Well, now I am going to say “I told you so”!
I doubt any self-respecting Villa fan doesn’t know, but Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens have combined to take a 55% share of Aston Villa.
I haven’t yet read much about Wes Edens, but I have seen that he’s involved in running an American football club.
Randy Lerner was involved with the Chicago Browns, so that’s not saying much, but at least Edens has experience in a similar sort of setup. I’m going to take that as a plus.
But it’s Sawiris that intrigues me.
He has a stake in Adidas, which is well known.
But he has a stake in Lafarge too, which is a massive company in it’s own right.
I know, because I was involved in one of their plants a few years back.
He’s apparently worth $6.2 billion on his own, but his whole family (apparently the most famous in Egypt) is worth a stunning $36 billion.
So while he’s not a Quatari, as I guessed, he’s still minted.
But also apparently a very good businessman.
Which leads me to question how he’ll try to run the club. But that’s for the future.
The best part of this news is that there is a commitment to improve the squad.
Which immediately begs the question of how does this square, if we sell Jack Grealish?
While the media, led by the Evening Mail, has been pretty insistent that Grealish will leave, I’ve been consistent in the view that I really don’t think he will.
And that’s a stance that I retain.
The incoming co-owners (and you have to wonder where this leaves Tony Xia) have said that they realise they are only custodians of the club, on behalf of the fans.
Which is music to our ears on the face of it.
So if that’s true, would selling Grealish really get them off on the right sort of footing with the fans?
Not a chance in hell, as much as the Mail are insistent that we have no choice.
The word is that Grealish wants to stay, if it’s at all possible, for at least one more season.
And that’s exactly what I expect to see.
The Mail have gone into depth about how it’s practically impossible to keep Grealish, but I don’t believe it for one minute.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way and I’m sure that FFP has been looked into.
While I’ve always been totally against re-naming the ground, I could live with (insert one of Sawiris’ companies here) Villa Park, if it meant that we don’t sell Grealish.
There’s talk about the “going rate” for this sort of thing, but that’s “loose” at best.
A company as big as some Sawiris is involved in would be expected to spend say, £25 million on sponsorship, regardless of who the benificiary is.
And for anyone to say otherwise could easily be seen as restraint of trade.
Think of some of the stadium deals that have been done and Man city immediately spring to mind.
FFP is utter rubbish and only applies to most clubs, while the elite are allowed to take the proverbial.
We all know it.
It’s about having the clout and the balls to stand up to the EFL and threaten to challenge them if they try to punish us, a la Tony Fernandez at QPR.
Not that I am asking for us to totally flout the rules, at all.
I just think that if our new co-owners can guarantee X amount of our debts are covered, we should be able to continue to invest.
And that’s hopefully what will happen.
In the meantime, welcome to Aston Villa, Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens.
I genuinely hope you take our club to your hearts.
Please let these owners be good for us.
Amen to that Badger
Thank God Badger the tide has turned, I really thought we would slide away into the lower leagues . Clubs now will look at us in a different way knowing we are guided but propper business moguls.Tottenham must have heard on the grapevine we was about to be sold to a billionaire and came back in.I hope your right that Grealish will sit it out for another season I think he will go ,yes he’s us through and through but he needs to chase his goal in football. These business men will sort our problems out given time. Im getting my new shirt in the week, great news.
No offence Bill, but you change your mind more than I change my smalls 🙂
That’s what footy does to you though and I know where you’re coming from.
One thing is for certain and that it’s even if we do sell Grealish, Levy won’t be bending us over like he thought.
On a different note, I see women’s footy can be used as a legitimate drain to claim against FFP.
What an absolute load of rubbish that is.
But yes, it’s politically correct and now I see why the elite have piled money into this.
I’ve nothing against women’s footy, but it’s literally many levels lower than the proper game, imo.
That said, it drew massive crowds in the inter-war years, if my memory serves correctly.
Hell Badger hope its more than once a year, yes I have done that and said sorry, don’t be to hard on women footballer please, I have a grandaughter that plays for Coventry ladies and believe me are better than some men footballers, oh yes she on her last Brown belt.😊😊
Bill, I’d never say it to a woman’s face.
The missus wouldn’t let me 🙂
😊😆 wise choice.
Remember the Two Ronnies sketch? 😊
I fucking love Egypt and I love Egyptians. Hope this works out for us all!
On another note, I’m lying in bed and can hear a mosquito buzzing around my head…Strange weather we’ve been having here.
Is this for real? Thierry Henry in the hot seat to be manager of Villa, someone having a laugh he’s never managed has he, coaching yes but come on this is paper talk fake news.
