mikeyjavfc

Nothing is done the easy way at villa is it?

I'm massively worried, the argument against TS seems to be as long as your arm and backed up with facts and first hand accounts from his time at tottenham. The argument for TS seems to be steeped in hope and desperation with little to back it up. God I hope he does well regardless.

Neil Warnock till the end of season anyone? Currently unemployed and he's experienced enough, both in terms of time in management and sheer number of teams managed, to step in and organise the team without a significant bedding in period. And unlike the other 'experienced' names floating about (Hoddle, Curbishly etc.), he's actually managed in the premier league recently. Because lets be honest, no manager with any prospects is going to accept this job before the end of the season. Make it clear he's not a long term appointment but chuck in a massive cash incentive for avoiding the drop and I don't doubt he would come.

Signals and end to the sale speculation to me. Why would he come if Lerner was on the verge of selling and why would Lerner be recruiting for his successor anyway. I think we have Lerner for another year or two at least. On that note, roll on these two midfield signings!

Who?? This signing came completely out of the blue!

This is my fear as well. I don't think we'll be too bad defensively but our available strikers are very average and Delph, Westwood and KEA weren't exactly pitching in goals last season. I just hope if we insist on playing Darren Bent we set up the team to exploit his strengths i.e. 2 proper wings pinging balls across the 6 yard line. He's useless in any other set-up and we can revert to another system when we have Libor and/or Benteke fit.

This is what I think happened. RL is moving out of football and wanted to retain PF for his other businesses. PF wants to stay involved in football full time (see his new role with the FA for proof he fully invested in the football industry) so he has moved on. Expect him to pop up at another club in the near future in a similar role. He doesn't have a role at the FA certainly not after yesterday. He was on the FA Council as a representative of the Premier League, he isn't going to be able to continue on that council when he doesn't represent the Premier League or one of its members. Well yeah, obviously. My point was that by taking a role with the FA whist CEO of Aston Villa he was showing that he is interested in the football aspects of the job, as well as just the generic business aspects. I suspect he wants to continue working within football, which RL will be trying to move him out of.

Randy Lerner finally forced to interact with the football club he owns...as he tries to sell. Oh the irony.

This is what I think happened. RL is moving out of football and wanted to retain PF for his other businesses. PF wants to stay involved in football full time (see his new role with the FA for proof he fully invested in the football industry) so he has moved on. Expect him to pop up at another club in the near future in a similar role.

Surely a small transfer fee of a couple of million would be more bleak- that would suggest Lerner has given up on finding a buyer this summer and has somewhat opened his wallet. Free transfers indicate an acknowledgement from Randy that reinforcement are required, but a reluctance to fork out for a transfer fee given we may be sold soon.

If this is true (Keane visited with the new owners last week) and Keane is brought on to the coaching staff this week, that would be a pretty big indicator we have been sold. Perhaps Keane is advising the new owners or the new owners have picked him up to be "their" man in the dug out. But it feels more likely that Keane was spotted visiting Villa Park to discuss the assistant role (alone) and somebody put 2 and 2 together to get 5 and assumed it must have been takover related. Hopefully thats on topic enough.

Eh? http://www.kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2013/05/13/17780.shtml

Hmmm a man who built his fortune on human suffering. Yeah I'll pass.

My plan is to mention every US owner of a sports team and claim to be ITK once it's all confirmed and on the OS. How many major sports teams are there in America? If we include NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS and NBL, roughly 20 teams apiece lets say. Therefore we need approximately 100 new twitter accounts making one prediction about the new owner each. When we are sold later this summer theres a good chance we will have one verified ITK account! Come one every one, lets get working - 10 teams each, I'll start on the MBL . God help us if we picked up by a Russian

I have just seen the Guardian run down on Transfer rumours for all the prem clubs. Proper journo Stuart James had this to say about Villa: "Aston Villa Plan for the summer: Other than needing a new owner, new manager and at least half a dozen new players, everything's in place at Villa. In short, it's impossible to talk about transfers, both in and out, when the only deal that really matters to Randy Lerner, the Villa owner, is whether he can sell the club. Transfer kitty: £0-£100m, depending on whether a takeover happens and who becomes the new owner. Most mouth-watering rumour so far: That Larry Ellison, Oracle Corporation, co-founder and CEO, worth $41bn, is going to buy the club. SJ" So there you go, the Ellison rumour rears it's head again. I still think it's mostly baseless speculation though.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/red-bull-looking-buy-english-2366075 Nice article from last year about Red Bull looking for a prem team to buy and push on to the champions league. I want to believe.

Paul Faulkner is on the FA board. Of course he is at their crown jewel event.

Hi Mendi Speaking of backroom staff can you tell us what happened with Culverhouse and Karsa? The LMA are involved and both are on gardening leave. the LMA doesnt represent coaching staffHa the clue is in the name!

This is incredible!

Pretty much, people will believe what they want to believe. If you have some attractive lies to spout people will suspend their disbelief completely. See also: responses to Mendi's nonsense.

He actually invented the "bicycle troll" manoeuvre.

He also presumably oversaw the sale of MNBA to the Bank of America in 2006; hopefully he can find a similarly big name to for the sale of Villa!

...nice finish

I think lambert will be gone at the end of the season but I don't see a decision being made before then. Even Eck got till the end of the season. The atmosphere will turn nasty at villa park if we go down to Hull though, so maybe that will force Randy's hand.

No belief, no quality, no form, no plan...no points. Relegation form.