The Bells Are Ringing


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The Bells Are Ringing


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Xia out!

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Post by Terry Derry Tue Jul 03, 2018 11:28 pm

Silence from Villa Park. Manager stifled by the owner.
The owner is bogus and must go.
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Post by deadbuzzardalive Wed Jul 04, 2018 10:09 am

I'm starting to think he'll be here for a long time to come, Recon have only recently agreed to 'sponsor' the training ground, and as a club we've paid big money to relay the pitch, handed new deals to players out of contract, and are advertising for vacancies, not usually the actions of a club that's for sale or entertaining bids, that and the fact that Xia hasn't said anything to suggest he's going anywhere, quite the opposite in fact, and apart from a few local papers reporting interest, there's nothing else to suggest that a sale is even on the agenda.

I'm just hoping that once the season starts we can somehow prove everyone wrong by winning football games.
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Post by The Utterer Wed Jul 04, 2018 1:51 pm

Yes i can't wait for the carcass of AVFC to be rolled out when the season starts and see us be the laughing stock of the Championship as we were the Premier League all those years ago when we were slightly less crap. Xia out! 4107169167
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Post by deadbuzzardalive Wed Jul 04, 2018 7:35 pm

Yes fans think it's bad now, but over the next month or so things are going to get an whole lot worse as the consequences of our situation play out in reality. Losing Round, and johnstone and Johnstone going to Albion will be nothing compared to the misery that's about to visit us.
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Post by FoxyAV Wed Jul 04, 2018 8:39 pm

Is it bad now? We've lost two people who kept Bruce in a job and our loaned-in goalie has gone somewhere else. Without investment and new shareholders coming in or Xia liberating some money it's clearly not going to get better but who knows where we'll be at the start of next season. Some of our ex-players like Johnson and Robinson have been doing well in the Championship and it's quite likely O'Hare and Audrey are even better. We'll still likely have Lansbury and Jedi, Hutton's signed a new contract, Green looked really good before he was injured last season and so on and so forth. Sure, we have DEFEND DEFEND DEFEND HOOF! to look forward to, which won't be fun if Bruce keeps playing Hogan but we'll have a decent squad of players. I'm looking forward to the football. I'm not looking forward to any of the rest of it and can't wait for the season to start. Mainly so I can complain bitterly and constantly about Bruce and his shit selections, play and the way he'll blame the players when we lose.
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Post by deadbuzzardalive Wed Jul 04, 2018 10:18 pm

I personally think Round and Wyness leaving is a good thing, there's speculation that Bruce might be following them in the next few days. Not too concerned about Johnstone either, as he wasn't our player, and as soon as we lost the play-off final we knew he'd be going elsewhere.
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Post by Terry Derry Wed Jul 04, 2018 11:02 pm

deadbuzzardalive wrote:I personally think Round and Wyness leaving is a good thing, there's speculation that Bruce might be following them in the next few days. Not too concerned about Johnstone either, as he wasn't our player, and as soon as we lost the play-off final we knew he'd be going elsewhere.

Do you think there will be anyone with football experience being lined up to replace them?
I don’t think Xia has a clue what he is doing, other than looking to take as much out of the club as Lerner did before he went.
This is a shambles and is likely to get far worse.
The days of Xia being a popular figure on Twitter are over. He will be hounded out of Villa Park and rightly so.
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Post by Terry Derry Wed Jul 04, 2018 11:03 pm

Furthermore, we should be disappointed that Johnstone has gone to the bitters.
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Post by The Utterer Thu Jul 05, 2018 3:18 am

FoxyAV wrote:Is it bad now? We've lost two people who kept Bruce in a job and our loaned-in goalie has gone somewhere else. Without investment and new shareholders coming in or Xia liberating some money it's clearly not going to get better but who knows where we'll be at the start of next season. Some of our ex-players like Johnson and Robinson have been doing well in the Championship and it's quite likely O'Hare and Audrey are even better. We'll still likely have Lansbury and Jedi, Hutton's signed a new contract, Green looked really good before he was injured last season and so on and so forth. Sure, we have DEFEND DEFEND DEFEND HOOF! to look forward to, which won't be fun if Bruce keeps playing Hogan but we'll have a decent squad of players. I'm looking forward to the football. I'm not looking forward to any of the rest of it and can't wait for the season to start. Mainly so I can complain bitterly and constantly about Bruce and his shit selections, play and the way he'll blame the players when we lose.

