Matt Kendrick in the Evening Mail last night basically reprinted the same article I quoted in this blog post. In this post I corrected a point made in the article which I felt disparaged those involved in the the ‘Anti-Ellis’ protests since 2000, which I am glad was not reproduced.
Lets be clear where I come from
ellisout.com
and anyone remember dougout.ukweb.nu ?
So as usual when we get an Ellis article the forums come alive as shown by these two threads
H&V
Villatalk
Within these forums are contained some gems of comments and this is what I mean by ‘myth makers’. These quotes show the myth and obviously there are rebuttals to them but it is amazing that over time how the myths can spread so that large numbers do believe them
Yes, Doug is an egomaniac, as most people with money tend to be to some degree or other, but he was not as bad as some people make out as he did not saddle us with huge debt, kept prices amongst the lowest in the league and in the end helped make us an attractive investment opportunity.
Lets be fair here i would rather Doug was running us on a tight budget and still have a club instead of throwing stupid wages and transfer fees and be like Leeds and if it wasnt for Abramovich Chelsea would be finished as well.
I wasnt always happy with this policy but at least eh didnt plunge us into debts.
Also he is actually a very nice man when you talk to him and he also should be praised for selling to Randy instead of George Gillett who offered more money
These two quotes just show how some people totally misunderstood the dire straits the club was in at the end of the 2005-6 season.
Yes we won two league cups under Ellis and two near championships, but since he came back in 1983 we were relegated once and involved in at least 6 relegation battles.
When he sold to Randy the club was £10m in debt and the banks refusing to extend it further, the work on the training ground had stopped, at least one supplier had not been paid. Also we had just had the infamous players letter, Barry was about to be sold to Pompey and only 7000 season tickets sold before MON arrived.
The club was nowhere in a stable and decent position, in fact quite the opposite.
Whilst I have no proof of this it has been said that Rothschilds were brought in despite Ellis and was forced onto by the only other major shareholder Jack Petchey who wanted his money back. As reported by Pat Murphy during negotiations with Randy, he had walked out on Ellis due to demand like Ellis wanted to stay on as executive chairman. Randy was only persuaded by a combination of Keith Harris and Rothschild’s to go back and Ellis was forced by Steve Stride to do the deal, not the myth that somehow Ellis ‘picked Randy’ out of choice.
So all I have to conclude with is to list what Randy has done to Villa since he has been there (a lot from a document VFC sent him), some of which cost money some of which did not to understand the total difference Randy has made and thus makes the Ellis regime seem like what it really was. A self serving one for a very egotistical man.
Holte Pub rebuild – built a gateway to VP not matched anywhere in the country
The General communicating with the fans, the SCG’s
Free coaches, scarves and flags
Classy signage around the ground and on the Trinity Road
Totally restarting the training ground making it one of the best in the country
Card system at the turnstiles
Rebuild of the Trinity Road exec suites to the best in the country (you had to see them before to understand)
Removal of the Doug Ellis sign from the front of the Witton Lane
opening the Holte Suite at half time
Rebuilding of the Holte Suite
Money for players way beyond incoming fees and one off’s like share floatation
A sense of history and pride to the whole club
Reconnecting to the local community
AND
The 1982 European Cup return to VP, just remember that Ellis never allowed any photo’s of 1982 around the ground
