Well, I’m certainly not going to say “I told you so” and I’m not counting my chickens, but I’m highly encouraged by what I’m reading.
Which is that Villa, or more specifically Tony Xia, is in talks with a Middle eastern outfit.
The good news is that these are supposedly advanced talks, that have discussed various levels of investment, with a view to a total takeover, as a second stage.
I just knew there was something going on behind the scenes, as if the club is so desperate that we wouldn’t be able to pay a tax bill (due tomorrow, I believe), then Xia would have been selling players at any price.
Although the taxman will try to accomodate a company as best he can, he won’t accept many excuses.
But being in the middle of a sale is definitely one of them.
Of course, with Villa’s recent run of luck, there’s still plenty of scope for something to go wrong.
But as I’ve said previously, I still like to think that Xia does have the club’s interests at heart.
It’s all about honour with the Chinese, isn’t it? (no bad thing).
And yes, he’s looking after his own interests too, but he (or his backers) have put serious money in, at the end of the day.
So, it’s still a case of fingers crossed, but it seems a deal could be done quite quickly.
God, let’s hope this happens.
Which then leads to us asking who has invested?
Knowing our luck, it’ll probably be an Iranian outfit, which would just cap it all.
No, perish the thought.
My money’s on a Quatari outfit.
Fits with the next WC and all that.
And whew, they’re minted.
Here’s hoping.
UTV!
It doesn’t get much better than today’s news. The club is now financially secure and now has the resources to make a push for promotion if the new owners desire.
I only thing I find interesting in the statement is that twice it was said that the club intends to strengthen the squad – what this means for FFP, etc. I don’t know but I’m sure the next few weeks will be interesting.
As for Grealish, if he does leave I now feel like it will be because he wants International football as opposed to being forced out by the club.
Marvin, I believe that means to balance the books for FFP this year we still have to sell – but that buys us time to invest and get into the Premiership for next year, where we’d need to balance the books again. Either that, or we take it easy with investment this year and do it smartly, or find a way to increase revenue so that we can invest heavily again over the next 12 months (i.e. from sponsorship, renaming rights – you name it). All it took as others have said, is someone with pockets deep enough to structure the finances in a way that they personally take the risk of FFP, not the club.
We could take the fine, two other clubs did and won, as far as I understand it was FIFA that made the rule first the FA said it wasn’t fair and change it, Is now become a burden and club are going broke ove the rule.it needs to be challenged because we have had that very same problem , how is it the big six get away with big payments and high wages. Or am I talking Tommy rot? Please enlighten me.
No I don’t think you are Bill. According to reports FFP rules can be challenged legally. There also appears to be a wide range of financial ‘tricks that can be used.
The big positive I see in our new investors (owners?) Is that they are both business savvy and I’m sure they have already looked at their FFP options.
Noticed Sawiris has controlling stake – that could make for some interesting cross ownership sponsorship funding…
in Adidas****
Just think that in every Bluenose Adidas shirt bought they are contributing to saving our Great Club………. Cheers guys. UTV
We just need confirmation that Jack will not be sold and tell Levy the price has trebled so he can do one.
Great news today could not have have asked for better news so hopefully we can all move on in a positive way.
Finally can all the press and media print positivity about our club. They have all enjoyed their time in printing about our fall from grace. And as for Spuds and Levy tell them they can have McCormack and Richards instead, because Jack is not for sale! Unfortunately I think it will be Jack himself who wants the move so he will probably go to get premier league football. However we can be sure it’s not on the cheap anymore. As for Chester and Kodja though, definitely tell whoever comes knocking to do one.
Of course it’s brilliant news that the club is financially stable. Forgive me for being cautious – so many false dawns
Tell you what Hitch, so much for the papers saying Xia wouldn’t sell to the Yanks, got that wrong.but boy am I relieved. It’s all over the news now so can sit back and get behind our beloved club.
It’s nice to have some positivity. We can at least look forward to this season with some optimism. i wonder what the new owners will be thinking regarding the manager. I suspect they will stick with Bruce for the first half of the season at least.
If they do give B the boot, at least he knows what brand it will be.
There was talk above about asking the media to be more positive about us. Well, there are now a few reports about Thierry Henry being rumoured as our potential next manager. Ok, so it is more than likely just the usual empty speculation, but on the good side Henry is a legend and well respected in football and so I take it as a positive sign of our new upturn that he would be linked with the Villa by the media, even if in reality it is just paper talk.
Also, I wonder what odds I would get on adidas being our kit sponsor next season?