P3te

I can't imagine there would be a single villa fan talking about wanting to kill Benteke's daughter... But I could be wrong I guess. Hell, we had folks here calling Delph scum last week

How much did we need to change to get Benteke scoring?? Different players, different styles, different team styles required. If Benteke is off I suspect we'll already know exactly what we're looking for and how we'll play to take advantage of it. I'm just wary of another style change so soon after the last 3

It's not exactly something that you can turn on overnight ffs

How much would we need to change how we play to get Hernandez scoring regularly?

Liverpool are guaranteed to be top half, we aren't. Liverpool have a far larger global reach than we have. Liverpool has a more glamourous reach and more fans than we do. There are plenty of reasons why someone would choose them over us, just as there are a few why they wouldn't. The idea that he's as well staying with us is, quite frankly, ridiculous on paper. If he's going to be playing for them every week, and he and Rodgers thing he can work in their style, or their style can be sufficiently tweaked to work with him, then it's a no brainer really, whether we as Villa fans like it or not

I may be wide of the mark here, but I think they direct sport directs sport Goddamn you

Maybe they didn't have much stock left

Yeah i usually pick them up for a fiver this time of year. I reckon give it til the season starts and all should be good

If Benteke leaves, no matter who we've brought in, we'll always be weaker until we replace his goals IMO. That's what happens when you become a one dimensional team. Could Benteke's departure force us to NOT be a one dimensional team, though? That's the question. We obviously can't try to play the same way without him, because that'll never work Here's hoping. His goals will still need replacing, no matter where they come from. Absolutely. I'd rather every player in the team scored 5 than one of them scoring 20 and only a handful others getting 1 or 2 though

If Benteke leaves, no matter who we've brought in, we'll always be weaker until we replace his goals IMO. That's what happens when you become a one dimensional team. Could Benteke's departure force us to NOT be a one dimensional team, though? That's the question. We obviously can't try to play the same way without him, because that'll never work

I see. What would a quintessential best versus hero comparison be? Say, Yorke versus Taylor? Best = Benteke, Hero = Carew I think with Benteke what's preventing hero status is the shenannigans from his first summer. Personally, although I've absolutely loved watching the guy bang in goals for us, I've never felt any real attachment to us. He's never "been Villa"

Absolutely one of the best we've ever had, but not close to being a villa hero

Not even close

Our incoming fax and phone lines will be "down" that day

I'd say there is. Bringing Fox in shows, to me, a willingness to start going about things properly rather than just treading water. We'll know for sure this time next year either way

It was widely reported last summer that the asking price was 250m, just as it was widely reported this summer that it was 150m. Both could be way wide of the mark, but we've got little else to go on. And although you reckon he's not desperate to sell, the fact that he's actively attempted to do just that twice in a year suggests otherwise.

I don't think that's the case at all. It's not in Lerner's financial interests to have that happen. He wasn't able to shift the club for 250m, then for 150m, continued poor finishes would mean even lower figures - relegation would mean practically no chance of him getting anything close to the money he put into the club back. He likely thought he'd have no problem getting 150m, and probably deemed the losses on that figure the bottom rung of acceptable, which is why he came up with it. Now he's got to be accepting the fact that the only way to get his money back, or close to it, is to have a successful (relatively speaking) Aston Villa that's attractive to buyers. In the past 12 months he's gotten the off the pitch stuff heading in the right direction, but that wasn't enough to bring a sale even though he likely thought it would be. The only place left to focus on is the actual results in the hope that improvement there WILL help him shift the club But how desperate is it to shift the club? He wants nothing to do with us and has openly admitted that. He might be happy to sit on the club for a few years and just wait for it to be sold. I doubt he's desperate for the money right now. He's done little in his time here to give me any faith that he would want to do any of what you say or do anything to see us have long term success. You have a lot of faith in a man that has overseen the past abysmal 5 years. It won't sell if it keeps going the way it has been though. The last 2 years of failed attempts to sell it will show him that. If he sits on it and things continue as they are, the money he'll get from a sale decreases every season. He's a businessman, and businessmen don't like to hold onto deprecating investments But is it a depreciating business? More and more money will keep piling into the premier league, in the near future it's going to continue to get bigger and bigger. As long as we stay in the league and he's not covering losses then surely a premier league club will not lose value over time. He couldn't sell it at 250m last year, then he couldn't sell it at 150m this year. That's a 100m deprecation in what he was asking for in 12 months, and still no takers. The worse the club performs, and the less relevant it becomes, the less it's worth. He's been gearing everything up towards a sale for the last 2 1/2 years, and the sale hasn't come, he can no longer continue to run it in the "ready to sell" fashion any more, that's reached its limit now. The longer it continues, the less it's worth

How we finished 17th ffs !! And if we finish 17th again then DVIN will be wrong.

