P3te

 

There's arseholes everywhere. Do you really want to bet that no Villa fan will make a similar rocket polisher of themselves after Benteke goes?

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

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

Meh. This approach aint winning us a thing!

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?

Why go to liverpool ?? He might aswell stay here

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

What does a sporting director do?

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

 

What does a sporting director do?

directs sport

 

Goddamn you

Maybe they didn't have much stock left

Are either of our shirts from last season available on the cheap anywhere? Usually in Sports Direct for a fiver by this time of the year.

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

 

 

 

pleasant surprise that. Things are, I may say tentatively, quite good at the moment, even if CB leaves, I think we're already looking much stronger than this time last year. 

 

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

 

pleasant surprise that. Things are, I may say tentatively, quite good at the moment, even if CB leaves, I think we're already looking much stronger than this time last year. 

 

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

 

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

 

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

I really do hope there's some kind of deadline on the release clause? I really wouldn't put it past Liverpool to wait til the last day of the window to activate it. 

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

 I hope you're right, but there's really nothing to suggest it.

 

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

We have no idea how much he was trying to sell it for last year and this year so there's no way you can claim the clubs value has dropped £100 million in a year.  And he can continue running it like that because he may not be desperate for a sale.  He clearly isn't as it seems we've had the chance to be sold twice and it hasn't happened.  

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 think the longer he stays the more we become just a lower half team aiming to survive.

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

 

Not the worst news really.

We have a good set up currently. Sure a new owner could've been exciting but we have finally seem to have something good happening here.

How we finished 17th ffs !!

 

And if we finish 17th again then DVIN will be wrong. 

 

 

Well Sterling has only now just gone to City officially, so if Liverpool want him they've got the readies now.

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 think the longer he stays the more we become just a lower half team aiming to survive.

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

Well Sterling has only now just gone to City officially, so if Liverpool want him they've got the readies now.

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

 

He has a medical problem as well I believe

 

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

I think the longer he stays the more we become just a lower half team aiming to survive.

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

We know we've spent the maximum amount possible?  I have serious doubts about that.  

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

 

  We lose a chairman who may no longer be invested in the club long term but he definitely cares, there’s no doubt he wants to see the club succeed.

 

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