreds of millions of PL money in players; massively invested in the infrastructure and youth development and probably done more than we know. Purslow warned us that it would take a few years in the PL before we could pay top wages (we’ve had 2). The current pandemic has affected every football team’s finances and yes we sold a player for £100m, but the foundations are being put in place, exciting youth players are breaking through.

The stated aim of the owners is, from memory, competing at the top end of the PL while maintaining a sustainable financial model. That doesn’t mean spending their vast wealth on us and paying for mercenaries.

I’m ecstatic with what we’ve achieved so far, and I’ll accept a short, medium and long term strategy that will attract other serious investors (whenever that time is deemed right by the current owners).

I don’t know if we will ever achieve galactico status, dining out with the so called super clubs, attracting future Messi’s or Ronaldo’s, but most of those clubs are in a financial mess through over extending.

Being a cautious, risk averse person, I prefer our approach. We could be the next Ajax/Leicester and a group of players comes through together and surprises the oil Barrons. To become a global brand takes time, but with HRH onboard, we already have marketing gold dust. We’ll get to the promised land, but we’ll do it on our terms and once we are good and ready :utv:

Can you guess that I’m fed up with all the naysayers and doom mongers?
 
Totally, totally, 100% agree.

I'm enjoying this ride we're on. I hope we never become another "entitled" club. I hope we get to wherever we're going to get to because we have a strategy which is the right sort of strategy, which includes developing young players and giving them the chance, of identifying the right sort of players for us and developing them as well, which doesn't depend throwing money at things just to gain a tiny advantage.

I hope that we get to wherever we get to because we deserve to, not because we're entitled to. And I hope we do it playing football that other fans, not just Villa fans, enjoy watching.
 
The key word is sustainable. We nearly fell off the face of the planet a few years back until our owners came to the rescue.
Can I see us ever spending circa 50m on a player? No. Does that mean us as a club and owners lack ambition? Definitely not.
What we have is an infrastructure that will last us long term, probably the best we've ever had,and will mean that when our owners, or custodians as they've called themselves, move on, as all things do,the club will be in rude health for the next incumbents.
It may not be a smooth ride, with plenty of highs,lows and bumps in the road but we have a long term plan that hopefully we will reap the benefits of in future years.
Patience is key here,but alas,we live in a "I want it now " society. There's been many a castle built on sand but I believe our foundations are solid and we have a club ,from top to bottom, we can be proud of :utv:
 
"Merd" said:
Don’t know how some people can question our current owners. It smacks of entitlement - sign a marquee player, invest more of your money, do more for us poor fans.

They have: saved us from bankruptcy; got us promoted; invested hundreds of millions of PL money in players; massively invested in the infrastructure and youth development and probably done more than we know. Purslow warned us that it would take a few years in the PL before we could pay top wages (we’ve had 2). The current pandemic has affected every football team’s finances and yes we sold a player for £100m, but the foundations are being put in place, exciting youth players are breaking through.

The stated aim of the owners is, from memory, competing at the top end of the PL while maintaining a sustainable financial model. That doesn’t mean spending their vast wealth on us and paying for mercenaries.

I’m ecstatic with what we’ve achieved so far, and I’ll accept a short, medium and long term strategy that will attract other serious investors (whenever that time is deemed right by the current owners).

I don’t know if we will ever achieve galactico status, dining out with the so called super clubs, attracting future Messi’s or Ronaldo’s, but most of those clubs are in a financial mess through over extending.

Being a cautious, risk averse person, I prefer our approach. We could be the next Ajax/Leicester and a group of players comes through together and surprises the oil Barrons. To become a global brand takes time, but with HRH onboard, we already have marketing gold dust. We’ll get to the promised land, but we’ll do it on our terms and once we are good and ready :utv:

Can you guess that I’m fed up with all the naysayers and doom mongers?
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Entitlement ?. What rubbish.
No one is suggesting we have a divine right to sign anyone. Villa fans entitled ? Pissed off with years of mediocrity and false dawns and false promises maybe but there is not one post that I have read that suggests entitlement.

Can‘t believe that anyone is questioning the owners? Why not ?. If we don’t and just blindly nod our heads and go everything is great then we will never improve. Do you think that the successful sky wankfest fans don’t question their owners and the way the club is run. Of course they do.

And I guess it is my post you are referencing when you talk about marquee signing as I was talking about a statement signing . Don’t see how I can’t be grateful for what they have done without suggesting that I would like to see certain things . Why does it have to be black and white. Doesn’t mean if we don’t sign that star player that I will think they are horrendous owners.
And Mercenaries. Eh?.What are you talking about . Who says these sort of signings will all be mercenaries?.

