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Here's an interesting interview for you:

Bruce Langham Interview
Author: matthew barton
Posted: 11/04/2004; 21:11:47
Topic: Bruce Langham Interview
Msg #: 131701 (top msg in thread)
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From ICBirmingham

Bruce Langham's name did not make a dent in the national consciousness until the Rolling Stones found they could not get a telephone line out of their hotel at three in the morning.

Langham has really come to prominence only since entering the world of Premiership football, first at Fulham with Mohamed Al Fayed, and now at Aston Villa working alongside Doug Ellis.

But five years ago, Langham first found himself in demand from the media when the Stones were on tour in Scotland and found they couldn't get no satisfaction!

Langham was the managing director of Telewest Communications in 1999 when he suddenly realised that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were kicking up a fuss.

When 70,000 phone lines went down in Edinburgh in 1999, one of the world's biggest rock acts were soon on Langham's case.

"There was a flood in one of our telephone switchboards which took out half of the city," recalled Langham.

"But the first complaint came out of the Balmoral Hotel where the Rolling Stones were staying.

"They couldn't make calls at 3am so they weren't happy!"

The next day, Langham found himself extremely quotable.

But it was only when he came into football two years later that he found his services were required more regularly to feed the information-hungry world of the Premiership.

Not that Langham, 57, was too concerned by the fact that his words now mattered on an almost daily basis.

And now that he has joined - by his own admission - a bigger outfit in Villa, he will be called on even more to comment on the fortunes of a club expected to qualify for Europe every season. That is the difference between Fulham and David O'Leary's side.

The Londoners have made huge strides in the last few years and European football is a distinct bonus for them.

But Villa fans still bask in the glory of a European Cup final triumph and the fact that they haven't even come close to matching that achievement in two decades is a major source of frustration.

Not only that, but fierce rivals Birmingham City have made such rapid progress in the past two years that they are now looking to take away Villa's long-held title of being the region's No.1 club.

Blues will claim they already are after last season when they finished above Villa in the Premiership and won both derby games.

But Langham says he is well aware of the partisan relationship between the clubs, even though he is a Scotsman currently living in Sussex.

"Coming from Edinburgh, I know all about one city having two football clubs. There's my team, Hibs, and then there's Hearts," he said.

"All credit to Birmingham - they have made great strides. But the bottom line is that we are still the No.1 club in Birmingham as far as I'm concerned."

Of course, much of the supporters' frustrations are aimed at the boardroom and at Ellis. At a time when talk of takeovers and the possibility of new cash being injected into the club is commonplace, Ellis's response has not only been to turn down one bid, but to appoint a new senior figure at the club.

Langham is believed to have always been Villa's first choice ahead of Trevor Birch at Leeds United, the man tipped as favourite for the job.

The arrival of Langham suggests that Ellis is planning long-term at the moment and it is a move designed to allow the Villa chairman to take a "back seat" from the day-to-day running of the club now that he has turned 80.

Yet Langham, a softly-spoken Scot with an obvious business edge to his manner, finds it difficult to work out why Ellis gets such a hard time at Villa Park.

"I think it would be extremely egotistical of me to think that just because I've arrived, then things will change automatically," said Langham, who refuses point-blank to discuss the repercussions of any future outside bids for the club.

"What I have joined is an extremely well run organisation. There's a great manager and a chairman who has created all this. I don't know why he gets such bad press."

Langham's arrival did not exactly provoke a positive response from Villa supporters and the new man makes it clear that he is in this for the long term, despite speculation that Ellis may soon be ready to sell up.

One protest group suggested that, while the club's branches had changed, the roots remained the same, referring to the fact that Ellis will still have overall control of what happens at Villa.

And whatever Lang-ham achieves there, Ellis has been around too long simply to fade into the shadows. But the new man denies that he is here to give Ellis a football makeover in the same way as Al Fayed became everyone's "favourite uncle" figure at Fulham.

The sight of Al Fayed rapping on television with Ali G was probably more down to Max Clifford and Langham does not predict an image change for Deadly Doug.

