KitKat

Too right!

Welcome home, Ron.

Just because it always gets mentioned, Harris is on forbes as worth $2.9b. Can't seem to find anything on Blitzer, but apparently the Blackstone firm he belongs to manage assets worth an eye watering $43b. Don't think those people would much like him spaffing it on a premier league club mind you.

Out of our price range now then, oh well...

Always worth posting when you need to debunk the muffled ramblings of someone talking out of thier own arse.

Gutted tbh, don't know the ins and outs, how his terms or the takeover have affected it but it's a shame to see him go.

I always try to ignore the Ellison links when they pop up, so I'm not disappointed when we "end up" with someone who is "only worth a few billion".

A baby or your baby? (congrats )

I know David Bick and he was involved when Ellis sold - VFC was approached by him as he was consultant to Lerner over the sale. The guy is a real good bloke (West Ham Fan) but has a soft spot for the Villa and what he says is true - Lerner won't sell to just anyone. Myself and Fear met with him so I know what he says is absolutely true - we are a very good investment and can get to the top 4 with investment and I am excited by the prospect of getting someone better than Lerner and hundred fold better than Ellis. Good times ahead I feel - but we need patience - it will not be a quick sale or quick fix. Need to give the new owner(s) time (and of course the manager who ever it may be). Lerner will sell to anybody with the money, and how do you know who is going to turn out to be a good or bad owner anyway? What on the face of it, would be the difference between Gillett and Hicks ("Bad") and Fenway ("Good") for example? That's a good point, there are more shit owners than "good" ones but it's not just a roll of the dice. Just stay away from Chinese prisoner hairdressers...

Thanks Kitkat, I hadn't seen that. An interesting watch indeed. He doesn't think a sale will happen too swiftly, but everything else he says is pretty good! I would like to think he is being professionally cautious in his estimations. Obviously at this stage without any kind of inside information there are no absolutes, and with that in mind he's not going to stick his neck out too far on his predictions - even if he is reasonably gushing in his praise as to how big a prospect we could be. I do think that a deal is being ironed out and we're not just sat on our hands waiting for a bid... but that might just be me being hopeful!

http://www1.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/teams/aston-villa/9309174/villa-up-for-sale I assume this has been linked previously, but it's an interesting watch.

That's the fairly vaguely written entry for the sale of the Browns on wiki. The difference there is that the buyer is named. I'm fairly confident that talks will be at an advanced stage seeing, as has been mentioned previously in this thread, announcing it publically does very little unless you are absolutely desperate to sell. It's not as if interested parties have to wait until Randy puts up his ad to sell us on Gumtree is it? I tried to have a dig about to see the time frames from other take overs but I couldn't find much. Think the most recent from memory was Fulham which was a couple of weeks from announcement to handing over. Anyone got any better info on the kinds of time frames were dealing with here? Afraid to say I don't remember how it all went down from Doug to Randy...

You have to bear in mind that the 2 players that cost the majority of his budget were injured for most of the season, as well as Benteke for 1/3rd of it. If we continue to spend peanuts we'll keep getting monkeys. Or something I dunno I'm tired and disappointed. I've been thinking this all season, but it gets to a point where you have to say that Lambert has not managed his resources as well a she could have (money and players). If we didn't sign Tonev, Helenius and Bowery, we could have probably bought an AMC, or Lambert could have thrown Grealish/Robinson/Carruthers in instead of buying an extra name or two. Lambert could have used some of the bomb squad more. Finally, even with injuries, Lambert has not been able to get the remaining players to perform consistently enough. I gave him a chance for a long time, but I would rather he was sacked now. Give someone else a go. I agree for the most part. Often times it's hard to look at who we could get to replace him and feel all that inspired. Unless we're taken over... I think how well we played at Liverpool followed by Gabby clattering himself over the advertising boards is a pretty good analogy for our season. Frustratingly inconsistent. Absolute total dog shit at times as well. It's those odd moments where we upset the big boys that makes it ultimately so frustrating. We can be so good at times and then absolute cack in the very next instant. It's a very hard job and with hindsight it seems perhaps a bit too obvious what could've or should've been done - but this season is over and it's all about how the club reacts now. Back him or sack him, sell up or lead us in to more uncertainty. Over to you Randy.

You have to bear in mind that the 2 players that cost the majority of his budget were injured for most of the season, as well as Benteke for 1/3rd of it. If we continue to spend peanuts we'll keep getting monkeys. Or something I dunno I'm tired and disappointed.