Their words not mine, the players words not mine about big plans, challenging at the top so I have every right to question about how that will be achieved and how long it will take. If where we are now is the ambition then fine as long as we all know. But if the ambition is champions league we have to up our game at some point signing wise is what I am saying. There is a reason why season in season out the same clubs finish top 4. It will not just happen for us by chance .

Entitled my arse. Go back and find my posts when we were in the EFL. Thoroughly enjoyed it, it was where we deserved to be and I had a great time . Didn’t miss the greed league one bit. Proper league.
Also go back and find my posts in this thread and the podcast thread about our previous owner and how lucky we are now. But again doesnt mean questions can’t be asked ongoing does it .
 
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Melon Donkey said:
Can‘t beleive that anyone is questioning the owners? Why not ?. If we don’t and just blindly nod our heads and go everything is great then we will never improve. Do you think that the successful sky wankfest fans don’t question their owners and the way the club is run. Of course they do.
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spot on really.
it's incredible really after decades of failure basically that folk still lap up 5 year plans, hungry young gems, theme parks, challenging for Europe and the various other shite that gets spun without asking questions tbh.
actions not words.

Some folk seem happiest with mediocrity and occasionally being plucky losers.
 
BringbakMON said:
spot on really.
it's incredible really after decades of failure basically that folk still lap up 5 year plans, hungry young gems, theme parks, challenging for Europe and the various other shite that gets spun without asking questions tbh.
actions not words.

Some folk seem happiest with mediocrity and occasionally being plucky losers.
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So what we have now is mediocre? Some of us don't see it that way. Plucky losers? No way; smashing Liverpool 7-2 was just the start of what we want.
 
BringbakMON said:
spot on really.
it's incredible really after decades of failure basically that folk still lap up 5 year plans, hungry young gems, theme parks, challenging for Europe and the various other shite that gets spun without asking questions tbh.
actions not words.

Some folk seem happiest with mediocrity and occasionally being plucky losers.
Click to expand...

Thing is if mediocrity is what I was sold I will accept it . We weren’t. We were told when we were promoted that there were ‘big plans’. Players signed because of the ‘big plans‘ . Supposedly, you know who was excited and was staying because of the ‘big plans’ . Well he fcuked off. Just starting our third year in the league there are questions to be asked. That’s all they are questions. Not damning verdicts on the owners so far or going forward.

Just my opinion but to ignore the overwhelming history of the premier league and what it takes to get to the top table is extremely naive . And my point in my post yesterday was to keep chugging along as we are will not realise the ‘big plans’. If we can’t because of not wanting to or not being able to then fine but don’t talk the talk then. Let’s go back to the fun of the championship because I didn’t get promoted for 8th, 9th, 10th or 11th. And of course we might not stay there , depends …..

The only thing i will say is the mitigation this season now is the plans seem to have been hit because of him leaving . I believe it to be utter spin around Buendia signing to replace ‘him’ ( he wasnt Deano said originally Buendia was to help take the burden off ‘him’.The narrative changed). And the coincidental …not.., Ings signing the night before ‘he’ left to take the edge off the blow . Bit pissed off that they tried to treat us like dicks tbh with that propaganda. And the ooooh look at all the money we will spend now, 100 million from him, tv money ….didn’t happen . Valid to wonder why. If the answer is sustainability, ,then again fine , but thats not going to get the big plan done I’m afraid.
 
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McParlandTheGreat said:
So what we have now is mediocre? Some of us don't see it that way. Plucky losers? No way; smashing Liverpool 7-2 was just the start of what we want.
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11th is mediocre yes. Which is fine now and very short term

The argument is how long we are prepared to be 11th. Some prepared to be longer than others it seems.
 
I predicted 10th-12th on the poll. I think we've had too much disruption to do any better than that.

It's not easy to lose your very best player. The preseason was a farce and we've been very unlucky with injuries and lack of fitness. Add the shambles surrounding Martinez and Buendia into the mix and it won't be until almost October until we field a full strength side.

I'm not 100% sure Smith knows what his best formation is given everyone being fit as well.

On top of that, we have chosen to turn a profit this summer rather than go all out. So I can't see anymore than 10th.
 
Melon Donkey said:
Thing is if mediocrity is what I was sold I will accept it . We weren’t. We were told when we were promoted that there were ‘big plans’. Players signed because of the ‘big plans‘ . Supposedly, you know who was excited and was staying because of the ‘big plans’ . Well he fcuked off. Just starting our third year in the league there are questions to be asked. That’s all they are questions. Not damning verdicts on the owners so far or going forward.