I hear you Foxy but i see us having lost:
Johnson
Terry
Samba
Snodgrass
Onomah
Plus the chap from Man U although he seldom played a part so hey ho.

Also we have lost Wynesss & Steve Round plus the Fitness Coach and head scout.

None of those have been replaced although obviously we have some loanees returning who the jury are out on in the main.

Snodgrass will be a big miss as will Terry. Johnson will too i fear although we have a replacement in Jed Steer who is bang average in my eyes... a downgrade surely.

Onomah we can hopefully replace with one of our own but then promoted youth players is always an unknown so another huge gamble.

Terry we cannot replace, as a player nor person in the dressing room who the players look up to.

Samba came in handy as a back up on the odd occasion and again he has not been replaced. So where is the back up in central defence? Best hope we don't pick up any injuries back there eh?

The Lerner-esque silence is deafening too, just trashy, patronising press releases from the club is all we get which considering the shambles before us is insulting to me as a lifelong fan.

The club is a joke quite frankly and yet again we have an absent, silent owner.
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Post by big ming Thu Jul 05, 2018 6:41 am

I have come to the conclusion that AVFC may well be best served by either voluntary or compulsory Administration. The club can then be purchased from the Administrators by a (hopefully) forward looking individual or consortium with the best interests of the club at heart.
It will mean a points deduction and probably no chance of promotion in year one, but clearly the club needs a completely fresh start. The only danger (to be avoided at all costs) is a fire sale to asset strippers.
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Post by FoxyAV Thu Jul 05, 2018 6:49 am

Well, we just sent back all the loanees.

Terry might have been the leader of men Bruce wanted but I'm afraid I preferred Baker, who'd created a decent partnership with Chester. Samba was acceptable as cover.
Onomah only occasionally seemed to want to play for us and could be very good but apparently Spurs didn't want him playing as AM so it seems unlikely they'll loan him back to us.
I did like Johnstone, a lot, but West Brom could well just be the team he thinks will take him into the PL sooner. Sure, it's probably our complete lack of money but who knows.
Tuanzebe is one I'd like to see come back. He can play in defence (central defence in particular) and as DM. I thought he looked great.
Snoddy we'll miss and it will be even worse if he does get sold but as of now he's training with West Ham and remains a West Ham player who Pellegrini might want to play.

So as we stand we've not lost anyone we didn't already have. I don't think Terry was the answer and I don't think he's a regular PL starter either, even if he did decide to keep going for another year. Apparently having Richards around has been good for morale and the younger players (see also Heskey and Pires) and Terry will have been too but he's 37 and not as fast as he used to be. We need a solid defender like Chester, not some kind of figurehead.

We'll just have to see what happens. We have lost something though I hadn't thought of, the players did end up playing as a team, which is something we hadn't seen for a while. It might just be because we were winning more or because we had something to fight for (other than relegation).

I started a lighthearted thread that backfired spectacularly once the news of our fucked finances came out but in essence I put values on players and suggested everyone pick their starting 11. Sell Grealish or sell a combination of other players. What you're left with (and with hindsight in spite of everything going on) is a starting 11 that's still strong. Blackett-Taylor could break through, we have Green, Jedi has a part to play, Elphick is still a very good defender, Davis and Audrey and so on. Taylor and Bree both came to us as excellent prospects although Hutton is staying and we'll probably not be able to sell Elmo. And that's before we find out who out of Chester, Kodjia, Hogan, McCormack, Adomah and of course Grealish will stay (if any). My point is we still have a really solid team before we take loans into account. We may not have a team capable of promotion, it depends on the manager, it also depends on club finances or ownership by the time the season starts and who we'll have to have sold.

