After my last post, things have become a bit more clearer about what’s happened to cause the worrying that many Villa fans are going through and surprise, surprise, it’s the Villa PR department that seems to have messed up.
While it’s understandable that converting Chinese to English can be problematic, it’s not the first time they’ve messed up (remember they couldn’t even get Remi Garde’s name right when we appointed him?) and it just makes the whole club look amateurish.
Whoever is giving the nod for what goes out needs his position looking at, in my opinion.
Anyway, while the original statement said that Recon hold controlling stakes in 5 listed companies, it now appears The group holding company owns, directly and indirectly, the shares of several publicly listed companies on the Hong Kong and Chinese stock exchanges and many other private companies employing 35,000 people in 75 countries.
Apparently the group controls one company and is about to take control of 4 other companies, which is possibly where the confusion came about.
But if you look at the actual wording above, it’s a meaningless statement. Notice it doesn’t mention a controlling share at all.
I own shares in 13 companies listed on the London stock exchange, but does that mean I could buy the Villa?
Of course I couldn’t.
Which on the face of it, is all quite worrying.
But I was more buoyed by the supposed fact that the Recon group, or more accurately, one of it’s subsidiaries, apparently managed to raise £5 billion as Venture capital money.
The relevant article is supposed to be in here somewhere;
http://www.reconig.com/htm/pps.htm
Except it seems the site has been down for a while.
A coincidence?
I very much doubt it. But I don’t think I find that particularly worrying. It’s probably about trying to keep the media off the scent.
Before you all think I’m nuts, let me explain.
I’m working on the assumption that the £5 billion statement is true(ish).
And if it is, I don’t care where that money came from.
The fact is, if any company can raise that sort of money, it has to have something about it.
If that’s down to it being a pukka company, so much the better.
But I suspect it isn’t and this might be where the Chinese government come into it.
What the £5 billion’s about, I couldn’t say, but it’s probably about other projects that may or may not have anything to do with us as a club.
Quite simply, I’m even more convinced that Recon is basically a front for the Chinese government.
Yes, it’s guesswork, but remember Xia was groomed by the government and it wasn’t without reason.
The biggest concern for me now is will they manage to get this past the PL and FL “fit and proper” tests and my money says they will.
Regardless of what I think of Steve Holis, he’s no mug and will know how the system works, although his comments about China’s “bird nest” stadium do leave some cause for concern.
How could he have got that so wrong?
And then there’s other news, in that Dr Xia apparently knows who our next manager is;
http://english.cctv.com/2016/05/21/VIDEYK6efVnOuvv3qKqT715t160521.shtml
It’s all in the last couple of sentences.
But the previous comments are all along the lines of what we were told originally on the OS and are mostly wrong.
Anyway, I find the comment a bit cryptic;
“As for now the question on everyone’s lips is who is going to take charge in the dug-out at Villa Park.
“I would rather keep it a secret for one more week. And I hope all the fans, including myself, will accept he will be the right one,” Xia said.”
Why would he hope he will accept he will be the right one, if he chose him?
Which quite simply tells me he hasn’t chosen him at all and as I previously suggested, he’ll go with who’s been recommended.
Whatever, if the statement is to be believed, we’ll know who he is in a week.
Which is a good reason to have a poll asking who we want again, now that Rodgers is out of the frame.
Yes, I ran one quite recently, but things change.
And I’ve added Flores, as I’d take him over some of the other choices.[polldaddy poll=9424593]
[polldaddy poll=9424593]
