The Owners & CEO Thread | Page 10 | Vital Football

The Owners & CEO Thread

To be good owners of a football team you need extremely deep pockets and plenty of staying power, Rome wasn't built in a day after all. We have no idea what these owners are prepared to sacrifice for this club. Plenty of mega rich owners of lower league clubs who don't live the dream.
 
I think, very much like our manager and sporting director, both owners are also on a steep learning curve this year. Wes Edens for example has a track record of recent success in the NBA, but he will have learned that success in English football is a very different kettle of fish. The American leagues have far greater control over player acquisitions, including basically who-gets-who in the annual college draft, and there are salary caps. Also, in basketball the coach has far less control on player recruitment, BUT far greater control of the on-court performance (most of the game is a series of orchestrated "plays" that the coach controls and sets into place). It's almost like having a game of football with nothing but free-kicks, corners and goal-kicks. So Eden's expectations of Dean Smith will likely have adjusted as he learned the game. You can also win in the NBA with young players and reliance on one or two "star" players surrounded by far-less talented role players (see the Chicago Bulls with Jordan & Pippen or the Lakers with Shaq and Kobe). A football team, by contrast is very reliant on good preparation followed by having to trust that your players will make the right decisions on the field. It is a far more fluid game than most American sports and once those players cross the white line it's up to them. It's why you see managers taking players that they trust from one club to another (think Allardyce with Kevin Nolan or Bruce with Elmo).
The good news in all of this is these owners are clearly intelligent people and I feel they will adjust and tune their approach as they learn....

Both of them are reported to be Arsenal fans, so I guess their learning curve is not too steep.
 
Blimey! The this corona virus must be having a real effect on the wealth of billionaires. Down from 4 billion plus to 1 billion in just over a month.
More like what happens when you use different sources to arrive at something that is hard to measure. Bottom line is he's filthy rich.
 
Found this about Wes Edens. I guess the only person that really knows the answer is Wes himself:

The estimated Net Worth of Wesley R Edens is at least $4.62 Billion dollars as of 3 June 2020. Mr. Edens owns over 69,366,932 units of Drive Shack stock worth over $33,814,744 and over the last 15 years he sold DS stock worth over $4,588,673,493. In addition, he makes $0 as Chairman of the Board at Drive Shack.
 
Found this about Wes Edens. I guess the only person that really knows the answer is Wes himself:

The estimated Net Worth of Wesley R Edens is at least $4.62 Billion dollars as of 3 June 2020. Mr. Edens owns over 69,366,932 units of Drive Shack stock worth over $33,814,744 and over the last 15 years he sold DS stock worth over $4,588,673,493. In addition, he makes $0 as Chairman of the Board at Drive Shack.
That's only Dollars though, not Pounds Sterling
:whist:
 
Wes seems to have done pretty well with the Bucks. Him and his 3 mates bought them for $550m in 2014. As at Feb 2020 the Bucks were valued at $1.58bn. If we can have the same success on and off the pitch as them we will all be happy.
 
Apologies if someone has already said this on another thread. I reckon this takeover of the Portuguese club is a way for us and Mendes to bring young South/Central American players to Europe, have them play for Vitoria for a year or 2 till they've an EU passport then either sell them on or bring them to Villa on the cheap.

I had a look at them and there are already a few Mendes clients playing for them. Ola John and Leo Bonatini both former wolves and I'm sure there are more. Strangely enough Easah Suliman joined them in January as well.
 
So the day after we avoid relegation Purslow is on the radio talking about needing to address the financial gap between the premier league and the championship. I was kinda of hoping he would be focusing on Villa. Maybe he took a knock on the head and thinks he works for Norwich.
 
A lot of people need to realise just how rich our owners are.

Really pisses me off when people like manure supporters say we are a skint little club. FFS our owners are considerably richer than theirs.
 
A lot of people need to realise just how rich our owners are.

Really pisses me off when people like manure supporters say we are a skint little club. FFS our owners are considerably richer than theirs.


Because most people, including a few too many in the media last looked at who Villas owners were in summer 2018 when Dr Tony was still thrashing around trying to pay the bills with magic beans.
 
Can't remember who it was now, but some bellend on Talksport barely 4 months ago was claiming we needed to be took over after our problems the previous summer. Oblivious to both the takeover it seems and our summer spending!
 
Because most people, including a few too many in the media last looked at who Villas owners were in summer 2018 when Dr Tony was still thrashing around trying to pay the bills with magic beans.

A lot of people don't want to admit to how rich we are. The top 6 must be shitting themselves over FFP being scrapped and poor little Aston Villa breaking their cartel.
 
So, we're safe. For this year. This could be one of the biggest moments in the clubs history; we have a real opportunity to move forwards. And it depends very much on how the owners see it.

Edens and Sawaris are successful businessmen, and Villa is a business. They may not be looking for a big profit on it, but they aren't people to throw money at it with no return. They've put a lot of money in, and they'll want to see the value of the club grow to reflect that. Ambition is key to what they're doing. And they won't want to hang around for too long to realise that.

So how will they view the next stage? I suspect they'll be looking for more than survival, or even relatively comfortable survival, next season. I think they'll be looking for a big leap upwards. Having just survived, this is probably as good a time as any to do it. Also, given that a number of clubs will have financial problems, money-wise it's probably a good time to do it. There isn't really anything to be said for a more cautious approach. Tinkering with what we've got might make us a bit safer next year, but not a lot more. I think they'll look for significant changes in key areas.

