There Is No Fans Hijack At EGM

An article has appeared in the Birmingham Mail today suggesting that fans are looking to hijack the AGM. From my point of view this isn’t correct. I did say that questions need to be answered but it has already been made clear that the EGM is to vote on the one issue. I won’t be attending, I’m happily going to be in Portugal and feel the vote will be a given anyway because the disposal of the asset at £7m isn’t bad business, the only bad business is how the board are going to use the funds.

The real questions will once again have to wait until the AGM when the board will once again hide behind takeovers that never happen and questions that they can answer will be ignored or dismissed.

If I was attending I would be asking whether the sale of the land for £7million will lower the asking price of Aston Villa. The answer from Doug would be NO!

I would also like a definition of ‘asset stripper’ from Doug who says he won’t sell to any potential asset strippers and yet seems perfectly willing to sell the assets to pay off the losses the PLC has once again made!

I do think it is a great shame that the money raised from the sale isn’t put into team re-building because then even the staunchest anti-Ellis person would have to congratulate the board on a bit of good business.

What I did say to Bill Howell at the Mail is that shareholders would, given the opportunity, like to raise issues but that for us to call an EGM ourselves is too big an ask due to the statutory requirements to do so.

My quote in icbrum: ‘I think a lot of shareholders would like to discuss and vote on other issues. What the club are effectively saying is don’t turn up, for what will in any case be a ‘fate accompli’ of a vote.’

The point about our latest poll was really a side issue although 63% who voted did say they would like the funds to be used to pay O’Leary off and bring in a decent manager!


‘O’Leary is the final nail in the coffin as far as the fans go. You can’t keep coming back season after season and seeing that rubbish and listening to the same rhetoric. The vast majority of fans are against O’Leary. Sixty three per cent in our poll said they wanted the £7million to go towards sacking the manager. It might be the middle of the summer but the anger hasn’t dropped. Martin O’Neill is available and he would get the buzz factor into the club again. At the moment there is a very unhappy fan base.’

I will also always continue to question why the board are hiding behind a takeover that was dead in the water 6 months ago.

‘We want to know what is happening with the takeover. I don’t think fans are fooled any more by the Comer Brothers. If there was to be a bid it would have been last October or November.’