Doug Ellis makes £29,434,630 from Aston Villa

David Conn has written a piece in the Guardian today about how much Doug Ellis has earned during his tenure at Villa Park but he's forgotten to ask himself one question; and I'll ask you all that question in a minute.

The article basically lists how much Doug has paid himself, via a remuneration committee that he probably picked and what he paid to Ellmanton Construction, a company in which he was and probably still is a major shareholder.

The total figure for personal earnings is ?29,434,630 for an investment of a little under ?500,000 nearly 25 years ago. It's a pretty big return but what would you have made on an investment of nearly ?500,000 in 25 yeas?

I've looked for a calculator that can show you what you would have earned but couldn't find it but I'm pretty sure if you were very lucky you could have turned ?500,000 into ?30,000,000.

When you subtract the ?20,148,275 that Ellis is going to make when Mr Lerner buys the club, the ?1,650,967 in dividend payments (because Mr Ellis only received dividend payments when every other shareholder received them), the ?229,000 that was paid to Ellmanton Construction because we don't actually know that went direct into his pocket, the ?4,000,000 he made from selling shares in 1996 because he was selling shares that were valued by somebody else, he's actually paid himself (via his remuneration committee) ?3,635,391 from 1985 to 2006.

All of those figures are taken from the David Conn article so if they're wrong I take no responsibility. The question I'm going to ask you is this; if you could pay yourself over ?3.5mn over the next 21 years would you?

I'd pay myself that much and if I got very lucky and someone came along to buy the company I'd spent so long at and was about to make the vast majority of what I'd made over the past 24 years from that same person then I'd probably sell the thing I loved also.

Remember, it's Mr Lerner who is paying the money and it's his choice. Mr Ellis isn't taking it from him or over valuing the club.

The point of this post, which I thought I should tell you because I didn't get the point of the David Conn one, is to say, let's forget the past and what has happened since Mr Ellis took control and look to the future with Mr Lerner.

We've got a great manager now and potentially a great new owner. Let's forget about certain things that have happened in the past and help make Aston Villa great again. Can we please put Mr Ellis to bed now?