They don't have as much as the fee suggests. The deal is 44m in transfer fee, with 5m add-ons, and 20% going to QPR, so if everything is paid up front, which is unlikely. They probably got about 15m on completion of the transfer Yeah probably, although it's unlikely we'll get the entire fee up front either. Transfers rarely work like that. Our one has a release clause, which would suggest it is entirely up front, otherwise it wouldn't technically be triggering it (or a club could offer a pound now, and the rest over 20 years and trigger it)

I don't think that's the case at all. It's not in Lerner's financial interests to have that happen. He wasn't able to shift the club for 250m, then for 150m, continued poor finishes would mean even lower figures - relegation would mean practically no chance of him getting anything close to the money he put into the club back. He likely thought he'd have no problem getting 150m, and probably deemed the losses on that figure the bottom rung of acceptable, which is why he came up with it. Now he's got to be accepting the fact that the only way to get his money back, or close to it, is to have a successful (relatively speaking) Aston Villa that's attractive to buyers. In the past 12 months he's gotten the off the pitch stuff heading in the right direction, but that wasn't enough to bring a sale even though he likely thought it would be. The only place left to focus on is the actual results in the hope that improvement there WILL help him shift the club But how desperate is it to shift the club? He wants nothing to do with us and has openly admitted that. He might be happy to sit on the club for a few years and just wait for it to be sold. I doubt he's desperate for the money right now. He's done little in his time here to give me any faith that he would want to do any of what you say or do anything to see us have long term success. You have a lot of faith in a man that has overseen the past abysmal 5 years. It won't sell if it keeps going the way it has been though. The last 2 years of failed attempts to sell it will show him that. If he sits on it and things continue as they are, the money he'll get from a sale decreases every season. He's a businessman, and businessmen don't like to hold onto deprecating investments

They don't have as much as the fee suggests. The deal is 44m in transfer fee, with 5m add-ons, and 20% going to QPR, so if everything is paid up front, which is unlikely. They probably got about 15m on completion of the transfer

Good a reason as any, then. And for that reason, I'm out

I don't think that's the case at all. It's not in Lerner's financial interests to have that happen. He wasn't able to shift the club for 250m, then for 150m, continued poor finishes would mean even lower figures - relegation would mean practically no chance of him getting anything close to the money he put into the club back. He likely thought he'd have no problem getting 150m, and probably deemed the losses on that figure the bottom rung of acceptable, which is why he came up with it. Now he's got to be accepting the fact that the only way to get his money back, or close to it, is to have a successful (relatively speaking) Aston Villa that's attractive to buyers. In the past 12 months he's gotten the off the pitch stuff heading in the right direction, but that wasn't enough to bring a sale even though he likely thought it would be. The only place left to focus on is the actual results in the hope that improvement there WILL help him shift the club

I believe we had actually spent MORE up until recently - which was entirely down to poor management on all fronts, Lerner included, but like I've said before, in the current climate we need the same things regardless of who the owner is: 1) Off the field structure and consistency 2) Improved commercial revenues to allow for more investment in playing staff 3) A medium to long term plan on the pitch It shouldn't matter who delivers those 3 things, only that they're delivered. If Lerner is sticking around, those 3 things need to be accomplished, and in more recent times we look to be on the right track. Fox is key to that, he's got a proven track record of knowing how to make a football club money and that, above all else, is what we need right now. In the next 2-3 years we need to invest every penny possible in the playing staff, increase off the field income and push towards an attainable goal in terms of what we do on the pitch. If we do that, Lerner won't have any trouble getting his money back

I'm amazed people still think this. What's it based on? I have no doubt he cares about his investment staying in the premier league, there's not much to suggest he is interested in anything else. If he can't sell a 17th place club, then he's faced with a couple of solutions: 1) Suck it up and continue to be stuck with a financial drain 2) Get the club right and make it a more saleable asset He's a businessman, so there's only one likely option there. A top half Aston Villa is worth more to Randy Lerner than a perennial 17th place Aston Villa Previous form shows that that's exactly what he has been doing though