He certainly played the game in the right way.
But a good player doesn’t necessarily make a good manager, as we saw with RDM.
Fake news indeed, but if it’s true, we’ve got another crap pair of owners.
I don’t think it will happen, fwiw.
Sorry, two small corrections for above…
Wes Edens is a co-owner of an NBA (basketball) team – Milwaukee Bucks.
Lerner owned NFL team – Cleveland Browns, who are still awful even without his involvement.
Ah, fair play Marvin.
I stand corrected.
I should have looked into that a bit more.
Whilst I appreciate Basketball is growing (it’s actually the biggest game in Lithuania, so my Lithuainian workmate tells me), it’s still a small sport over here.
We call it Netball, fwiw.
Which is very similar, but a women’s game 😉
Ahem.
Only joking fella. I know it’s massive in the US, particularly money-wise.
Either way, it still applies, in that hopefully he knows how sports clubs work 🙂
Please let it be, please let it be ……
Oh it is…. woke up this morning and realised it wasn’t an alcohol induced dream and we actually do have a billionaire owner.
Then I read about Henry – no, no, no. We need hard nosed, sensible owners not name dropping glory seekers (well OK the glory seeking but might work). He’s clearly a very intelligent guy (Henry) and was an exceptional footballer but if they do want to replace Bruce (which I doubt in the short term) then Villa need someone with more experience at management. Don’t mind a young foreign or English manager but not someone who has never managed before.
Let’s see how many players the media now link us with and how suddenly FFP isn’t quite the problem it wa
I think Bruce will be gone now Xia has investment.
Xia will say I gave Bruce loads of money with a brief to get promoted and he failed.
On paper and in salary terms we had the best squad last year and should have gone up and to be honest take Grealish out of the team it wasn’t great to watch.
Just one point Steve – factually Bruce wasn’t given much money at all to spend on transfers and over the season and a half made a substantial net profit for the club on his dealings. I acknowledge that Xia bank rolled wages for players like Terry and Snodgrass but again the majority of high wage earners were already at the club when Bruce arrived. I’m not seeking to defend the fact that he failed to achieve promotion but the financial problems at the club were already endemic when he arrived.
It will fascinating to see how Sawiris handles the ‘strategic parthership’ given that he and Edens own 55%. It appears there has been some face saving compromises e.g. Xia as Co Chairman which may well create some tensions within the Board. What I’m trying to say is – I wonder just how much real decision making clout Xia has and how long it will be before Sawiris owns 100%
Being sad I just looked up Bruce signings either on loan or on a permanent deal and its a bit surprising. These players alone should have got us up but if you add to it Dimateos players I don’t think there is any excuse for not winning promotion.
Johnstone, Taylor, Bjarnason, Hourihane, Bree, Lansbury, Hogan, Samba, Terry, Elmohamady, Snodgrass, Whelan, Onomah, Tuanzebe and Grabban.
There is a fair amount of money in that lot for a championship club. Hence our financial problems recently.
I am sure in the board Xia has no clout and will be gone soon but he will certainly be blaming Bruce for not getting us up.
omg we are rich ??? i cant handle this extreme from the other. i hope they bring some direction to the club and squad. usually with new ownership theres a change in management. this will be tough on bruce. but i believe that last season with the players available to him, he should have landed second place at least so i personally would like the club to start afresh and pick the manager that can build something that will last.
i guess i should apologise to dr x, sorry but i got carried away with all the fake news and other fans leading me astray. i don’t know how this can help the current situation with squad. or keeping grealish, but it will send out the message to all the little clubs out there, like spuds that we are not in trouble any more and if you want a bargain shop elsewhere.
if the club is going to stick to ffp fook sake sell the big waged players, keep the main players like grealish. i think we could cope with selling chester adomah kodjia jedi, that would release loads of wages and if we got good prices would bring in more than 20 million,
my sister played for wigan and bolton she was very good too, she came into the game really late, she had a great engine and played left midfield, she was a athlete before that, her speciality was distance, when really young she used to be a tomboy, playing football with the gang i hanged around in. i am surprised how skilful the ladies football is, it was slower game than mens game but they try to play the game in the right way
This morning reports are suggesting that Thierry Henry could be in line for the managers job. Whether he will be any good or not I don’t know but I can not see him (or any other profile name) being linked / interested if we are about to get rid of our best players. Maybe we can keep Grealish after all.
Notwithstanding we have new owners, we still have to rebase the club financially; we cannot continue operating at a substantial net loss irrespective of FFP rules. The statement from the new owners alludes to this and I would expect Sariwis to apply his not inconsiderable business experience to addressing this. Expect the first appointment to be a CEO – possibly from one of his companies.