"I improved the image of Fulham Football Club, not Mr Al Fayed," said Langham.

"But if my being here at Villa makes the relationship between the fans and Mr Ellis better then I'll be very pleased.

"That's not why I'm here, though - Doug Ellis can take care of himself.

"I understand that he will be taking a 'back seat' as he promised some months back.

"He wants to take things a little easier than he has been. But he will still be involved as executive chairman on a day-to-day basis. We have talked about our working relationship and I am comfortable with that."

And Langham admits he can understand the frustrations among supporters at a club where it has been eight years since a major trophy was won.

"I've been a football fan for 45 years and I would like my club to go out and spend £100 million on players and to go and win the European Cup.

"But they don't have £100 million for players and neither do Aston Villa. That doesn't stop you wanting it, though, which I understand perfectly.

"I won't take a risk on this club's future by spending money we don't have. There's no point - we've seen what happens when you do that."

Langham's experience of working with Al Fayed at Fulham taught him about the economics of football. The Cottagers once had Franco Baresi as their director of football and former France star Jean Tigana as manager.

Yet they are being moved forward by one of the brightest young fledgling managers in the Premiership, Chris Coleman.

Langham appears to be more than aware that football's gravy train ground to a halt some time ago but he knows the bar will be raised for him at Villa even though they have also acted to cut costs and impose a pay ceiling.

Al Fayed had big plans which meant big money. But in the end, realism kicked in. And Langham himself found himself the victim of the club's reorganisation when he was sacked by Fulham last year.

"When I was at Fulham, the chairman said his ambition was to make them the Manchester United of the south," recalled Langham.

"To be honest, there already is one and it's called Arsenal. Mr Al Fayed gradually realised that you can't buy success in that way. What we decided to do was tailor the expectations of what we could do as a Premiership club.

"That satisfied the fans. Fulham sorted out their finances and are going places. I will take some of the credit for that happening.

"But Villa is a bigger club with a great history and bigger ambitions. I'm pleased because, even at my age, it is a career progression for me."

Some supporters may not see Langham as the "younger" man who Ellis said would be coming in to replace former deputy chief executive Mark Ansell.

But he is still a good deal younger than Ellis and would certainly appear to be focused on the task in hand, as well as realising that the demands placed on him will be greater.

Fans will want plans put in place that are designed to bring success and O'Leary will request the sort of financial backing that will help him achieve that. Already, the Villa boss has suggested that four new quality players need to be brought in this summer.

"I don't believe in simply chucking figures around publicly about what we are going to spend," said Langham.

"But my initial impression is that, with the size of the squad we have here at the moment, we are not a selling club. In fact we need to do the opposite."

That is the sort of remark that suggests the club will make efforts to keep the likes of Juan Pablo Angel, Gareth Barry, Thomas Hitzlsperger and Darius Vassell - all players whose futures are unclear.

But Langham refuses to go into details on individual players until he has officially started his new job. And it will not just be the playing staff he deals with. He is looking at a number of ways to bring new money into the club.

"My first focus will be on the commercial side. We have to make sure we work our assets 24-7," he said.

"It's quite simple. The more money you make, the bigger the profits and the more you can plough back into the club.

"For instance, we will be looking to build the brand of Aston Villa overseas.

"Television revenue in this country is likely to diminish whereas overseas markets are growing.

"We can maybe form alliances with clubs overseas. We want people to buy the brand."

Ellis's plans to increase the capacity of Villa Park to 50,000 were put on hold when it became obvious that the current 43,000 seats were not being filled regularly.

And Langham admits that the squad will come before any cosmetic alterations.

"There have been no detailed discussions, but if I had money to spend and a choice between spending it on the team or another 8,000 seats, I'd spend it on the squad given the crowds we are getting at the moment," he said.

But Langham is keen to make it clear that he left Fulham in a better state than he found it and hopes similar progress can happen at Villa.

Despite the fact that he was sacked by Al Fayed in November, Langham maintains that the books are in good shape.

"When I went there, they were losing over £20 million a year. This time, with the budget I put in place, they will probably make their first ever profit," he said.

"I think that will do for an achievement."

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