And I like Steer too, from what I've seen of him.
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Post by De Kuip Thu Jul 05, 2018 7:17 am

I'm with you foxy - still think we have a very decent championship team and not sure how old Sarkic is but bloody hell he's turned in some fine performances for the U23s to date. England have a 19 year old keeper at the WC so I'm sure we could call on a young keeper for the championship if needs be.
Ironically whilst I'd have loved to see that fucking dinosaur Bruce leave any time up to now, he might be useful in providing some continuity as we start off next season. Having said that if he goes I won't be crying.
I really think a huge part of the coming season will be attitude and approach. If the club and players believe we are doomed then it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If the attitude is one of "let's show 'em" allied to the right players in the right positions and a judicious blend of youth and experience, we ought to be more than okay.
The fixture gods have helped us with a decent first few games, so unless we implode further as a club, I think as a team we should still expect a solid championship season.
Nearly 20k season tickets sold says to me crowds should be similar or a bit down, so if we do ok VP should still be a big day out for many clubs and we have to use that. Our away support will still be phenomenal so we need to reflect on the pitch what our great support does from the stands.
I'd still take our team without Grealish over most of the other teams in the championship- I guess it's the thin squad that is more concerning, but that aside if we go into the season leaving all the off-pitch shite well, off-pitch, then I see no reason to doubt we will do ok.
I think given the disgraceful and reckless issues at the club, an okay season will feel like success.
Hopefully this will give us time to see Xia fuck off and a decent set of owners come in, (as long as that perennial self-publicist Hodgson isn't involved), things should get better across the 2018/19 season.
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Post by FoxyAV Thu Jul 05, 2018 8:48 am

De Kuip wrote:I'm with you foxy - still think we have a very decent championship team and not sure how old Sarkic is but bloody hell he's turned in some fine performances for the U23s to date. England have a 19 year old keeper at the WC  so I'm sure we could call on a young keeper for the championship if needs be.
Ironically whilst I'd have loved to see that fucking dinosaur  Bruce leave any time up to now, he might be useful in providing some continuity as we start off next season. Having said that if he goes I won't be crying.
I really think a huge part of the coming season will be attitude and approach. If the club and players believe we are doomed then it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If the attitude is one of "let's show 'em" allied to the right players in the right positions and a judicious blend of youth and experience, we ought to be more than okay.
The fixture gods have helped us with a decent first few games, so unless we implode further as a club, I think as a team we should still expect a solid championship season.
Nearly 20k season tickets sold says to me crowds should be similar or a bit down, so if we do ok VP should still be a big day out for many clubs and we have to use that. Our away support will still be phenomenal so we need to reflect on the pitch what our great support does from the stands.
I'd still take our team without Grealish over most of the other teams in the championship- I guess it's the thin squad that is more concerning, but that aside if we go into the season leaving all the off-pitch shite well, off-pitch, then I see no reason to doubt we will do ok.
I think given the disgraceful and reckless issues at the club, an okay season will feel like success.
Hopefully this will give us time to see Xia fuck off and a decent set of owners come in, (as long as that perennial self-publicist Hodgson isn't involved), things should get better across the 2018/19 season.

