Aston Villa News 24/7Writer: J P Fear 
Date:Wednesday August 16 2006
Time: 9:43AM
UK time is: 20:43:46
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AV06 Takeover Hogwash?
A Camel Is Horse Designed By Committee
Let's just look at what Bill Howell has written in the Evening Mail this evening and consider the implications .....
'The Mail understands that AV06 have a combined wealth amongst their board members in excess of £10billion, including at least two billionaires and further backers from the United States, the Middle East and across Europe.'
The board of AV06 has 10bn funding and two of its members are billionaires. Let's assume that these billionaires have, say, 4bn between them. This leaves 6bn between the others who be implication aren't billionaires. Let's assume, for now, that each of these are half billionaires. This would mean that to make up the remaining 6bn there must be 12 of them. These 12 plus the original 2 gives us 14 board members of AV06.
Now these 14 have to find, say, 70m to buy the Villa + 12m to write-off the debt + the 30m they plan to invest in the club in August. This gives us a total investment of 112m between the 14 members of the board. Assuming they were equal partners they have to invest 8m each..... chicken-feed for these very wealthy people.
The question is this ... why would 14 of the richest people in the world (which you need to be to have 500m+ in the bank) want to work with each other in owning a football club. What's in it for them? Your guess is as good as mine ... but it wouldn't appear to be to 'own a football club' because patently none of them actually wants to 'own' the club for themselves or they wouldn't be working with '13' others.
If we assume that my assumptions are wrong and that there are 6 of them (using Howell's description: 2 billionaires plus (1 from the) US, (1 from the) Middle East and (2) from 'across' Europe(1 can't be 'across').
This still makes 6 'big(ger) swinging dicks' having to work together to run a football club. I just can't see it happening. If one of these people is going to be 'the new Ellis' and the others were to be silent partners in the background then I would have expected that AV06 would have declared the name of this person by now...... I just don't get why they need to be so secretive.
Hence, they will end up with a camel rather than a horse.
By Paul Johnson
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Your Comments
Maybe these people just want to invest and not be on the board making decisions? Who knows. I did read somewhere that several of them were Villa fans or had Villa connections? Anyone know any Villa fans with that kind of money?
DeanoVilla
Maybe the 6 or so 'swinging dicks' are tired of cutting business deals on the golf course. Maybe they see owning a PL club as this year's desirable object d'art - who knows ? Don't forget the Still consortium is, er, still out there somewhere. They're very quiet. Too quiet, if you ask me...
pongogidman
all i know is i dont trust this AV06 people, like neville they seem to be all talk and no action. Compare that against Lerner - no talk and all action. I know which one i prefer.
mcgoo
Its all about 'transparency', to use a buisness term. lerner's had the decency to come out and lay his cards on the table, we know who he is and what his main intentions are. I'm not comfortable with all this secracy, who are these people? this is the fans club and lerner respects that. if padfield is serious about buying us he needs to answer some questions and lay some fears to rest.
bobbyfett
The article is complete supposition. I would agree, however, that the shadowy money behind AV06 is a handicap for them, PR wise. At least with Lerner it is one man's money, something we can all understand and somebody we can identify with rather than a group of faceless money men. For all we know AV06 could be funded by al-Quida or, worse, Bill Gates.
Saurat
i agree with mr fear that lerner has gone about everything in the right manner and througth the proper chanells. where on the other hand padfield and neville have both used the media to do their talking. lerner is the right man and has a plan in place to invest in avfc for now and the future.
deemz
why dont the birmingham mail employ a sports journalist who is actualy a villa fan to cover avfc. bill howell is not very good and should be replaced. what happened to leon hickman...?
deemz
deemz, good journalists don't hang around provincial papers any longer than they have to, they often get head-hunted by the nationals. And another thing, I thought AV06 were going to walk away if MO'N was appointed manager, they wanted Laudrup and Jensen. What was all that about? It is inconsistencies like this that make people so suspicious of them.
Saurat
Like i said on the other article av06 are a bunch of wan***s who dont know how to conduct themselves properly in the public eye they all sound like a bunch of twa** who talk the talk but cant walk tke walk
samtozer
At the press conference that announced MONs arrival, we were told that there would be some immediate money for MON to spend prior to the end of August. With all these shennanigans does this mean that that money is now not available? And if it isnt that obviously means that we are waiting for the takeover to take place before there is any significant transfer activity. If this is the case and if everything goes to plan, does anyone know whether it can be done in time for money to be spent on transfers before the end of august?
andrew144
Quite right, andrew144, O'Neill did say money was available for immediate use so any takeover issues should be irrelevant. I would have been happier if Ellis had said this rather than MO'N, but I'm sure he's just assessing the current squad before making his move. Wish he'd hurry up though, I'm getting itchy.
Saurat
Saurat, you are correct in your assertion that Bill Howell's article is complete supposition. So, why did he publish it in the Evening Mail?
randy
Its a good job that Randy Lerner has seen fit to show a huge interest in acquiring AVFC, because without his involvement I believe that we'd be left with a right bunch of cowboys competing for ownership.
glensider
My understanding of 'money availble for transfers' could be money gained from the our league position. However, in todays transfer market, negotiations between clubs on player transfers are very flexible and Villa may only need to put a 'down payment' on a transfer fee. Whilst I'm very excited about the proposed take over I'd really like some new players in now. Anyway, I'm for the Lerner bid. I like the way he does business and he seems to be very sympathetic to the needs of the supporters as well.
Steve64k
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