By Allan JW taken from our forum thread on the new CEO Christian Purslow
His appointment tells us a number of things about the new owners. The fact that it is their first major change in staff and the timing of it.
It tells us they are astute businessmen. Their purchase of the Villa is primarily a business investment to them and they are acting to secure as much of the commercial opportunities as they can quickly. Purslow’s expertise is off the pitch on corporate sponsorship deals, that’s what he did at Chelski to a remarkable degree in 3 years. I welcome his appointment in this regard as he is clearly capable and, with the right steering, can help solve FFP dilemmas and build a huge commercial empire worldwide. I suspect that’s his brief with us and it means the new owners want our club to be a world power in commercial terms in the medium term. That’s a good move.
The timing of this change as the first staff move tells us they have been working on this aspect of the club management since they bought us as these appointments and their accompanying negotiations are not normally concluded quickly. So they are building for the long-term and building strongly.
His appointment is also interesting in a second respect; his Liverpool experience. He was given a singular brief in that role and it did not concern the commercial activities of the club. He was given the delicate and difficult-to-achieve task of restructuring the debt position of the club with the RBS bank. This eventually resulted in complex legal battles with Hicks and Gillette which he (alongside his other board members) won. There may be aspects of the current deal with Doctor Xia which mean this experience he has will be brought into play. I’m speculating here of course but the next few years may just need careful handling in terms of ownership stakes and this may have played a part in his selection. In which case I welcome his appointment for this reason as well. I want stability of ownership at the club especially with people who want to build us into a world power. Credibly, not on twitter …
It may also mean that having made this appointment their energies can be turned to other matters of staff appointments, assessing where the club is and where it needs to be. I said it a few weeks ago; Bruce has 10 games to secure his season and he’s 6 into that now.
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