This is how I feel about it too. We can't do anything about the ownership stuff (unless a consortium of fans comes together but I can't see anything on the horizon) but we have a very good set of players and have to cling onto the prospect of seeing some good football. I was really pleased about Hutton re-signing. He's not the greatest full back in the league but he puts in all his effort all the time and wants to play for the club. We started to see that with Snodgrass last season and Adomah, Hourihane and Kodjia are definitely there too. I'm going to be gutted if Grealish goes. Bruce seems to be very good at bringing in loans and I think we'll need some of those (Grabban in particular was very good) but I'd really prefer it if he went too. I'm optimistic. I don't think we'll be challenging for promotion under Bruce but if we can keep some of the star players like Kodjia we may be in with a chance.
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Post by smetro Thu Jul 05, 2018 2:07 pm

De Kuip wrote:I'm with you foxy - still think we have a very decent championship team and not sure how old Sarkic is but bloody hell he's turned in some fine performances for the U23s to date. England have a 19 year old keeper at the WC  so I'm sure we could call on a young keeper for the championship if needs be.
Ironically whilst I'd have loved to see that fucking dinosaur  Bruce leave any time up to now, he might be useful in providing some continuity as we start off next season. Having said that if he goes I won't be crying.
I really think a huge part of the coming season will be attitude and approach. If the club and players believe we are doomed then it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If the attitude is one of "let's show 'em" allied to the right players in the right positions and a judicious blend of youth and experience, we ought to be more than okay.
The fixture gods have helped us with a decent first few games, so unless we implode further as a club, I think as a team we should still expect a solid championship season.
Nearly 20k season tickets sold says to me crowds should be similar or a bit down, so if we do ok VP should still be a big day out for many clubs and we have to use that. Our away support will still be phenomenal so we need to reflect on the pitch what our great support does from the stands.
I'd still take our team without Grealish over most of the other teams in the championship- I guess it's the thin squad that is more concerning, but that aside if we go into the season leaving all the off-pitch shite well, off-pitch, then I see no reason to doubt we will do ok.
I think given the disgraceful and reckless issues at the club, an okay season will feel like success.
Hopefully this will give us time to see Xia fuck off and a decent set of owners come in, (as long as that perennial self-publicist Hodgson isn't involved), things should get better across the 2018/19 season.

If you look at the players on the books - and even if you factor in the likely departures of Chester and Grealish, we still have reasonable set of players to put on the pitch. The problem is the turmoil surrounding the club makes it difficult for the playing side not to be affected by all of what is going on - at a smaller club it can have a galvanising effect - but at a bigger club factions develop and the club tears itself apart.

I would love to see supporter ownership - or at least an owner whose overriding interest is the long term future of Aston Villa. Neither will be easy, the chances of our next group of owners being lured by the prospect of sky cash above all else, is sadly very high.
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Post by Dions_Bald_Head Thu Jul 05, 2018 2:16 pm

We're also talking about if the club doesn't have an emergency fundraising sale.
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Post by deadbuzzardalive Thu Jul 05, 2018 5:19 pm

We're having to borrow to pay the monthly bills, Xia is refusing to sell us, is even turning down offers of investment for a minority share, and has gone awol without explaining what's going on, we're letting key members of staff go to save money, it's not that they're gone that's the problem, it's that they won't be replaced, so I'd say things are pretty much as bad as they've ever been, I still wouldn't rule out administration the way things are going.

On the playing side of things I think there's going to be a lot of disappointed people this month as we lose our best players at cut-down prices, in fact I wouldn't be all that surprised if we lost some of our promising youngsters that some are putting so much hope into, any of Green, Davis or Hepburn-Murphy could go, if we can't shift others, they're all highly rated, and have been linked to Premier League clubs before, even if we do manage to keep them if they do as well as we'd like come January we'd struggle to keep them, as we'll still be strapped for cash then.

Not sure how we're ever going to get out of this mess, maybe one day we will, but it feels like a long way off at the moment.

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Post by De Kuip Thu Jul 05, 2018 7:21 pm

deadbuzzardalive wrote:We're having to borrow to pay the monthly bills, Xia is refusing to sell us, is even turning down offers of investment for a minority share, and has gone awol without explaining what's going on, we're letting key members of staff go to save money, it's not that they're gone that's the problem, it's that they won't be replaced, so I'd say things are pretty much as bad as they've ever been, I still wouldn't rule out administration the way things are going.

