The Randy Lerner thread

[Villan4Life]

Good double article in today's sun newspaper about Lerner and about villa.

 

Could someone copy the article from their website?

[Demitri_C]

Gardes Claret and Blue Army

 

Quote

 

Aston Villa woes: How Randy Lerner’s reign has ruined great club

THEY were champions of England 35 years ago.

Champions of Europe the next season. Founder members of the Football League and Premier League, a top-flight club since 1988 and Wembley finalist five times in 21 seasons.

A club which embraced the new dawn of American money in 2006.

But with Aston Villa now three months away from what seems certain relegation, SunSport charts the fall and potential disaster facing this great club.

OUT WITH THE OLD

IN 2006, Villa fans were desperate for change.

They felt the club was treading water under Doug Ellis, then 82, with many pointing out that Villa’s golden era in the early 1980s had come in the brief period he was not chairman during a boardroom battle.

For many, Randy Lerner was a white knight.

Ellis, who still watches games and has a stand named after him, said: “For 35 years I worked my guts out for Aston Villa and suffered for it.

“When I passed it over, there was not a penny of debt whatsoever and there was a good team.

“When I sold the club to Randy I promised I wouldn’t interfere and I haven’t. I said if he wanted advice I would be available but he doesn’t bother to call me. I understand.”

LERNER did not mince his words when he completed his £62.6million takeover before the 2006-07 season.

The American — then owner of NFL’s Cleveland Browns — declared that Villa aimed to “compete at the highest level within the Premiership and in Europe”.

He admitted: “This isn’t a lifelong thing. It’d be dishonest and disingenuous to suggest it was. But it seems the opportunity to make a difference.

“Martin O’Neill is great. He’s got the record, the history and the makings for a steady, long-term commitment to Villa. That’s the plan.”

The promise was investment on a grand scale. The ambitions of the club, which had just appointed O’Neill as boss, would finally have a chance of being fulfilled. Lerner even had the Villa badge tattooed on his ankle.

Vital Villa website editor Jonathan Fear recalled: “Doug Ellis held us back for years. We thought we’d reached the promised land with a billionaire owner.”

END OF THE O’NEILL AFFAIR

AS PROMISED, Lerner dug deep and spent £200m. For that, he got consistency in the shape of three sixth-placed league finishes in a row — but no success.

The owner felt further investment would have been throwing more good money after bad. O’Neill complained he had been undermined.

Villa’s wage bill was spiralling with even squad players earning upwards of £40,000 per week and many were on long contracts.

In April 2010, O’Neill threatened to quit, suggesting, “People make judgements and calls” and, with Manchester City circling around James Milner, adding: “It’s not in the interests of Villa to try to sell our players.”

After a £70m net spend over the three previous years, O’Neill was only allowed to bring in Stephen Ireland, the makeweight in Milner’s £26m move to City. He then quit five days before the start of the new season.

Fear said: “We were the biggest spenders in Europe one season. The direction from the top was well intentioned but totally naive and if you want to be uncharitable, arrogant.”

DIVORCE AND DEPARTURE

VILLA’S response to losing O’Neill was to turn to Gerard Houllier.

The Frenchman’s assistant, Gary McAllister, recalled: “We inherited Martin’s team, minus James Milner, and there was a threat of relegation.

“Gerard could see what we lacked. He asked Randy for Darren Bent and, to be fair, Randy managed to prise him away from Sunderland.

“Benty came in January and finished top scorer with nine goals. We were heading in the right direction.”

But Houllier’s reign ended after he needed hospital treatment for chest pains. The ex-Liverpool boss had survived a massive heart op in 2001.

McAllister added: “Randy maybe missed a trick when he let Gerard go. This is a man who knows football and can put a structured plan in place.”

Back in the States, Lerner’s private life was in turmoil, too. A messy divorce from wife Lara came as his family stake in Bank of America was hit by a calamitous share-price dip.

GETTING THE FANS OFFSIDE

THE Villa faithful mocked as local rivals Birmingham followed their 2011 Carling Cup triumph over Arsenal by being relegated three months later.

Yet, five days after quitting St Andrew’s by email, Alex McLeish was appointed at Villa Park.

