'No-vision' Ellis under attack from Villa fans

Aston Villa supporters and shareholders have launched a stinging attack on chairman Doug Ellis and the board, accusing them of “lacking the vision” to bring success to the midlands club.

They have described Ellis’ end-of-season target of achieving fourth place in 2004-2005 as “an impossible task” for manager David O’Leary given the current size of his squad.

And, despite O’Leary bringing in £8.72million in prize money for finishing sixth in the Premiership last season, Ellis has asked O’Leary to dig into the well of home-grown talent at the club to bolster his first-team squad.

O’Leary wants to bring more players in and has only spent £1 million net in bringing in Martin Laursen for £3million after selling Peter Crouch to Southampton for £2million. But he has only limited funds.

A joint statement from the Aston Villa Shareholders’ Association and Villa Fans’ Combined to PA Sport indicates concern over which way the club is progressing.

It read: “Although we welcome some of the positive aspects of the annual report, we remain convinced the current board are moribund and lack the vision necessary to improve the results greatly on or off the pitch.

“Mr Ellis has once again changed the personnel on the board but he still remains the kingpin at the club.

“Whilst other clubs are moving forward with their strategies, ours are, in his words, in the planning phase.

“The strategic changes and commercial strategy the chairman has spoken of should have been in place a long time ago.

“He has had 22 years to bring success to the club and seems no nearer now than at any other time.

“We note that for a third year in a row the club have announced a loss and that the shareholders will receive no dividends.

“We very much hope that this means the directors will forgo their annual bonuses as they have once again failed to balance the business and playing side of the club.

“The very fact that Mr Oleary, beyond anyone’s expectations, was able to achieve sixth place whilst having to offload so many players should mean he is now receiving the sort of backing other clubs appear to be in the position to offer their managers.

“Instead it appears Mr Ellis feels better qualified than our manager to judge the potential of our youth players and sees them as an excuse not to invest like our competitors have.

“Our worry, as shareholders, is the board’s inability to provide the correct balance in order to achieve decent business results.”