Where to we go from here?

deadbuzzardalive wrote:A lot of scaremongering going on at the moment, and people making stuff up to suit their own agendas. Of course Bruce knew the cost of failing to go up, he even said himself before the game, that if we lost the team would look very different next season. And of course he's going to say he hopes Grealish stays, it's not out of the question that that might still happen.

And there's nothing to suggest Xia is going to asset strip the club, we'll sell some players, but probably not as many as people fear.

If Bruce, had have done the job that he should have done, with the tools given to him by Xia, then we wouldn't be in this mess. For me Xia's taking too much flack.

Well at the very least XIA shouldn't have said that the FFP restrictions are going to be "very severe" and other down beat stuff. It was obvious people were going jump on that.

If xia comes good then great. But he hasn't shown great decision making so far. What he really needs to do is unearth a gem of a manager - who in turn finds some young starlets. I have limited confidence in that happening though. It will be Bruce or a 'yes' man with us hanging around mid table at best.

Well all this takeover talk complicates the manager situation quite a bit, if there's any chance whatsoever of us actually being sold this summer then I doubt we'll be bringing in a new manager before then, in the meantime we either keep Bruce, or if he quits, promote one of Agnew or Calderwood.

As for Xia I like him, but wouldn't mind if he sold us, as long as it was to the right people.

Scouting around media and football related sites i cannot find anything other than what was in the Sun or Birmingham Mail.
Not seen anything on SSN or other credible sources. This makes me think that this takeover gossip is just that, gossip.
How many seasons did Wolves spend in the Championship? 5 i think but not sure on that. They got Mendes involved for loan signings of players that were far better than Championship level. Is there anything stopping us doing exactly the same because i cannot see any reason why we can't.
That was a genius move by Wolves and in my view the only reason they got promotion. Without Mendes they would have been a very average team indeed. They loaned key players for the positions they needed to fill. Taking nothing away from their manager at all, exactly the type of manager we should have gone for the moment we got relegated from the Premier League. Free flowing attacking football a nd at times brilliant to watch.
We should do the same asap and get Mendes on board in my view.

It's not all doom and gloom and having read this article;

https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/sport/leeds-united/leeds-united-cost-promotion-championship-14472542

It shows that over the last 5 years 15 Championship sides have been promoted to the PL, 7 teams were still receiving parachute payments and 8 got promoted after they had exhausted theirs,
Brighton, Huddersfield, Middlesbrough, Bournemouth, Watford, Leicester, Cardiff and Crystal Palace. Other than Cardiff (who have just sealed their place again) all the others have retained theirs.

Hutton signs a new contract, which pretty much confirms that Bruce is staying put and by extension Xia, as such moves wouldn't be sanctioned if he was about to sell the club. Soul destroying on so many levels.

He was a free agent, so essentially our first signing of this summer is a a 34 year old right back, repeating the same mistakes that got us into this mess in the first place, i.e signing players past it, in positions we're well covered in anyway.

Was hoping that if Xia didn't sell up, he'd at least shake things up, and get rid of Bruce, can't believe he's getting away with having failed to get the most expensive championship squad ever assembled promoted. All this financial troubles talk as worked in his favor, as it's totally took all the attention away from his failings.

I think you have to look at Hutton signing a new contract as a positive (otherwise you will go mad)!

He was a free agent he could have gone anywhere and probably got a better deal but he hasn't, he has stayed, shown commitment and WANTS to play for us and on top of that he is the best left back we have at the club!

To be fair to Hutts he did an okay job last season at left-back, I just think we should be looking to build a younger team now. It's less about him staying and more about what it says of the bigger picture and future direction of the club, that depresses me, i.e another season of Bruce.

Hutton's Interview:

https://youtu.be/iPvohEQCdn0

Hutton did a great job for us last season. Positive move to retain him, an experienced player that want to be at villa and always give 100 percent.

Yeah I agree Hutton signing is good news. There's plenty of championship sides who would love him I bet.
Excellent commitment - he could have walked and avoided the potential basket case we may yet become , but he didn't, he stayed to do a job. Yes I know he's not playing for nothing but he still stayed - good lad.

Everyday seems to bring some fresh disaster, I wonder what will happen tomorrow...

Didn't have to wait until tomorrow, according to Percy we need raise £50m to keep the club afloat and stay in line with FFP, Moxey has written pretty much the same thing for the mirror as well.

Disappointing as there seemed to be positive noises coming out of the club regarding our financial situation. No wonder the they tried to make such a big deal over Alan Hutton signing a new contract, there won't be much in the way of things to excited about this summer.

