Obviously the takeover is a massive story and it’s brought in lots of comments.
What’s impressed me here is the standard of the debate/discussion, which has been excellent and I commend you all; Well done!
It’s also been very revealing, with some well researched comments that have saved me having to trawl Newsnow as much as I normally do, for tonight anyway. So thanks for that too.
What’s also noticeable is after the initial euphoria (consider those who thought this deal was a good thing is around 92% in the poll), serious doubts are beginning to set in already.
Which is understandable.
This is the problem with a Chinese investor, in that everything the Chinese do in business seems to be somewhat opaque, doesn’t it?
It’s a daft thing, but an example is I’ve long wondered why most Chinese takeaways still don’t accept cards for payment, when it’s been normal practice for years in the UK?
Tax evasion? I doubt it myself, as Asian and other ethnic places are happy to accept them.
I suspect it’s more a cultural thing.
And apart from having to use cash being a pain in the rear, it doesn’t stop me from eating my fair share of Chinese food. Even without the Monosodium Glutamate.
So what am I saying?
Well, I don’t have lots of personal experience with Chinese people, but I’ve had many a chat with Chinese takeaway owners and they always strike me as being very friendly and personable.
I know. It’s not a particularly good way to judge a race in general, but it’s the best I can come up with.
So, as a person who always looks for the good side in people, I’m willing to wait and see what our new owner actually does before I make any sort of judgement on him.
As for the Financial Times comment that casts aspersions on Dr Xia, I’ve accused Randy Lerner’s accountants of at least massaging the figures many a time and I see it as being part of big business. Hence I can’t particularly hold anything against Xia on this point.
Basically, I’m willing to give him the benefit of any doubt, even if it might prove naive.
Where Xia has been a lot more transparent though, is in his quick admission that the name of the ground might be changed.
I suspect he’s put this one out there to test the waters and see what us fans think, myself.
And while I’ve previously been strongly against any re-naming of one of the most respected stadiums anywhere in the footy world, I think I could actually live with the “Lotus Villa Park” name that he suggested.
It’s not something I want, but we have to be realistic in that this is the world we live in, where money is all important.
As for Xia’s interview, I haven’t actually read it, but it seems he says all the right things, doesn’t he?
There, I do have to be sceptical.
Biggest foreign club in China?
It’s a lovely idea, but we have to compete with the likes of Man Utd, who are years ahead of us.
Nah, much more realistic is to just be somewhere up there. That’d be good enough.
Six or seven players in? Wouldn’t we have to get that many out first?
It’s a big ask, I’d suggest.
And then there’s the part that says he’ll be looking to use quite a few of the kids.
I know this will be popular amongst many, but I have my doubts and could just be an excuse for not bringing better players in.
On this point, I have to wonder if he’ll be looking to bring Chinese players into the side too.
Which brings us onto the transfer pot, which is seemingly anything from £20-50 million.
An amount Neil Warnock says isn’t needed.
Is he for real and has he actually seen us this season?
I quite like the bloke, but I’m glad he doesn’t see himself as a contender for the role.
And then there’s Holis’ interview, where he stated that the preferred candidate has taken a “very mature” outlook on our situation.
Am I the only one who thinks that it points to someone quite young?
Which means Roberto Di Matteo or Roberto Martinez, in my book.
I’m not convinced about either of them, but then I’m not the one stumping up the money.
As for the comment wondering why Ellis hasn’t commented on anything; he has, saying Lerner’s only mistake was not turning up for enough games. Hmm, ok.
Which is another good point, given that Xia is based in China, although I saw something that suggests he’s going to move to Birmingham?
I’m sorry if it seems I’ve rambled my way through this one, but there are lots of questions still swimming around my head that I haven’t properly asked myself yet.
Comments
96 responses to “Can we trust Xia? Lotus Villa Park? and other thoughts”
Spot on Oohah but largely ignored by many, Lerner did provide a lot of funds in the beginning but got his fingers well and truly burnt.
Like you I’m very sceptical of this takeover, I mean come on, a Chinaman named Tony!!
Lol
Another one here who doesn’t trust the bloke. I could, and hope, I am totally wrong and he turns out to be the best owner we have ever had.I think it’s fair to say a huge majority of Villa fans need somewhat convincing based on what we have experienced over the last 6 or so years.
All trust has been taken away and definitely needs re-building.