The backlash was instant and brutal, with 1,000 Villa supporters protesting outside the ground even BEFORE McLeish had signed.

McLeish’s exit a year later was portrayed as a victory for fan power.

The ex-Brum boss said: “I would have had to have won the Treble to be accepted by certain Villa fans.

“It doesn’t matter who the manager is, if you don’t have the players you won’t succeed and we didn’t.

“The kids from the Academy weren’t ready. Randy made it clear I had to cut the wage bill while trying to stay competitive. Fans complained they were watching the worst Villa squad they’d seen. It wasn’t hard to work out why.”

FROM ONE SCOT TO ANOTHER

WITH Lerner losing his love of spending, the supporters had the taste for rebellion.

They initially welcomed McLeish’s successor, Paul Lambert, but it did not take long for them to turn.

Lambert explained: “When I spoke to Randy, he told me it would be the most difficult year of my managerial career and he was right.

“What he didn’t say to me that day was the second year would be just as tough. That’s why at the end of the second season I offered to resign.”

Lambert lined up deals for Wilfried Bony and Romelu Lukaku, only for the money to prove unavailable — though it was not for the want of trying by then chief executive Paul Faulkner.

Scot Lambert, now boss of Blackburn, said: “Villa needs — and their fans rightly demand — to be at the top. I felt the club needed big players to handle this but it was difficult to get the quality

“I remember a dinner for the team of 1982. I had great chats with Tony Morley, Nigel Spink and Gary Shaw. All sad about the state of the club.”

Lambert scrambled to 15th but then Lerner announced he was selling.

Yet there was no buyer at the £200m asking price — or even at lower valuations Lerner was forced to concede. Various consortia began due diligence, only to decide not to proceed. The precise nature of what they saw in the books remains unclear.

TACTICS, TIM

LAMBERT’S relationship with new CEO Tom Fox was not harmonious and it was no surprise that he was eventually sacked. Initially, the gamble of employing Tim Sherwood worked.

Relishing the challenge and able to get Christian Benteke on the pitch and firing, he dragged Villa out of trouble and to the FA Cup final.

But after being smashed 4-0 by Arsenal at Wembley, Sherwood saw Benteke and Fabian Delph sold.

He believed foreign signings such as Jordan Amavi and Jordan Veretout were not cut out for the Prem, pinning the blame on sporting director Hendrik Almstadt and director of recruitment Paddy Riley.

Sherwood was his own worst enemy and with the club bottom of the table, his exit was only a matter of time.

ON GARDE

REMI GARDE accepted the poisoned chalice, although the ex-Lyon boss laboured under the misapprehension that he would have money to spend in January to boost Villa’s fight against relegation.

Instead, it appears the club is preparing for life in the Championship. Fear said: “Remi has gone down well with many Villa fans because he seems dignified and is telling us the truth after matches instead of trying to spin things.

“But he has been given no backing whatsoever and has been hung out to dry.”

SO, WHERE NEXT?

BARRING a near-miracle, the second tier. But Villa look far less equipped than other ‘yo-yo’ clubs to bounce back up at the first time of asking.

Lambert warned: “The Championship is a hell of a hard league. You have to be ready for it. It is proper blood and thunder.

“Some clubs go into League One. It happened to Leeds, Leicester, Nottingham Forest, Norwich and Charlton.”

Garde’s warning to the board that he might walk this summer unless he is given a promise of money to spend sums up the issues.

For Villa, things could get worse before they get better.

 

 

[Villan4Life]

Thanks Demetri_c

[Demitri_C]

Lets dig deeper into this

Ellis: “When I sold the club to Randy I promised I wouldn’t interfere and I haven’t. I said if he wanted advice I would be available but he doesn’t bother to call me. I understand.”

Fear said: “We were the biggest spenders in Europe one season. The direction from the top was well intentioned but totally naive and if you want to be uncharitable, arrogant.”

McCalister said:  “Randy maybe missed a trick when he let Gerard go. This is a man who knows football and can put a structured plan in place.”

McLeish said:  Randy made it clear I had to cut the wage bill while trying to stay competitive. Fans complained they were watching the worst Villa squad they’d seen. It wasn’t hard to work out why.”