Where do they start? I don't think they'll be too unhappy with the squad as a whole. Last summer's signings have been criticised a lot, but most of them have shown they have something worthwhile. Individually they have a year's experience under their belts and should get better. Most of them.

On the other hand, as a team they're way below what's required. Even with the experience of this season this team would struggle next year. What we need is a strategy, a vision of the sort of team we need to put out next year, a team populated with current players where we can, but bolstered by a few top class signings in the right positions which can put that vision into practice. And above all we need a hand on the tiller which can not only get the best out of the individual players, but can form the talent that is there into an effective Premier League force.

Which brings us to the manager. I think we all like Dean, and he deserves credit for both getting us up and keeping us there. But we're talking about the top level, and the question is can he take us fowards in the way the owners are looking for? My own feeling, for a number of reasons, is that he isn't the person to do it. I think we need somebody of proven experience at the top level who we can be confident will drive us forwards in the way required. I don't know if the owners will see it this way, but judging from their ambitions I think they should.
 
So, we're safe. For this year. This could be one of the biggest moments in the clubs history; we have a real opportunity to move forwards. And it depends very much on how the owners see it.

Edens and Sawaris are successful businessmen, and Villa is a business. They may not be looking for a big profit on it, but they aren't people to throw money at it with no return. They've put a lot of money in, and they'll want to see the value of the club grow to reflect that. Ambition is key to what they're doing. And they won't want to hang around for too long to realise that.

So how will they view the next stage? I suspect they'll be looking for more than survival, or even relatively comfortable survival, next season. I think they'll be looking for a big leap upwards. Having just survived, this is probably as good a time as any to do it. Also, given that a number of clubs will have financial problems, money-wise it's probably a good time to do it. There isn't really anything to be said for a more cautious approach. Tinkering with what we've got might make us a bit safer next year, but not a lot more. I think they'll look for significant changes in key areas.

Where do they start? I don't think they'll be too unhappy with the squad as a whole. Last summer's signings have been criticised a lot, but most of them have shown they have something worthwhile. Individually they have a year's experience under their belts and should get better. Most of them.

On the other hand, as a team they're way below what's required. Even with the experience of this season this team would struggle next year. What we need is a strategy, a vision of the sort of team we need to put out next year, a team populated with current players where we can, but bolstered by a few top class signings in the right positions which can put that vision into practice. And above all we need a hand on the tiller which can not only get the best out of the individual players, but can form the talent that is there into an effective Premier League force.

Which brings us to the manager. I think we all like Dean, and he deserves credit for both getting us up and keeping us there. But we're talking about the top level, and the question is can he take us fowards in the way the owners are looking for? My own feeling, for a number of reasons, is that he isn't the person to do it. I think we need somebody of proven experience at the top level who we can be confident will drive us forwards in the way required. I don't know if the owners will see it this way, but judging from their ambitions I think they should.
I always remember when Ferguson's job was on the line at United. Whilst I also have had reservations I think continuity at this juncture is the best thing. I think if you sacked Smith now Grealish would walk. It's great that the manager and captain are Villa fans. I am really impressed by Smith's calmness....he's delivered twice now on must win games. He has worked hard on defence post lockdown and has delivered....question is why was it not done earlier...lack of analysts? Just don't know. I was also puzzled when he talked about lack of fitness...isn't that his responsibility? He is self effacing and said he has learnt which is very positive. For me the questions going forward revolve around the owners and if they want to press on. Not sure about our ceo. I'd like to see us spend on 3-4 quality players keep Grealish and move forward. The team play for him and we could lose all of this by hiring a "name"
 
So, we're safe. For this year. This could be one of the biggest moments in the clubs history; we have a real opportunity to move forwards. And it depends very much on how the owners see it.

Edens and Sawaris are successful businessmen, and Villa is a business. They may not be looking for a big profit on it, but they aren't people to throw money at it with no return. They've put a lot of money in, and they'll want to see the value of the club grow to reflect that. Ambition is key to what they're doing. And they won't want to hang around for too long to realise that.

So how will they view the next stage? I suspect they'll be looking for more than survival, or even relatively comfortable survival, next season. I think they'll be looking for a big leap upwards. Having just survived, this is probably as good a time as any to do it. Also, given that a number of clubs will have financial problems, money-wise it's probably a good time to do it. There isn't really anything to be said for a more cautious approach. Tinkering with what we've got might make us a bit safer next year, but not a lot more. I think they'll look for significant changes in key areas.

Where do they start? I don't think they'll be too unhappy with the squad as a whole. Last summer's signings have been criticised a lot, but most of them have shown they have something worthwhile. Individually they have a year's experience under their belts and should get better. Most of them.

On the other hand, as a team they're way below what's required. Even with the experience of this season this team would struggle next year. What we need is a strategy, a vision of the sort of team we need to put out next year, a team populated with current players where we can, but bolstered by a few top class signings in the right positions which can put that vision into practice. And above all we need a hand on the tiller which can not only get the best out of the individual players, but can form the talent that is there into an effective Premier League force.

Which brings us to the manager. I think we all like Dean, and he deserves credit for both getting us up and keeping us there. But we're talking about the top level, and the question is can he take us fowards in the way the owners are looking for? My own feeling, for a number of reasons, is that he isn't the person to do it. I think we need somebody of proven experience at the top level who we can be confident will drive us forwards in the way required. I don't know if the owners will see it this way, but judging from their ambitions I think they should.

Nicked!

https://astonvilla.vitalfootball.co...s-in-villas-history-it-depends-on-the-owners/