Just my opinion but to ignore the overwhelming history of the premier league and what it takes to get to the top table is extremely naive . And my point in my post yesterday was to keep chugging along as we are will not realise the ‘big plans’. If we can’t because of not wanting to or not being able to then fine but don’t talk the talk then. Let’s go back to the fun of the championship because I didn’t get promoted for 8th, 9th, 10th or 11th. And of course we might not stay there , depends …..

The only thing i will say is the mitigation this season now is the plans seem to have been hit because of him leaving . I believe it to be utter spin around Buendia signing to replace ‘him’ ( he wasnt Deano said originally Buendia was to help take the burden off ‘him’.The narrative changed). And the coincidental …not.., Ings signing the night before ‘he’ left to take the edge off the blow . Bit pissed off that they tried to treat us like dicks tbh with that propaganda. And the ooooh look at all the money we will spend now, 100 million from him, tv money ….didn’t happen . Valid to wonder why. If the answer is sustainability, ,then again fine , but thats not going to get the big plan done I’m afraid.
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Big ambitions yes. Big plans? The owners said from the off that we couldn't afford to splash money on a handful of top players, that we need to get there by other means. Like buying talented players who could be improved, developing our own players, etc.

And that's exactly what they've done. Our signings year on year have been improvements on what we had. In terms of trajectory we're ahead of the curve.
 
Melon Donkey said:
11th is mediocre yes. Which is fine now and very short term

The argument is how long we are prepared to be 11th. Some prepared to be longer than others it seems.
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Don't know where you get the idea that others are prepared to stick at 11th from. Not the impression I have. Plenty were OK with 11th for last season, but that was for last season. We don't know yet the hit from snake2 leaving, but top half somewhere seems to be what most are looking at.
 
McParlandTheGreat said:
Big ambitions yes. Big plans? The owners said from the off that we couldn't afford to splash money on a handful of top players, that we need to get there by other means. Like buying talented players who could be improved, developing our own players, etc.

And that's exactly what they've done. Our signings year on year have been improvements on what we had. In terms of trajectory we're ahead of the curve.
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I won't and haven't argued with your second point.

As for your first paragraph then if that's the case then fine but please don't expect us to break top 4 or 5. Go back 20 odd years plus and check the table.

I haven't mentioned sustainability its others but when I read big plans (or big ambitions as you say) the first thought in my bonce isn't 'sustainability' . Was it yours? .

I keep saying it they are not my words about big ambitions it's others. And that brings expectations.

Sorry but people need to stop being so sensitive and think that just because some are asking questions that they are being doom mongers or depressive when it's blatantly clear we have good owners in general.

No one has remotely suggested we go Galacticios. I haven't. That was Merds comment. Fcuk me 40 odd years as a villa fan with the shite I have seen and I'm suposedly entitled by suggesting I would like a couple of really eye catching signings from our third richest owners in the league who have big ambitions. How very dare I.
 
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Going down the sustainability route atm will not bring us any success. Unfortunately slow and steady just keeps putting you further behind the top 6. Are we closer to cit£h, yanited or chelski than we were last season? No we are further behind imo. We have a stronger squad, but 1-11 we are weaker than last season.
 
Melon Donkey said:
I won't and haven't argued with your second point.

As for your first paragraph then if that's the case then fine but please don't expect us to break top 4 or 5. Go back 20 odd years plus and check the table.

I haven't mentioned sustainability its others but when I read big plans (or big ambitions as you say) the first thought in my bonce isn't 'sustainability' . Was it yours? .

I keep saying it they are not my words about big ambitions it's others. And that brings expectations.

Sorry but people need to stop being so sensitive and think that just because some are asking questions that they are being doom mongers or depressive when it's blatantly clear we have good owners in general.

No one has remotely suggested we go Galacticios. That was Merds ridiculous comment. Fcuk me 40 odd years as a villa fan with the shite I have seen and I'm suposedly entitled by suggesting I would like a couple of really eye catching signings from our third richest owners in the league who have big ambitions. How very dare I.
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Yep if we'd signed a couple of top players we might not have lost our star player but signing players from the Championship and loads of kids for the future won't cut it.
If I was 20 and not 63 perhaps I'd be happy to wait 6 years for these kids to come through if indeed they ever do come through.
Every club in the PL thinks they have great academy players, we are no unique and ours are no better than those at any other club.
A couple of statement signings would help put us in the spotlight and attract others.
 
To bring success you have to push the boat out quite alot. We have had to come from a long way back. We have had to spend alot to get back to an even footing .
Starting our third year back it's valid to ask and review where we are .
Unfortunately we have had a huge set back with him going .
 
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