Lambert said:  “When I spoke to Randy, he told me it would be the most difficult year of my managerial career and he was right.

“What he didn’t say to me that day was the second year would be just as tough. That’s why at the end of the second season I offered to resign.”

Sherwood: He believed foreign signings such as Jordan Amavi and Jordan Veretout were not cut out for the Prem, pinning the blame on sporting director Hendrik Almstadt and director of recruitment Paddy Riley.

Garde:  REMI GARDE accepted the poisoned chalice, although the ex-Lyon boss laboured under the misapprehension that he would have money to spend in January to boost Villa’s fight against relegation.

Instead, it appears the club is preparing for life in the Championship. Fear said: “Remi has gone down well with many Villa fans because he seems dignified and is telling us the truth after matches instead of trying to spin things.

“But he has been given no backing whatsoever and has been hung out to dry.”

Notice the pattern from all these people? Fck you randy Lerner you poison

 

[HanoiVillan]

For once, an article in the media that wasn't complete shit. In fact, that's a pretty good potted history. 

[KHV]

McAllister added: “Randy maybe missed a trick when he let Gerard go. This is a man who knows football and can put a structured plan in place.”

Houllier and McAllister were actually a pretty good duo, can't believe we replaced them with McLeish and Grant

 

[sharkyvilla]

6 minutes ago, KHV said:

McAllister added: “Randy maybe missed a trick when he let Gerard go. This is a man who knows football and can put a structured plan in place.”

Houllier and McAllister were actually a pretty good duo, can't believe we replaced them with McLeish and Grant

 

To be fair it would have been very risky to keep Houllier in the job with his history of heart trouble IMO.  The mistake was not making him director of football and bringing in a young coach to take on what he started, and going in the complete opposite direction with McLeish instead.  Interesting that Lambert said he offered to resign, it's been painted that he asked to be sacked, but this is the first time it's been made public isn't it?

[KHV]

18 minutes ago, sharkyvilla said:

To be fair it would have been very risky to keep Houllier in the job with his history of heart trouble IMO.  The mistake was not making him director of football and bringing in a young coach to take on what he started, and going in the complete opposite direction with McLeish instead.  Interesting that Lambert said he offered to resign, it's been painted that he asked to be sacked, but this is the first time it's been made public isn't it?

To be honest Lerner should have kept Houllier on as you said and left McAllister in charge, we seemed to be doing just fine at the end of that season as McAllister understood what Houlliers philosophy was.

[lapal_fan]

I don't think it's any coincidence that the spending stopped, it needed to, that's never been the point has it?  I think a lot of people realised that MON was actually pretty shit with budgets.  Giving 32 year old Habib Beye a 3/4 year deal on £48,000 a week was criminal, and on top of that he rarely even played!

I also don't think it's a coincidence that the spending stopped, because Lerner was going through a divorce, the world (particularly the U.S) was in the midst of a double/triple dip reccession. 

It's Lerner's continued cutting of spending, letting the squad stagnate, the best players leaving without being adequately replaced, the stupid managers he's brought in (although I thought Houiller was onto something good, and I think Lambert was definitely the right guy at the time) and his overall lack on involvement in Aston Villa which has made us pissed off.  It's weird, he's sat on something which has sucked his wealth, but is still worth £100,000,000, and yet he treats "us" like a knackered out Ford Capri - as I've said before, as a institution of football/sport in the UK, he's really got a lot to answer for.

[Demitri_C]

52 minutes ago, sharkyvilla said:

To be fair it would have been very risky to keep Houllier in the job with his history of heart trouble IMO.  The mistake was not making him director of football and bringing in a young coach to take on what he started, and going in the complete opposite direction with McLeish instead.  Interesting that Lambert said he offered to resign, it's been painted that he asked to be sacked, but this is the first time it's been made public isn't it?

I agree. Even now instead of getting hollis or fox i would have got someone like houllier in. Him and garde would have been brilliant together.

A caterlogue of errors from that imbecile Lerner 

[Zatman]

1 hour ago, KHV said:

McAllister added: “Randy maybe missed a trick when he let Gerard go. This is a man who knows football and can put a structured plan in place.”

