Immediately after it was announced that Jack Grealish would be joining Manchester City from Aston Villa, the Birmingham side released a video on their club channel and social media soon after, providing a masterstroke in communications.
With the reported £100 million deal done and dusted, Villa Park chiefs swifty moved into action to prevent a vacuum of disinformation and angry chatter amongst their fanbase.
Villa Chief Executive Christian Purslow read out a statement, explaining the background and rationale behind the England star’s move to the Premier League champions.
Aston Villa CEO Christian Purslow updated supporters this evening on the circumstances surrounding the departure of Jack Grealish.
Here is his broadcast on VillaTV. pic.twitter.com/7wqh5Vs64R
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) August 5, 2021
Reaction across the board from football supporters and media professionals was universal, this was clear, direct communication with the Aston Villa supporters and it was excellent.
Often, the fans are an afterthought but given the status and importance of Grealish at Villa, the supporters were rightly given their place as the move was confirmed.
Now the partisan Villains weren’t quite in agreement and many felt let down by the player, but their club explained their position and reasons for the sale – which comes after the acquisitions of Danny Ings, Leon Bailey and Emi Buendia in recent days.
Within the statement, Purslow commented:
“Last summer following interest from a number of clubs, we offered Jack a new contract to stay at the club which he accepted with one proviso. Jack wanted to be certain that if at any point a Champions League club came for him and Aston Villa was not in that competition, that we would not stand in his way.”
“For that reason we agreed to incorporate in a so-called release clause into his contract – our board set this clause at a value of £100m, knowing that would be by some way a record price for a British footballer and also a record fee for any player bought by a Premier League club.”
What can we learn at Ibrox?
Whilst the situation between the club and supporters at Ibrox is generally good, there has been growing angst over the last week or so in regard to communications around ticketing.
This started around the Real Madrid and Brighton games, up to the last couple of days with email notifications landing for Malmo and Dunfermline and confusion over the wording of emails.
Now obviously a statement read out in a direct message to fans isn’t the same as detailed information relayed via email but the basics can transcend – be clear, be concise, make contact at the earliest opportunity and leave no space for ambiguity.
With away ticketing soon to be rolled out on top of the new MyGers set-up, the existing official comms approach from the ticket office at Ibrox will be severly tested with big questions hanging over the existing model.