I suspect the first half of my post will bore the pants off many of you, but it’s something I find interesting and I’d like thoughts on.
If you’re not interested, scroll down halfway and I do talk about the footy side of things, honest!
I’m sure we all know the story by now, but just in case, here’s the link;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36094976
I have to hold my hands up and say I don’t have a clue how things work in the hierarchies of big business (and that’s basically what the Villa is), but I find the suggestion of a mole within Villa Park a bit worrying.
Hence I find myself wondering who the said mole might be.
I might be wrong, but I’d expect that if a board member has something to say to another specific board member, the rest of the board would normally be CC’d in.
That part makes sense, as the board have to come to some sort of consensus and there’s no one board member who can make a sole decision; Randy Lerner apart, I’d suspect. Hence the board have to keep everyone “in the loop”.
At least that’s how it works where I work, at the (lower) level I’m at.
So given that the mails Bernstein and King exchanged were critical of Lerner, it also makes sense that they must have been a private conversation between the two of them.
Which begs the question of who else would have been able to see them?
And I can’t see that anyone would, unless they hacked Bernstein’s or King’s computer.
Of course, I’m working on the assumption here that the mails weren’t sent from within Villa Park (which would rule out any Network administrators) and both directors wouldn’t be so naive as to walk away from their screens leaving them unlocked, for anyone to have a peek at (would they?).
I’m also working on the assumption that Paddy Riley, the main suspect, who isn’t listed as a member of the board, or even strangely enough, an AV official at all wouldn’t have been party to these conversations.
And anyway, he’s known to be close to Lerner, as is General Krulak, another one I’d discount.
Which only leaves Doug Ellis.
Would he have been kept in the loop when it came to critical comments about Lerner?
Possibly, but I doubt Merv would have included him, as he surely knows what he’s like.
So what am I saying?
The truth is, I don’t know.
But then I find myself wondering how it seems the BBC first broke this story.
Since when have they ever been the first to know anything about the Villa, especially when it hasn’t come from Pat Murphy?
I’m guessing the whole story was leaked by a new source.
I think there’s much more to this than first meets the eye, is my conclusion.
So onto the actual footy side of things then and Gabby has been suspended again and we’ve called the PFA in to mediate. The good news is that it seems the PFA might have a lot of sympathy for the club.
But they’re never going to side against the player, because that’s not what they’re about.
Dead simple this one, to me.
Get rid and I don’t care how it happens. Sack him and let him take the club to a tribunal, if we have too.
And it breaks my heart to say it, as someone who defended him for ages after he was played out on the wings.
But there are far too many accounts that suggest he’s the worst influence in the club and he has to go. At any cost.
And then there’s Okore, who’s apparently moaned at Eric Black about not getting a game and has been demoted to the development squad.
Which has caused some outrage amongst the fans, having read on here and other sites.
Maybe rightly so, as I do actually like the player.
He’s young and has room to improve, after all.
But while I don’t rate Black at all, you can’t tell me that he’d see any player moaning about wanting to play as something bad enough to warrant demoting him. Especially when it seems half of the favoured eleven don’t seem to give a toss.
No, again there has to be more to this than meets the eye.
And my guess is that Okore’s another troublemaker, who thinks he’s better than the club and another we need to get rid of.
Black is starting to move up in my estimation, if my thinking is correct and he’s actually laying down the law.
In other news, David Moyes now looks a reasonable bet to be the next Celtic manager.
While I think he was probably genuinely interested in the Villa job, who can blame him for not being interested now?
Which also makes me wonder, which manager of any decent standing would want to come to us at all?
There’s another protest planned for Saturday’s game.
I’m afraid I don’t care about these anymore, as the previous ones have been totally uncoordinated and missing, dare I say, a leader as in “Fear”.
Pretty much like the club really, I suppose.
And finally, we won the Barclays grounds team of the year award.
Congratulations to Paul Mytton and the team and I’m sure we’d all agree that they do a sterling job in making the VP pitch consistently one of the finest footy surfaces in the world.
We do have one thing to be proud of lately, after all!