Houllier and McAllister were actually a pretty good duo, can't believe we replaced them with McLeish and Grant

 

when Houllier went Hughes had just left Fulham after getting them into a good league position. We should have went for him

[sexbelowsound]

I think the need for a 'Football Man' is slightly less now as Garde appears to be capable of doing that himself however in the long run we desperately need someone there to be the link between the manager and the board.

That being said, if the board have been told not to spend it is irrelevant.

[Demitri_C]

22 minutes ago, Zatman said:

when Houllier went Hughes had just left Fulham after getting them into a good league position. We should have went for him

I think the way Hughes left them caused uproar had we gone for him would have made the club and Lerner look terrible thats why I think we didnt go for him

[Demitri_C]

22 minutes ago, sexbelowsound said:

I think the need for a 'Football Man' is slightly less now as Garde appears to be capable of doing that himself however in the long run we desperately need someone there to be the link between the manager and the board.

That being said, if the board have been told not to spend it is irrelevant.

Houllier would be perfect in my opinion

[sexbelowsound]

29 minutes ago, Zatman said:

when Houllier went Hughes had just left Fulham after getting them into a good league position. We should have went for him

Hughes pissed Lerner off didn't he?

 

[sharkyvilla]

I thought Hughes left Fulham thinking he'd walk into the Chelsea job.  Perhaps if we really tried we could have got him, but I wouldn't hold that against Randy really.  In fact there are a lot of tough decisions that Randy had to make that I think were fair enough at the time, but ultimately you can't deny that almost all of them have gone wrong.  However, just giving up like he has now is unjustifiable.

[Zatman]

13 minutes ago, sharkyvilla said:

I thought Hughes left Fulham thinking he'd walk into the Chelsea job.  Perhaps if we really tried we could have got him, but I wouldn't hold that against Randy really.  In fact there are a lot of tough decisions that Randy had to make that I think were fair enough at the time, but ultimately you can't deny that almost all of them have gone wrong.  However, just giving up like he has now is unjustifiable.

but he hired McLeish instead so he made a right balls of it

[MikeMcKenna]

Quite shocked the article from the Sun hits so many nails on head! In relatively few words it succinctly sums up what a disaster Lerner has been in the last 6 years. 

Until three years ago my perception of Lerner was that of a relatively cultured, extremely wealthy but benign absent landlord who had bitten off more than he could chew. Like many I was in some ways sorry for him that everything at Villa had gone tits up. Like others I blamed the managers, the players and the executive but the reality is that he was at the root of everything that went wrong,

My perception of him really changed after a conversation I had with a couple of very long term supporters who I have known for several years. They are very well respected and have been big spenders over the years via Corporate etc at VP. They are definitely not the sort of guys that would bullshit. However until now I have always been reticent about telling their story.

Anyhow on with the story...

I think it was just before Lerner appointed McLeish as manager but can't remember exactly when. The two Villa fans decided to go to a Cleveland Browns game while on holiday in the States, which I think was arranged via Villa corporate hospitality.  Whilst at the Stadium, they were invited up to Lerners private suite. After going through multiple checkpoints and being searched twice they eventually arrived at Lerners suite. A flunky announced their arrival but Lerner was stood looking out at the game, f'ing and blinding about something.

The two guys stood there like lemons, yet Lerner failed to even acknowledge them and didn't turn round for over ten minutes. When he eventually deigned to speak to the couple of lowly peasant Villa fans, he didn't bother actually greeting them as such or even talk specifically about Villa but immediately went into a massive rant about Levy of Spurs. Something had happened between them; Lerner's line was something along the line Who the **** does Levy think his? He is ******* ******  and is going to ****** learn not to ****** mess with him etc etc His rant when on in a similar vein for some while. 

The two Villa fans were flabbergasted at the rant but were never actually told why Lerner was so pissed off with Levy or able to ask any questions. Eventually Lerner calmed down, said he hoped that they enjoyed their vacation in the states and the audience was over. I was subsequently told by someone else that much later Lerner and Levy's paths' crossed at a private airport which resulted in a stand up row. So there was obviously bad blood between them long before Spurs attempt to buy Benteke. I can imagine Levy is a nasty bit of work and many Spurs fans don't like him but he knows more about running a football club in his little finger than Lerner ever will - maybe that is why he was so angry? 