If one accepts the foregoing then it makes sense to keep Bruce (at least in the short term) as he has demonstrated an ability to operate within strict financial limits.
i cant get the harry enfield and chums comedy sketch out of my head. the considerably richer than you ones. how all the shit we taken from the football world should drive us on the not only regain our rightful position at the top table. but regain our crown as english champions and european champs.
Its great news that we have the financial backing of these two owners however the fact remains we are still losing money hand over fist and any decent businessman would want to put a stop to that. So in my opinion we have no choice we have to cut costs and sell assets to meet ffp and become more financialy stable. So the likes of Grealish, Chester, Adomah, Bjarnason and probably Kodjia will still all be sold and we have to get rid of Richards & Mccormack surely? Thats just pissing money away. Positive is we wont be bent over and shafted for these players as now we arent as desperate for immediate cash which will bring in more money in transfers for the club. We will probably sign a few on loan to cover these player losses but we still cant really spend much money so transitional period ahead i think. But im still happy with that knowing we have decent ownership that will certaintly have a plan. Aslong as it doesnt involve Henry!
As far as I’m aware the FFP doesnt kick in till 1st march 2019, yes get top earners out but if he wants hold onto your your favourite players, Grealish knows the players that are up to scratch in under23 team, let’s try and make a descent footballing side with what we have, I know I’m pissing in the wind about him stopping but we don’t need the money now, get the top earners out cut the numbers down try and hold onto the main men.
Is it okay to exhale now? I feel like I’ve been holding my breath for the last month or so.
What I’m hoping for is some stability this season. Being a Villa fan recently has been like riding an out of control roller coaster, hitting the heights one minute only to feel sick as a dog the next.
I’d settle for mid-table so long as we get our finances on a firm footing, the club structure sorted out and get the deadwood out of the door. As for Bruce, he got us awfully close last season and, with a bit more support, who knows? However what happens with the manager is up to the new owners.
Anyway thanks Nassef and Wes, I was dreading this season and now I have some hope again.
Just incase there is a live stream on today’s Burton game, starts at 3 pm.
first half at burton and i think the system which offers us lots with the ball, we are struggling full stop with how to play it. without the ball we are all over the place and with the ball we are also struggling. adomah looks totally lost. steer can’t use his feet. the system we are trying to play, we need to use the ball. work it more, work the opposition. but we launched it forwards and it came back. burton would have scored 3 or 4 had they had a striker or composure.
this system is crying out for doyles hayes we need somebody to demand the ball and use it intelligently. hourihane,lansbury and grealish our engine have been invisible.
It’s all change now Villa are in command and moving the ball better, Gardner just scored its 4 now.
You know what’s this about Nath, they have West Ham next match, no interest in this game.
E. I.addio we’ve won the cup. said the youngsters would shine and the did.
They did.
second half was much better, they will learn from this friendly. burton opened us up too easy first half. second half we attempted to play through midfield, cory taylor looks a decent player. shame he got injured. hayes will definitely break into the team this year will clark and bree. also this kid knibbs has come from nowhere and looks decent.
i agree bill maybe villa were not focussed on the game first half and burton where so it was a good run out as it showed weaknesses in our new formation
Yes knibbs I’ve never heard of him till today, Adomah seems lost in first half but made up in second, Kodjia how many times off side. Still its live again Wednesday with West Ham, interesting.
i will confess and it wont be popular, i don’t like kodjia playing upfront alone. which he never today, but he doesn’t work hard enough, he doesn’t offer himself, he is easy to mark and looks like he cant be bothered half the time. second half he did prove me wrong, has he stepped up. and he needs to do more of that. get off his heels and on his toes and be alive to movements
knibbs looks like he can play, we have got some decent forwards waiting in the wings.
cory taylor he is another one who has a bright future, this season will come to soon for him, but he could play a bit part and not look out of place, he got injured and went off today.
hayes is first choice for me to play with grealish and hourihane if they play like today formation.
bree and clark i think will also be more involved this season and both will not disappoint.
lansbury , taylor two players that need to step up both are falling behind, both offer little in effort or quality so you could easily sell them and you wouldnt miss um,
i think hammers and dresdon will be too quality tests. we need to get another test as burton showed our weakness first half, they pressed high with 5 and we just went long over and over. because only grealish was able to play under the press.