Maturing nicely. Took his goal well and handled the pressure of the occasion well. A very tidy player, if he - along with the rest of the team - can come through the adversity of this season, I expect to see continuted and steady progress. Needs some more quality along side Delph and himself in midfield. Someone a bit more forward thinking.

Has shown no signs of being potentially prolific, but previously he'd shown no signs of putting in a near match winning performance either. I think he's got the right attributes to be decent - probably does well in training with the effort he puts in etc. Can't hurt having him in the squad to see how he develops. If were flush with options then a Championship loan works for all involved.

It's like waiting for Christmas morning. We should leave some hot dogs and Coors Light out for them, rather than mince pies.

I don't think I've ever blushed in response to a forum post before but I am very embarrassed for you right now. Why is that? I would explain but I can't find my flash cards and crayons. I hope you've enjoyed todays win all the same.

I don't think I've ever blushed in response to a forum post before but I am very embarrassed for you right now.

Shocker, good performance from Bowery and you manage to moan and moan and moan. Haha because I'm not fickle. Shit is shit. So once an opinion is formed it is set in stone, yeah? Why would you bemoan a bit of praise for a lad who has had a difficult time finally putting in a good performance?

Like I said in the match thread the lineup and formation was awful. We won and that's all that matters, but that lineup wouldn't have done so again in another 5 attempts against hull. Bowery thinking he was benteke pulled that out of the bag. The win as all that matters, but that was not a clever formation to play in the circumstances Please elaborate, I could do with a laugh. Elaborate? We started with 5 defenders against a team looking forward to a cup final, in a game where a draw was worth barely more than a draw. When we've played that formation before in recent times it didn't work. The odds on it working today, with all that was riding on the game, were slim. It worked out because Bowery had a belter and looks like he's got a real understanding with wrimann, but it was incredibly, incredibly bad judgment from the manager to put that lineup out. I've backed Lambert all the way, and will continue to back him while he's the manager, but he's made some absolutely dreadful tactical decisions in the last few months. Today was another example, but this time it worked out thankfully How so? We came flying out of the blocks and scored very early (before the Andi & Bowery link-up). We handled (almost) everything Hull threw at us and kept up high pressure with good width until the game was secured. You can't argue based on things that didn't happen as that is ridiculously hypothetical, besides Gabby looked well up for it today before his injury and would've probably gotten a hattrick! You cannot say when it goes wrong it's because of Lambert but when it goes our way it is in spite of him. That is absolutely ridiculous. If it goes wrong and it's not because of lambert I've certainly never blamed him. So many times this season it's been errors from the guys on the pitch that have let us down, not the manager. A loss doesn't always mean the manager got it wrong, and a win doesn't always mean he got it right. IMO today is a case of the latter I agree with that sentiment, but I think Lambert got it right today. Either way, 3 points and safety!

You do know we won today, yeah?

So hard not to post on poster in response to rubbish like this Why? Has he been a good signing? Has he contributed to Aston villa being successful? Define successful. He just played a massive part in helping us win 3 vital points today. He's a young bit-part player making a massive step up. Support him rather than shitting on him?

Time for Lerner to shit or get off the pot.

Like I said in the match thread the lineup and formation was awful. We won and that's all that matters, but that lineup wouldn't have done so again in another 5 attempts against hull. Bowery thinking he was benteke pulled that out of the bag. The win as all that matters, but that was not a clever formation to play in the circumstances Please elaborate, I could do with a laugh. Elaborate? We started with 5 defenders against a team looking forward to a cup final, in a game where a draw was worth barely more than a draw. When we've played that formation before in recent times it didn't work. The odds on it working today, with all that was riding on the game, were slim. It worked out because Bowery had a belter and looks like he's got a real understanding with wrimann, but it was incredibly, incredibly bad judgment from the manager to put that lineup out. I've backed Lambert all the way, and will continue to back him while he's the manager, but he's made some absolutely dreadful tactical decisions in the last few months. Today was another example, but this time it worked out thankfully How so? We came flying out of the blocks and scored very early (before the Andi & Bowery link-up). We handled (almost) everything Hull threw at us and kept up high pressure with good width until the game was secured. You can't argue based on things that didn't happen as that is ridiculously hypothetical, besides Gabby looked well up for it today before his injury and would've probably gotten a hattrick! You cannot say when it goes wrong it's because of Lambert but when it goes our way it is in spite of him. That is absolutely ridiculous.