Despite the persona Lerner likes to portray as our concerned and benevolent "Custodian", I think he is totally up himself, paranoid, very weak mentally and a control freak. He was born with a silver spoon is his mouth, has led a charmed life where everything was easy and where he could pass the real work to supposed experts - pity he couldn't even select the right "experts". 

He was never the super charged businessman that the original PR claimed or ever had a clue about how he was going to run our football club. His PR machine worked like a dream when he first arrived but In reality Lerner was a disaster waiting to happen.

The sooner the clearing in the woods goes the sooner AVFC will be on the road back! 

Edited February 11, 2016 by MikeMcKenna

[Dodgyknees]

10 hours ago, MikeMcKenna said:

Quite shocked the article from the Sun hits so many nails on head! In relatively few words it succinctly sums up what a disaster Lerner has been in the last 6 years. 

Until three years ago my perception of Lerner was that of a relatively cultured, extremely wealthy but benign absent landlord who had bitten off more than he could chew. Like many I was in some ways sorry for him that everything at Villa had gone tits up. Like others I blamed the managers, the players and the executive but the reality is that he was at the root of everything that went wrong,

My perception of him really changed after a conversation I had with a couple of very long term supporters who I have known for several years. They are very well respected and have been big spenders over the years via Corporate etc at VP. They are definitely not the sort of guys that would bullshit. However until now I have always been reticent about telling their story.

Anyhow on with the story...

I think it was just before Lerner appointed McLeish as manager but can't remember exactly when. The two Villa fans decided to go to a Cleveland Browns game while on holiday in the States, which I think was arranged via Villa corporate hospitality.  Whilst at the Stadium, they were invited up to Lerners private suite. After going through multiple checkpoints and being searched twice they eventually arrived at Lerners suite. A flunky announced their arrival but Lerner was stood looking out at the game, f'ing and blinding about something.

The two guys stood there like lemons, yet Lerner failed to even acknowledge them and didn't turn round for over ten minutes. When he eventually deigned to speak to the couple of lowly peasant Villa fans, he didn't bother actually greeting them as such or even talk specifically about Villa but immediately went into a massive rant about Levy of Spurs. Something had happened between them; Lerner's line was something along the line Who the **** does Levy think his? He is ******* ******  and is going to ****** learn not to ****** mess with him etc etc His rant when on in a similar vein for some while. 

The two Villa fans were flabbergasted at the rant but were never actually told why Lerner was so pissed off with Levy or able to ask any questions. Eventually Lerner calmed down, said he hoped that they enjoyed their vacation in the states and the audience was over. I was subsequently told by someone else that much later Lerner and Levy's paths' crossed at a private airport which resulted in a stand up row. So there was obviously bad blood between them long before Spurs attempt to buy Benteke. I can imagine Levy is a nasty bit of work and many Spurs fans don't like him but he knows more about running a football club in his little finger than Lerner ever will - maybe that is why he was so angry? 

Despite the persona Lerner likes to portray as our concerned and benevolent "Custodian", I think he is totally up himself, paranoid, very weak mentally and a control freak. He was born with a silver spoon is his mouth, has led a charmed life where everything was easy and where he could pass the real work to supposed experts - pity he couldn't even select the right "experts". 

He was never the super charged businessman that the original PR claimed or ever had a clue about how he was going to run our football club. His PR machine worked like a dream when he first arrived but In reality Lerner was a disaster waiting to happen.

The sooner the clearing in the woods goes the sooner AVFC will be on the road back! 

Sounds right - I've heard a few things too - mainly about the potential sale.

" up himself, paranoid, very weak mentally and a control freak."

Spot on there.

[villan_007]

1 hour ago, DK82 said:

Sounds right - I've heard a few things too - mainly about the potential sale.

" up himself, paranoid, very weak mentally and a control freak."

Spot on there.

Any chance you can say what you've heard?