Vital Villa’s Last Ellis Article.

Following on from the David Conn story in today’s Guardian: Ellis rolls away from his nice Villa earner

This is Vital Villa’s last ever article from me on Ellis on this site.

For an initial investment of £500 000 this is what Doug made out of Villa, taken from The Guardian:
Deadly Doug’s deals

£3,635,391 Ellis’s total Aston Villa salary packages between 1985 and 2006

£4,000,000 Amount he made from the Aston Villa share sale in 1996

£1,650,967 Dividend payments received by Ellis from 1998 to 2003

£20,148,275 What Ellis stands to make from selling his shares to Randy Lerner

£29,434,630 Total personal earnings from Ellis’s years at Aston Villa

£229,000 Total payments to Ellis’s company, Ellmanton, for construction work and ‘administration fees’ in the 1970s and 1980s

Fair enough, he can now boast to have ‘beaten’ the fans and to have made a fortune out of the club. He left because of old father time and a bag full of money. He didn’t like the criticism but he rode it. He treated AVFC as his baby instead of as ‘our’ club and a plc. He also often/always forgot the fans, even in his comments about his time at Villa recently!

There are those that have mixed with him at a social level and have found him charming. There are those that have dealt with him socially and business wise that have found the direct opposite.

With me and my many words, it was never, or rarely personal. I sent him genuine good wishes when he was in hospital and stand by my words at the last agm, I do admire the way he has manfully fought his illness and wish him a full recovery and a happy retirement. Having battled with illness myself, I’d never wish that on anyone, or at least not ‘just’ a chairman of a football club. I was also not one of the long term anti Ellis people, it took me years to see the wood for the trees, together with many thousands of other fans.

I’m happy to have had my say and that groups like VFC and AVSA and all those that went before us, as well as the websites and fanzines, stood up and tried to re-address the balance, but I’m even more pleased that the issue is now a dead one, Ellis IS going and it is time for us to move on.

Hopefully the next chapter of this magnificent clubs history will be a brighter and more exciting one.

So farewell Doug, thanks for everything/nothing*.

* Delete as appropriate!