I’m with you on that stubbs, let’s see what happens.
Many Chinese take English first names, it makes life easier. The questions are attracting an awful lot of press which in itself is worrying. Seems journalists can makes head nor tail of this, or find any firm facts either. I like the fact we could be (not a done deal yet it seems), owned by a Dr Tony X!!!
With the f*** up Lerner has turned us into, it wouldn’t surprise me to see headlines screaming ” Villa deal called off”…
I sincerely hope these worries are unfounded. If it does fall through, then I’ll put a grand on us going down again.
For any owner following Lerner, its fairly impossible not to better that success. if you need a crash course in things to do and NOT do. aston villa under Lerner is what you should study and without doubt not follow.
Current squad need lots of work, but with the right manager in control of FOOTBALLING side, backed by a owner sensibly, villa are massive, we can produce decent footballers through the academy, history is full of players we produced, we could improve on this. foundations are already there, just need the right men in place to do their jobs.
i seen that hepburn murphy against arsenal supposedly youth team,he tormented them, most of game he broke away with lighting speed and he scored with a nicely placed header again from a quick break away, along with davis and sellars. thou next season maybe too soon for them, murphy could well bang in some goals quite easily in championship.
I’m with you Nath. Just hope Tony isn’t uncovered as a bus driver from Swindon with bi-polar issues! I’ve said it before, but the overseas players brought in last year are quality. Messi would have been looking for razor blades of he’d have spent the last year at VP. Look at the way Okore rebelled, good on him! I’d have told the hierarchy to go f*** themselves if Lescott was ahead of me in the pecking order. We actually have substance hidden away, but would never ever be realised under Lerner’s guidance.
Amavi, Gana and ayew i think they were decent signings, i have no doubt they will leave and for about the same money as we bought um for. but Lescott (edit) and richards i thought both these were decent additions, how wrong i was. pathetic.
beats me why under lambert we bought players, no better than we had already in the academies.lots of money paid for unknown quality. gambles that never worked except the benteke one.
like you said, we have substances hidden away. its a untouched gold mine. just needs the right backroom team to develop them into our stars. i hope the new owner, realizes this and utilizes the up and coming stars.
Veretout could be awesome given the rich nurturing. I wonder what role Ranieri had in mind for him?
i also thought he would be good. but again i was so wrong. this might be down to a number of things.one could be having no team around him to find in good advanced positions. or us not having the ball long enough in good positions overall.
as it stands i don’t think we will recoup all of his transfers. but i wonder if new manager could get him to play,
Personally I think the press are trying uncover news that doesn’t exist – Imagine the Villa being a club owned by a billionaire, who is backed by the Chinese Govt, upsetting the sky 4… Sod em lets wait and see.. Doctor Tony has been more up front and visible than Lerner ever has…
Let me put this simply. NO business owned by a Chinese national can be run without Government involvement. Its common knowledge. They DONT have to say this….they just go ahead and do it!
Saddened has called this correctly!
I’m also on the page with Dr Xia fronting up some Chinese Government involvement. Without wishing yo be paranoid I also think there are sections of the media that would rather see us fail than actually get significant financial backing.
i agree media are loving us struggling ,its easy for them to write their BULLpoo (edited for you) lol makes for lazy journalism.
Di Mateo having talks with Lazio….GOOD.
H60…. both you and saddened are correct. There is absolutely nothing dodgy going on here.
Its no different to me giving a mate ‘x’ amount to start up a business and negotiating a percentage return of his profits when he is successful…..we both gain, dont we?
Hooray at last some optimism I’m sure things will come to fruition enjoy the summer ffs
Fuck it I’m taking my tickets back, I don’t know what to think now? Some,saying good thing others bad, I’m going to wait and study in the next few weeks, if he moves his empire over here I’ll go with what hes saying.
how come your f**k wasn’t edited lmao ppl will start taking about favoritism
Nath, you can say it but not the C word, bye the way is it not in the dictionary yet?..
well my cpu auto spelt it i was trying to spell correctly lol
C**t jolly well is in the dictionary Bill!!!
Badger, can you please edit my occasional drunken rantings too please. It can be embarrassing to look at posts the following day and think ‘Oops’!
Correct no C word please or it goes into admin ????
Can u return STs
If Villa do indeed become a major force under Chinese ownership, it will be immeasurable PR for Chinese football. For me, that’s their number one goal. We get to rebuild so it looks like a win win situation!
