Earlier this week, I promised I would write an article about how I would run the club if it was me in charge, not Randy Lerner and co. I hope that by illustrating my own football ethos, that fans will realise that I am just as bored of how the club is run as they are. That I too find the football dull, uninspiring, and poor value. That I see constant short term thinking, a lack of any kind of vision, and this underpins why we are going nowhere and doing nothing.
Football Needs A Foundation
The primary reason I see fans are upset underneath our current jumble of issues is the distinct lack of any kind of plan for the long term. There’s no football ethos at the club, and there’s no structure to how things are done. “Five year plan”? Pull the other one.
As far as I can see, the only “plan” the club ever had was to let things run along. As we all know, Randy didn’t employ Martin O’Neill, he just left him alone to manage.
When that didn’t work, for whatever reason we may want to cite, the board went out and hired their first manager. Can’t say that was a success. Can’t say their second manager has been so far either.
The fact that these errors occured, and reoccured, is what makes things so frustrating as fans. We all make mistakes. It is only human. However, multi-£m companies shouldn’t keep making the same mistakes out of stupidity. The dichotomy that appears is that the talk is always of lowering the wage bill, and then every other month we seem to do something that messes it up again whether it is unearned pay rises, or poorly chosen loans It’s not just stupid, it’s reckless.
Anyway, I get away from my original point. We all know just how this isn’t being done correctly. What we need is a plan. Here’s mine.
It Starts From The Top
If I was in the place of Randy Lerner, I’d be looking at totally turning how this club is run upside down, on pretty much every level. To make things easier, I need to break it down into pieces.
The first thing I would do is go and get a football man or two who has retired after an illustrious career in management, and set him out as my sounding board. Ron Atkinson would be an ideal “Villa” choice. This person doesn’t need to be a director of football or anything, but I’d want him on retainer to have an idea of what is going on further down the chain, whether or not my latest investment of £10m on the new signing we are interested in is actually potentially worth £2m, £10m, or £50m.
I actually though Gerard Houllier was a great person to have in this kind of role. Having a man who has done really well, who loves football, and has many contacts would be ideal to have as a sounding board. As a manager, not so much. Far less stress in being less involved in the results business. Houllier knew this.
After all, why else would he have gone to work with the French FA after his health issue rather than at another club? Largely because few would have suggested a man of his health was stressed heavily, and even fewer would have offered him a job that causes so much stress.
Additional to these people, I’d also want experienced top level players who have retired around the club. For me, getting badges for the likes of Martin Laursen and other good quality Villa players would be there to instill community and a legacy, as would looking at the available retired talent from some of the best clubs. Get Olof Mellberg in after he retires too to coach the youth in defending.
Outside of the club Pires was a great example, but he should have been a coach and mentor rather than a player. If it means taking excellent players at the tail end of their career on short term contracts as a stepping stone, then so be it, but I would want excellent players who are older, and who can mentor the youth, rather than players who are just old.
These kind of people would work well to help our youth develop when coaching or mentoring them. Truly talented footballers can pass on how to be truly talented. You know the kinds I mean – winners with experience of winning at the very top level. Think global, not just England.
Every Team Needs A Manager
Once I had my sounding board of real football people, then I’d look at who could be brought in as manager. For me, the idea of going for a big name is dead and buried for the foreseeable future. At present, and as most fans will agree, there’s nobody who I can see who is both proven and interested out there. Which is, in turn, part of the reason we hired McLeish. However, there are better strategies than that.
When it comes to managers, I’d want someone with potential rather than experience. Someone who can be mentored with the capability of the football people I’d have on the board. Somebody who is going to be here for the long term because of investment in them as a central focus of the club and the ethos, rather than a constantly churning cycle of mid-range managers.
It may well be a risk but, at present at least, risks are better than repeating the same old situations. Who that manager would be would depend on the time this plan got enacted, but there are plenty of people who fit this kind of bill. The likes of Chris Powell, Eddie Howe, and Gus Poyet all fit this kind of mould given a little more time and experience. Young enough to be moulded, as well as ambitious enough to jump at such an opportunity, as well as smart enough to know football inside out as former players.
The whole system would have to be club wide, and top down. I know I mentioned in a former piece that I would scrap the reserves, but if we had to keep the same system, I’d at least have them playing the exact formation and tactics as the first team. The same would be done with the youth so Villa were singing off the same hymn sheet.
Firstly, I’d make this happen because it would ease the transition for player progress. A right winger would do the same job in one team as the next. It’d be different players, sure, but the easier the transition, the better.
Secondly, I’d do it because it would start instilling a “Villa way” of doing things. We all want attacking football, but before that we need consistency. Big clubs are known for their football. Villa need to be too, and for the right reasons.
The Best Players Can Come From Anywhere
On top of that, I’d want to have a real community setup when it comes to player recruitment. The club arguably does a pretty good job when it comes to looking for lads in the local area, but I also would want to develop relationships with clubs internationally. After all, if Aston Villa want to be global, Aston Villa have to act global, so I’d want scouts and club partnerships with all the major leagues across Europe, the United States and further out.
I’d set up links with the likes of Glenn Hoddle’s academy to look for players who might have slipped the net the first time. I’d be working with the FA to set up regional centres of excellence to allow for a wider net of recruitment for young players. I’d be keeping very close ties with the National Football Centre in Burton-upon-Trent.
It would take time and cost money, but it would set solid foundations.
I’d want to ensure our reputation was used to bolster the feeder clubs as well, so we can use their team to find the best players they have to offer. Offer them free loans of youngsters that we need to develop without them needing to pay wages, and we’ll get first dibs on their best talent. Everybody wins. These kind of relationships are proven to work, time and time again. It’s no surprise that the biggest clubs in the world do it. To be big, you have to think big in football terms, not just in money terms.
I’d want to establish specific links with EU countries that have differing laws on the necessity for European nationality. In these clubs, I’d be looking to bring through young and talented non-EU players on long term loans so they are able to come to Villa once they have a European passport.
If the players work out, great. If not, we can always sell them without them being in our team. My commitment all through this endeavour would be to make Villa like a family, rather than another boring faceless corporation – to put something of a heart back in a broken system. God knows – we need it.
Would It Work?
Of course, this is all theoretical, and it is nothing like how the club is run. It is, however, something I believe could work if it was done properly. The rewards of this sort of system invariably take time and money, but they are far better than drifting around in mediocrity with the same old formula. Buy average, play average, be average.
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I understand the club has plans for things like entering the Asian market for brand equity, much like our partnership with Genting provides, but by just working like a corporate we are missing the point. We are not another corporation like MBNA, we are a football club. Our paying customers ARE the club. Without the fans, the club is just a series of buildings and contracts.
Till we start acting like a proper football organisation, and working like one, we will continue to see round pegs in square holes.
The future could well be bright, but it’s going to take a paradigm shift in top-down management to get there.
The Author
