thegiddygambler

Are you for real?? Listen to what your saying. Is a man not entitled to try and make money out of the business he owns? Do all businesses do what you suggest? Were spending too much money, shall we cut costs?? Nah, I tell ya what - lets carry on spending and suffer the consequences and get even more in debt. AVFC is a football club whos owner is not rich enough to treat it as a plaything. Its a business - Its frustrating but for god sake, Get over it It's so black and white with you isn't it? There's no grey areas! You've a whole heap of accusations and presumptions. I really cannot be arsed to go into this at length but here goes......... YES he is fully entitled to run AVFC as a business! Now let me explain my, and a lot of other's grievance. His stewardship is characterised by EXTREMES! Extreme spending, followed by Extreme austerity. It's a disgraceful way to run AVFC. As I said earlier, he recklessly lost his own money. EXTREME SPENDING. If he cared for this club I would say the correct response of finally realising his error. Would be to stop spending BUT ensure the club was still able to operate in the market. E.G. at least allow cash generated through sales (Downing & Young) to be reinvested. Before you mention Bent, that was the Milner money. Instead of doing this he disregarded the health of this club and has imposed EXTREME AUSTERITY. Nobody asked Lerner to go overboard spending, when we object to him selling everything with 2 legs all you can come back at us is "business plan" and "he has a right to make money" Yes he does and I support him cutting back but he's not even reinvesting sales revenue. We never asked for or deserve EXTREME AUSTERITY. He'll make a fcukin fortune if he ever sells us, and in any case he could get his back by just ensuring we only spend what we sell. Sadly he's not even willing to do that. My response is a bit rushed but I say all the only because I love the club and ALL fans. Whether we agree with each other or not!!! UTV Are you able to agree with us dissenters in stating his reign has been characyerised by 2 extremes?

The issue is Lerner foolishly pissed his money away, now he wants Villa to get it back for him. We all understand the financial circumstances the idiot has brought upon us. He spent like a fool and should suffer the consequences. Not sell off our assets to get a bit back.

Stoke have drawn at home against Utd & Chelsea and beat Spurs and Liverpool at home. They also won away at Everton. Give them credit, it's not luck, I'm sure they could cite a game where they were terribnly unlucky and lost.

What amazes me is where your information must come from. Erm how is Lerner trying to recover any of the money he spent, the only way he'll ever do that is by selling the club for a profit. What he is doing is ensuring that our expenditure is in line with income, something all clubs will eventually have to do if these UEFA regs are ever enforced. As far as I'm concerned he didn't piss anything away recklessly he had a plan which in hindsight (which really is a wonderful thing) was always likely to fail. Lookat what we were when he came in you dont go from that to buying world class players overnight, well not without the kind of money Citeh threw at the game and even then it took a few seasons of Robinhos, Barry's, Lescot's before you got the Agueros, Silvas, Toures of the game. Villa is not falling to pieces, even when we were drunk on his spending we were having our better players poached and replacing with inferior or unproven players, we had a manager at least half of these forum boards wanted sacked and were still not regularly selling out Villa Park. We've dropped down a few runs of the ladder, or stood still and let others overtake us but we're not even close to falling to pieces. And as shown in Jan last year when the money is need the money is there, it's just not going to be there as a matter of course because we cant sustain it and not many owners could. Where did you buy them rose tinted glasses from? I want a pair. Money will be found.................I'll hold you to that statement!

The thing that amazes me about the Pro Lernerites is that they refuse to see Lerner should be criticised for ensuring we live under these "tight financial constraints" He pissed his and Villa's cash up the wall recklessly. He wants it back ASAP so ASTON VILLA must fall to pieces. Oh yes we must feel so priviledged to have he and his office junior Faulkner looking after us. :cry:

If you're still singing his praises when he takes us down...I'll doth my cap at you.

The threat of a new owner being WORSE isn't a valid reason not to criticise Lerner. If the "Pro Lerner" fans can't catergorically state that they know that the following isn't true and PROVE why then do. ****He spent MILLIONS more than he should have done. He deeply regrets it, instead of facing up to his own gaffe at seeing his personal wealth depleted due to his own idiocy, VILLA have had to do an about turn and become a new Leeds United**** What he should have done IMO: After his grieving process of spunking his wealth...said **** me I won't be doing that again! I'll run the club more cautiously and eventually, at least when I sell, I'll get most, if not all, of the cash I squandered. What he has done IMO: SHIT! Where has all my money gone? Oh no I want it back NOW. I'm gonna have to make Villa into a freak of a club that just SELLS, SELLS, SELLS! That, I believe, will get my £ back providing in can keep em up and get TV MONEY annually! I made this claim earlier about "doing an Ambramovich" and the only refutations were. A) I hadn't considered Man City emergence *The only significance of MCFC is that it probably brought clarity to his mind a lot quicker and his over spending ceased. It in no way dispells the claim that he was "doing an Abramovich". The other "refutation": His spending wasn't on par with RA *I know it wasn't on par with RA, as I said he didn't have the long term means to do that. That doesn't in any way mean he can't be "doing an Abramovich" in spending a vast amount of his own wealth. Again it doens't in any way counter what I am claiming RL has done.