Have to admit your spot on about Taylor, Lansbury, both was poor to me, I’m still doubtful about Soliman as a centr back looks big and slow to me. Still he might come good in time.
i think you right suliman doesn’t look good enough for me, he will need to go somewhere on loan. hard to judge them in a friendly. but suliman looks slow and clumsy. clark on the other hand hes strong alert to danger good passing and looks like he is ready for first team. i would have him ahead of taylor at left back for sure and if they play 3 at back he could play there as well
goalie worries me and not the actual goalkeeping, but his distribution is very poor. it doesn’t help when the players are constantly relying on the goalie to kick from the back. we need top give him options both wing backs need to be wide and deep if needs to give him a option. our shape needs lots of work, that will come and we will improve,
I don’t like this one bit.
STEVE BRUCE has revealed he could face crunch talks with Aston Villa’s new owners as early as Tuesday – and be jobless by the time Villa play West Ham on Wednesday!
The 57-year-old boss admits he has heard nothing but positive noises during preliminary conversations with representatives of the club’s new wealthy owners in recent weeks
Just read Bruce’s interview. Nothing there to be too concerned about. He says it has already been made clear that nobody is going on the cheap, so Levy will have to dig deep if he wants Jack. Spurs fans up in arms over Levy’s tactics – hilarious.
The quote suggested that Bruce believed there to be some truth in the Thierry Henry rumours. It didn’t give the impression that it was as manager, or at least Bruce is relaxed about his own position.
Interesting times.
I have to say I agree with most of the comments above regarding players. Kodjia is selfish. You can’t play as a team with 10 men and one maverick out for himself. I would prefer Hogan when fit, providing Bruce used him properly.
Taylor looked decent on the right, and can beat a player and actually cross with his right foot. De Laet has been really impressive. Neil Taylor is useless. Lansbury doesn’t do nearly enough.
Anyway, the season looks so much more positive. It will be nice to see if some of the youngsters can make it in the first team. I would imagine we could see some strengthening as well. Tricky position for the new owners. They will want promotion this season, so it will be interesting to see how they handle FFP.
Saw a great video someone took of all the cars outside Villa Park as the new owners rocked up. Also, some kid has gone into the Apple store in New York Times Square and changed all the iPhone home screens to Villa players – top marks to him
DS Villa I thought Kodjia was selfish in the game, he tries a lot of footwork that didn’t come off, It’s time to give Hogan a run out when he’s fit, yes I like the young players that was on show the making of a good team. I’ve got my iphone with the Villa motive on its my back ground. Lot happier now with the new owners, Badger reckons I change my mind as many times he changes his under pants, told him he must change more regularly once a year to smelly.😂😂
“some kid has gone into the Apple store in New York Times Square and changed all the iPhone home screens to Villa players – top marks to him”
Haha, that’s absolute top class!
I’d seriously like to buy that kid a drink.
New York?
What a dog-hole.
get Thierry in. I have zero evidence for why it will work for us, but it will work for us!
Worked under Wenger, a manager who literally came in and changed the English game. He made it more technical. The ´football philosophy’ buzz word thrown all about the place these days started with him.
Henry himself was moulded into an absolute legend by Wenger, man managed and transformed from a decent left winger into one of the PL’s legends.
Played with the ´invincibles’.
Absolute spot on punditry, reads the game amazingly well. Gets that from Wenger. Plus he’s a very intelligent fella in his own right.
Worked with Martinez to a third place WC finals finish.
Just a few of my thoughts.
Hey, that’s not a bad CV that. But I think he has to be Bruce’s understudy, Having old head and being wise might help.
I think yr username says it all for that idea! Lol!!!!
Also, as long as we’re rebuilding (again), we can afford to lose Jack even though I’d rather him stay. I also don’t want Levy taking the piss as he normally does. The ups and downs of being a Villa fan. I’m quite looking forward to next years challenge, but the eventual prize of promotion to the Premiership with all its vile money, does little to excite me.
scott hogan i think is a better team player than kodjia and i believe he is good enough striker, who will score goals in championship enough for us to win promotion. but we villa need to supply him with crosses and give him the ball around the box. its not rocket science. he just needs a regular supply line. he will graft and offer danger in behind oppositions defenses, he will also work with his back to goal which is not his strength.
its looking good for us keeping grealish, seems like levy missed the trick, had he stumped up 20 million, i reckon grealish would now be at spuds. ppl argue that grealish wouldn’t be good enough. i call that bull shit. grealish might not be better than Eriksen in some areas, but grealish is good enough and will improve loads with better players around him. he is not a carbon copy of Eriksen they are quite different in styles. england missed grealish at wc and we had ali who offered little, england lacked ideas in middle of pitch somebody who would pick up the ball and drive past 2 or 3 defenders and drawn opponents around him. spuds missed the chance to have this type of player and its villa gain. grealish is that good. promotion is very likely with than without .