On the playing side of things I think there's going to be a lot of disappointed people this month as we lose our best players at cut-down prices, in fact I wouldn't be all that surprised if we lost some of our promising youngsters that some are putting so much hope into, any of Green, Davis or Hepburn-Murphy could go, if we can't shift others, they're all highly rated, and have been linked to Premier League clubs before, even if we do manage to keep them if they do as well as we'd like come January we'd struggle to keep them, as we'll still be strapped for cash then.

Not sure how we're ever going to get out of this mess, maybe one day we will, but it feels like a long way off at the moment.


Yeah it does feel like we're getting caned at monopoly doesn't it!? From the days when Lerner came in and it felt like we had hotels on our properties, to now where it feels like weve had to sell them all back to the bank and all our property cards are turned over with "Mortgaged" in big red letters showing.
Except we've managed to not mortgage one of our 4 stations. Come on you fuckers, someone land on Fenchurch Street........
But seriously I have to take the view i outlined above, i have to hope even if it's foolish hope, because if i take the glass half empty approach i actually think id just pack it all in and get a season ticket at Exeter City (Who are fan-owned by the way).
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Post by deadbuzzardalive Thu Jul 05, 2018 8:57 pm

I suppose if you wanted to put a positive slant on things I suppose you could say we don't know what's going on with a possible takeover, the press were wrong enough times when Lerner was trying to sell up, we don't even know if Xia has done anything wrong as such, apart from put his trust in the wrong people, two of which have been removed from the club, all we know is that we missed a tax bill which has since been paid, all the rest is just speculation, maybe he really is having trouble getting his money out of China.

As for the players you could say we haven't sold anyone yet, we'll almost certainly lose Grealish which will be a big blow, but whilst he was injured in the first half of last season we were still challenging for promotion, so him going shouldn't mean we can't challenge in of itself.

If we do do better than expected, it will be interesting to see if the fans perspective on Xia slowly changes over time back to a positive one.
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Post by Terry Derry Thu Jul 05, 2018 11:30 pm

I am sure that we had heard from Bruce this time last year. The owner has now shown himself to be surrounded by, equally incompetent, muppets. Xia has run out of sUpport and he has got to sell, even if to Doug Ellis. He is a dreadful owner, with jokers fawning around him. Even the creeping Howard Hodgson doesn’t know whether to grovel or turn against him.
I think the situation is so bad that even older fans are holding back from playing up about it as it is so bad it is almost surreal.
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Post by deadbuzzardalive Fri Jul 06, 2018 4:05 pm

I think we're just going to have to hope that he comes good, because there's no indication that he's looking to sell whatsoever. It's an utter disgrace that we don't have a clue what's going on though, rather than things becoming clearer, each days seems to just bring more disarray.
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Post by UnclePanda Fri Jul 06, 2018 8:59 pm

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Post by FoxyAV Fri Jul 06, 2018 9:23 pm

Interesting letter, it says we need to sell players to meet FFP. Loans up to 31st May have been turned into shares, presumably. Does that mean the financial year runs 1st June to 31st May?
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Post by smetro Fri Jul 06, 2018 9:51 pm

deadbuzzardalive wrote:I think we're just going to have to hope that he comes good, because there's no indication that he's looking to sell whatsoever. It's an utter disgrace that we don't have a clue what's going on though, rather than things becoming clearer, each days seems to just bring more disarray.

I don't think he can sell. He has purchased the club with borrowed money - which he still owes - so unless someone offers him around £80m it will wipe him out. For comparison Leeds were sold for around £20m last season.
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Post by deadbuzzardalive Fri Jul 06, 2018 10:02 pm

We don't know that he bought the club with borrowed money, that's just speculation.
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Post by smetro Fri Jul 06, 2018 10:13 pm

deadbuzzardalive wrote:We don't know that he bought the club with borrowed money, that's just speculation.

True - but its perhaps less speculative than he raised £80m cash from recon.com !!!
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