11 Jun 2018 21:28:46
There's only one thing simpletons like me need to know, ffp is a load of gobbledy-gook like Villdave said, who leaves, who stays doesn't really matter, for me the only real question is whether bruce sticks with this 'massive club' (his words), or toodles off to leeds-now if he goes because we're trying to save money then fine;but i hope he offers to take a massive pay cut to stay and finish what he started, if he chips off under his own volition, then not only will it destroy all the belief i had in bruce as a man of honour, but also it'll just go to show he'd rather go to a club who'd sack a manager after 14 games, with a squad he'd inherited, rather than see the opportunity to become a true legend at our club, so the choice is with bruce, is he full of class, or spouts it out of his a*se, let's see what happens (i hope for the sanity of football he stays for sure) .

1.) 12 Jun 2018
12 Jun 2018 11:03:30
FFP is not an issue if your owner is prepared to gift the club money therefore underwriting spending. That is how clubs with genuinely wealthy owners have been able to get through FFP. Only when a owner starts wanting to run a viable business does this become an issue. The problem at Villa is that Xia’s money has only ever been in the form of loans meaning that they have a negative impact on the clubs balance sheet and show a very unprofitable organisation, which is not allowed under FFP.

FFP is not designed to stop wealthy people buying success, it is designed to stop clubs living way beyond their means by borrowing money they can never pay back (see Leeds and Pompey) .

Villas problem is that the club have borrowed the money from Recon and will owe it back, that money has now dried up I strongly suspect because it is starting to affect the viability of Xia’s broader business interests. Xia personally has not invested anything in Villa and never will, therefore we have the double whammy of facing FFP and an owner who can’t save us from that as he has no money to invest that he is prepared not to get back (if he did then he could gift the club a big sum of money and make all this go away, FFP and HMRC etc. )

Therefore the only way out of this is either a short term massive cash gift from a new wealthy owner or more realistically a 5 year restructuring programme to decimate the cost base and rebuild revenue from the bottom up. The latter probably involves some pretty painful years ahead unfortunately.

2.) 12 Jun 2018
12 Jun 2018 11:15:31
That is right. The good Dr is not as generous with the cash as he tries to make out.

3.) 12 Jun 2018
12 Jun 2018 13:59:16
Good in depth post Ely, like I said yesterday posted below, sell the lot and start again.
Painful yes, but we need rid of these jokers, they know nothing about football and the roots our great club have grown from.
Xia said he planed to invest in or buy football clubs in India, Spain, USA and Australia to create a new 'sports sector' within his portfolio.
My advice is to forget it, play with toys you understand, and you won`t break them.