Woohoo! FFP strikes again, How to kill the hopes & aspirations of hundreds of thousand of fans all around the World by strangling their club to the point where it's almost a waste of time supporting them any more.. But it's ok as at least the club which has become a pointless pile of scrap didn't risk going bust... Oh er...Hang on!

What a joke the whole thing is.

So basically we have to find 50m to comply with the stupid rules thus making it practically impossible to get promoted any time soon. Of course the club will spin it differently but we all know it's BS to sell season tickets. Ultimately this means less fan interest, less income and basically a downward spiral which will ruin the club and one of the great names of English football. To go along with the other already wrecked clubs like Forest, Leeds etc. Meanwhile the Premier League is full of teams who struggle to sell out 30k stadiums have little to no international fanbases and provide a fixture list as dull as dishwater in my eyes in the Prem at the moment, well half of it at any rate.

Awful state of affairs.

Now i know Xia has apparent cashflow issues but even if he didn't the FFP thing makes us uninvestible for any decent new owners too so effectively the future of the club is wrecked by the whole charade and FFP actually increases the likelihood of us being bought out by mere asset strippers thus threatening the club anyhow!

Obviously the only teams which matter in this country are
Man Utd,
Man City,
Liverpool
Chelsea
Arsenal
Spurs etc.

The ones no doubt being lined up for the European Super League which will be incoming soon.... How dull!

The Utterer wrote:Woohoo! FFP strikes again, How to kill the hopes & aspirations of hundreds of thousand of fans all around the World by strangling their club to the point where it's almost a waste of time supporting them any more.. But it's ok as at least the club which has become a pointless pile of scrap didn't risk going bust... Oh er...Hang on!

What a joke the whole thing is.

So basically we have to find 50m to comply with the stupid rules thus making it practically impossible to get promoted any time soon. Of course the club will spin it differently but we all know it's BS to sell season tickets. Ultimately this means less fan interest, less income and basically a downward spiral which will ruin the club and one of the great names of English football. To go along with the other already wrecked clubs like Forest, Leeds etc. Meanwhile the Premier League is full of teams who struggle to sell out 30k stadiums have little to no international fanbases and provide a fixture list as dull as dishwater in my eyes in the Prem at the moment, well half of it at any rate.

Awful state of affairs.

Now i know Xia has apparent cashflow issues but even if he didn't the FFP thing makes us uninvestible for any decent new owners too so effectively the future of the club is wrecked by the whole charade and FFP actually increases the likelihood of us being bought out by mere asset strippers thus threatening the club anyhow!

Obviously the only teams which matter in this country are
Man Utd,
Man City,
Liverpool
Chelsea
Arsenal
Spurs etc.

The ones no doubt being lined up for the European Super League which will be incoming soon.... How dull!

Well at least it isn't raining......

Yes rant over

Needed to get it off my chest though reading it back it was a tad negative

I think we all know that players have to go to get money in, just a case of which players. If it were me I’d be trying everything possible to retain Grealish, I’d be making everything else available before watching him have to walk away from the club. If the reported interest in Albert is real then I’d make him available for £8-10m. Realistic figure for a proven goal scoring wide man in the championship, possibly a touch more. If Bruce is staying and he has the pull he thinks he has, then he should be able to persuade Hernandez to link up with him again on a free transfer. I’d listen to offers around £12m for Kodjia, I’m not sure Hogan will attract much interest at much money to be honest but we do know he’s no use to us with Bruce as manager and the style of play. Tuanzebe on a season loan would be ideal if it can be done. It’d really help if we could move on one of Jedi or Whelan, preferably Whelan. Hopefully Pulis might want him at Boro. I think Rowett will come knocking on our door for one or two, he’s got cash in his pocket now and will be looking to pick us off. We know that with Terry and Agbonlahor gone we will save in the region of £6m per year salary. Sell Albert and Kodjia and we’d hopefully trouser somewhere in the region of £20m in transfer and save around £4m in salary. With Johnstone, Snodgrass, Grabban all gone that must be another £4-5m in salary off the books.

Everyday I hope to hear some news about what the plan is, or what's going on with the finances, but nothing happens, Xia seems to have completely disappeared, and we're not even hearing the media speculate on a takeover anymore. It's starting to feel like we're just going to start the season as we are, but with a few of our betters sold to help comply with FFP.

I don't see much happening until July and the start of the season is getting imminent when sides really get involved in transfers, then the fire sale will begin. We will be in the market for free transfers and cheap loans, the side will be significantly changed and Bruce can start making more excuses! Not particularly looking forward to it at all!