I agree with you that he would've likely bulked if the sheikh was in charge at City yes. I don't see how I have missed it out. It wasn't in Lerner's thinking but City's emergence didn't mean CL was in any way impossible. It undoubtedly dampened his enthusiasm to spend. He spent like a bloody fool for 3 years and grew dissillusioned with it when rewards never followed. He wishes he could turn the clock back. He isn't going to go bankrupt any time soon and Villa's financial turmoil is all his own doing. Rather than saying, "right I've fcuked up big time, let me construct a plan to get this cash back over 10 years, all us fans must help him get the cash back he lost by going games to watch increasingly rubbish players. Sky £ is going the same way. It's wrong and I'm surprised so many still seem to be happy with it. SELL,SELL,SELL undermines the belief in the remaining players you have on the books. We'll never get anywhere with RL now IMO. That's not something I enjoy staying but it's what I conclude from what I see via actions. I'd be happy for him to get his £ back if he did it in a respectful way over an extended period of time. He isn't doing that IMO.

When I said he was "doing an Ambramovich" it wasn't said to mean he was spending on par with RA. More a case that he was spending very heavily to aspire to a similar level, Champs Lge football. The biggest indicator isn't what he spent, but the % of his wealth that was spent. That exceeds RA's spending.

Of that I'm well aware. In relation to the % of their personal wealth that the two of them were spending, Lerner's was undoubtedly higher. He was recklessly chasing a dream, that is my argument. When it failed, he decided Villa must suffer and suffer quickly, all because of his own stupidity! Nobody asked him to spend his personal wealth so recklessly.

no he didnt. We were making reasonably priced signings while Abramovich spent 14 million on a manager The one summer we were the 2nd or 3rd highest spending team in Western Europe. If you wish to be pedantic though fair enough.

So illuminating that pravda deem ANY topic not pro Randy must all be incubated into the same thread.

The reason Villa are struggling isn't primarily due to McLeish. It's due to Lerner's vanity project, "do an Ambramovich" and when it failed, rather than face up to it and lick his wounds for half a decade, VILLA must pay for it IMMEDIATELY. He spent shit loads of his own money chasing a dream. When it failed and reality set in, Villa became a selling club overnight geared up solely for correcting Lerner's extravagance. From 2006-09 he behaved like Abramovich. Of course he never had the long term means for doing this. Yes it's a shame he's lost a lot of £ but he knew what he was doing. The truth is Villa could pay him back in any case over a longer period of time. BUT NO, the vain cretin is using Villa to quickly get his cash back. Cash he foolishly squandered. Not many will agree with me, so be it. UTV

I was pleased to read today that Stan has called for AM to be given £ to spend the window.

Do we not have players of their ability, if not better, already at the club? Lerner's dictatorship has made mistake after mistake for 2 years bare minimum now, if we include wages given out. As a result he's made us a selling club, something we were not before, even under Ellis. A by that I mean we didn't suddenly sell Saunders, Atkinson, Richardson, Houghton, Staunton in one fell swoop and replace with Guy Whittingham alone. I've paid my money up front already, if either of those pair are signed, my tick will sit idle or my mates can use it. Have no will to watch a team that's being set up to fail just so that RL can get his money back. He'll walk out well in profit when he sells us in any case IMO given what he paid.

Shame that. Both good players. In your opinion and your opinion alone. Nobody in the entire world holds this same opinion? Bugger. I feel so alone ..... Alone? You've one important ginger haired ally...

Reasoning is a matter of one's own mind, nobody else's. When Davis was at Fulham they survived by the skin of their teeth, Gardner's SHA career the same SITUATION, tho with a less favourable outcome. He's now languishing on Sunderland's bench. How you describe the players is subjective. If we hope wish to finish top 6 I would class their abilities as "abysmal" If we have aspirations to be even just the 7th best placed team in England then these players are "shite". If we aspire to stave off relegation, they can regarded as "average". If our sole ain is to put up a spirited fight to remain in with a shot of staying up they can regarded as "good".

Shame that. Both good players. In your opinion and your opinion alone. Davis failed at 2 Prem clubs and now playing at a lesser level in Scotland. Gardner is average, goal threat enhances his value.

If Steven Davis or Craig Gardner find themselves employed by Villa this January I'm not setting foot in the ground until McLeish has left. Randy is one of the biggest idiots around, fancy handing out a 3yr contract. And before anybody says, he's a billionaire! It was inherited, big difference to being a self-made man like Branson. Can't wait for the day when Lerner & McLeish are long gone.

This poll would have been more insightful if the options were, do you? A) Dislike Hate C) Politely wish he would leave

I'm dreaming of him singlehandedly winning us the FA CUP! Anybody remember Mark Robins 1990???

I already have sent Ireland to Coventry, metaphorically speaking.

Given that he is facing four driving charge,s and they relate to motorway driving, is it possible the judge will issue a short custodial sentence or a suspended sentence. Britain's worst motorway crash in living memory occuring 2 weeks later is hardly likely to work in his favour. He's a young lad, but at 21 you aint a baby, if a judge sent him down for 6 weeks or so I wouldn't criticise the judge personally.

I haven't given up on him! A midfield of Herd, Ireland, Jenas, Nzogbia and Gabby if we go 4-5-1 has lots of goals in it IMO. That said, Petrov is virtually nailed on for a starting place it would seem.

Randy Lerner did not appoint Martin O'Neill, he inherited him. A parting gift from Deadly.... I'm sorry but that's total nonsense, an outgoing chairman doesn't call the shots 24hrs before he clears his desk out!