Hooray!!!!!!
I get all the Chinese government backed investment stuff. That’s been happening for years. I would question buying Aston Villa though. With the amount of money available they could buy whatever team they want.
So, why wait until we are relegated and cheaper if that’s the case? Why Aston Villa rather than Everton for example?
Like everyone else I’m hopeful that this works out but I think it would be wise to be sceptical until it’s proven to be all above board
Back later, off to buy a Chinese car.
“Why Villa?” – is a good question.
Possible answers relate to other Chinese investment around Birmingham in the last year or so; the business pages of the B’ham Post very often feature photos of unknown-to-us Chinese big-wigs doing property and other investment deals around this region. Then there’s the start of direct flights to China from the airport – seasonal last year and this, but strongly rumoured to become full-time scheduled services within the next 12m [and that was before the Villa deal!]. The West Midlands does far more business with China than any other region outside London…
You might be surprised if you knew just how many thousands of Chinese students arrive in B’ham [across all of the Universities here] each year – they’re generally here for 12 months doing MA’s/PhD’s, and I can tell you from personal experience many of them get to really like the city – I’ve known some who’ve brought their families over here for a week at graduation time which isn’t cheap, but they’ve gone and done all the sights around the region – occasionally that’s also included visits to VP!
The city council have been working extremely hard to do real investment business with the Chinese – look at the fuss when Osborne ‘stopped’ the Chinese PM visiting Birmingham a few months ago on his tour of the UK: apparently he specifiaclly wanted to come here, but Osborne wanted to play his “Northern Powerhouse” tune in favour of Manchester…
Then look at the other side: Everton are a great club, but potentially limited: Merseyside is possibly too small for another really “Big” club in the shadow of L’pool; the region isn’t buzzing financially [anything heading up there tends to stick around Manchester]; and yes, the fact that we’ve just become a lot cheaper probably helped as well!
All good points Ardent. Loads of Chinese at Warwick University too.
DSV – I’ve no more idea than anyone else whether “Dr Tony” is who he says he is, scepticism is healthy.
However, as to general Chinese interest in this part of the world, that has been on record for quite a while: the Chinese [private/state/can’t tell the difference anyway] have been looking to invest around the West Midlands for a couple of years. The problem has been that the present UK government would prefer them to spend their money in “The North” – even though the Chinese have far more regular business dealings around here.
It’s not something which gets a lot of coverage outside this area – after all, the media have such a London/Manchester bias that they rarely report anything that might be of more Midland interest.
Oh and by the way. Recon group website has been down for a while. Coincidence?
Not paid the bill yet.?
Probably crashed from all the Villa fans and media trying to get more info. Or not paid the bill
love to know OUR favorite choice to be next manager :)) could we do a poll pity please :))
VillaAwayInDiv3 says Di Mateo is talking with lazio Rodgors at celtic
i think its between Moyles and Pearson,
Nath, we ran a poll on managers just recently, but I’m happy to run another one in my next post.
I’ll try and write something tonight, after work.
great 🙂
i might have missed your last poll 🙁 but if you could again with the top candidates :)) i would appreciate i just wanted to know how others were thinking.thanxs in advance
It was here mate, although a bit longer back than I’d got in mind;
https://www.astonvillanewsandviews.co.uk/garde-leaves-and-the-board-have-to-make-one-of-the-most-important-choices-ever/
Moyles? That annoying DJ? No thanks
how or why can villa announce the club has been sold if the new owners had not gone through the fit and proper tests.
why not wait until it was 100%
I’d asked myself that question as well, but from memory, isn’t that how all of these deals have been done before?
Either that, or Hollis is so certain that the F&P test is just going to be a formality, that they’d rather just get things moving now, since there’s so little time to the start of the next season – and we haven’t even got a manager…
One last (hopefully) comment on our outgoing flid of an owner:
http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2016/05/former_cleveland_browns_boss_r.html
That’s a good take on RL: nice guy, genuinely well-meaning, just totally inept in business and particulalrly sports-business.
Just got back from the King Power stadium, watching my 13 year old granddaughter win the cup for Coventry girls, they stopped the games to have wedding photos for bride and groom by moving all into one stand, never seen a disorganized venue like that only at Villa Park.Had to tell you a proud granddad.