smetrov Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 Perfectly happy to be corrected on this. But it was November 2012 that I last recall Randy in attendance at a Villa game - very poor ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isa Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 Yeah he didn't even turn up for the semi-final second leg did he? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodgyknees Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 Perfectly happy to be corrected on this. But it was November 2012 that I last recall Randy in attendance at a Villa game - very poor ! He no longer cares. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Electric Avenue Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 Think he was at Norwich away the other week to be fair. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pilchard Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 Just because he doesn't come on the pitch in a cheerleader's outfit before a game, it doesn't mean that he doesn't make the games that his new family arrangements allow. Whether he is at a game or not is largely irrelevant - it's whether he's managing to do the things that we need him do be doing correctly that matters. I suspect he's thrown money at something he didn't have a life long love for, as a bit of fun, failed to get the success he hoped for and realised it's not as fun as he thought, and the 'want' to continue with it has diminished somewhat. But having lost so much money, he's aware he needs to remain interested to get his money back, which he'll do, and then sell up to someone else in the throws of a mid-life crisis for it to circle around again. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DelboyVilla Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 I am in complete agreement with Randy on this one. I couldn't really care less if he turns up to the games or not either. It's not like he's inspirational to the team or anything?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fun Factory Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 (edited) I see Lerner more and more of a gatsby-esque figure. He will probably hold lavish parties in Aston Hall looking enigmatic. I will be suprised if he still owns Villa in 5 years. Edited October 22, 2013 by The Fun Factory 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ulver Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 Probably a good job, i'm sure if i saw him i'd be in his ear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AntrimBlack Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 I am a supporter of Lerner on the basis that there are worse owners out there, but it is a misjudgement to not be at the ground for some matches at least. If he can turn up at the training ground, he can certainly turn up for the match. It looks bad, and if the team begin to do well, perhaps even reaching semis or finals of cups, and he then turns up, it wil look even worse. I assume he still has his own jet, it cannot be that big a problem to turn up occasionally. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliffy Biro Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 I am in complete agreement with Randy on this one. I couldn't really care less if he turns up to the games or not either. It's not like he's inspirational to the team or anything?? No but turning up once or twice a year would atleast give the impression that he gives a damn. If he wont turn up for a year to watch his budget side then why should he expect thousands of others too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 He still gets to more games than Carson Yeung does! I wonder if he has become a little concerned about the reception he might get now his investment in the playing side has all but dried up and the team has fallen from the top 6 which it had become familiar with and given trips to Wembley have become memories rather than expectations? I would like to see him play a more active role at the club and come to the odd game although he has never been one to say much to the press or to the fans. His absence is a pity given how often he used to be seen at Villa Park and it brings to question how he now views the investment he made and the football club he still has control of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DelboyVilla Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 I am a supporter of Lerner on the basis that there are worse owners out there, but it is a misjudgement to not be at the ground for some matches at least. If he can turn up at the training ground, he can certainly turn up for the match. It looks bad, and if the team begin to do well, perhaps even reaching semis or finals of cups, and he then turns up, it wil look even worse. I assume he still has his own jet, it cannot be that big a problem to turn up occasionally. Hate that agrument of there being worse owners out there!! It's a bit like you saying you have clamydia which isn't as bad as gonnehrea?? I don't want either!!! The other agrument out there would be that for every bad owner there is a good owner, unfortunately IMO Lerner is not either. He is Mr Mediocre! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Papillon Posted October 22, 2013 Popular Post Share Posted October 22, 2013 This argument out again I see? Well if we were 6th and played well, nobody would care if he attended games or not. Everyone would be praising his way of staying out of the limelight, letting the manager and the CEO take care of business on and off the pitch. Since we did miserably last year and continue to be a lackluster spectacle this year I guess him not showing up for games is a negative again. How often does a club change ownership? And when it happens, how many fans are incredibly happy with their new owners three years later? Facts are that very few people have the power to change a club around like Abramovich and Sheik Mansour. One "earned" his money through fortunate transactions when Boris Jeltsin decided to sell him a company worth 20-25 times the market value (it's worth 75 times that value today according to Forbes), the other is the deputy prime minister of the UAE. The Glazers have had success over the years since they acquired United, but they took over the biggest and best club in the country. When Abramovich took over Chelsea they were already an established club with good players and lots of things going for them, Lerner took over a club with no ambition and no rainbow in the horizon. Birmingham is a big city, but as well all know it is not a Mekka for football like Manchester and Liverpool, and probably never will be in the next 50 years. Lerner is better than Doug Ellis, not according to results one could argue, but if the latter had stayed on we would have been buried in the Championship alongside Leicester and Coventry a long time ago. Lerner has invested a lot of money in Villa and he has gotten nothing back. He could have stuck his cash in a cluster of other investments and he would have made a lot more from it. He could have put it in the bank, invested in bonds, purchased companies in totally different sectors or invested in real estate. The last thing his financial advisors at Goldman Sachs would have said were "buy an unfashionable football club in Birmingham!". He is not the richest owner, but he has not stopped cash injections when we need it the most. He tried and failed somewhat when we paid heavily for players a few years ago, but then came Man City, Tottenham, Liverpool, Arsenal and all the others and we couldn't even dream of reaching the Champions League. We had a tiny shot when most of these clubs were sleeping, but given our obvious shortcomings in every area compared to these clubs, he just understood that the next thing is to grow step by step and see what happens. That is what we are doing now, we aren't going to qualify for Europe, but the ship is a bit more steady and the books look better for all I know. It's not a given right for a club like ours to have the richest owner, nothing indicates that besides luck. If someone wealthy came in tomorrow and turned us into the next Man City then fine, but there are clubs all over Europe wishing for the same. What's the difference between Newcastle, Everton and Villa in that regard? For the time being we just have to cope with an owner that is limited, but he is fair and he doesn't make irrational decisions all the time. The last thing I would have wanted is a guy that makes a spectacle and acts before he has done his due diligence in a proper manor. A poor chairman would have sacked Lambert no matter what last season, and he would have been entitled to it as the results were horrendous, but a smart chairman also knows that he cannot fire somebody if he doesn't have a candidate that is going to do better. Imagine getting in a new manager that was again going to build his own team and ship out the ones he didn't know, it would have been a mess since we obviously cannot attract the best options. Fans have the right to be irrational, basically because we are fans and we don't make any decisions, it's part of the passion for the game. Owners can be irrational as well, many are, but it often leads to turmoil. Al-Fayed even built a Michael Jackson-statue outside their stadium, get my point? Lerner is not the best or richest owner, but he is extremely far from being the worst. We all wished we had more money and a better team to watch every Saturday, but that can't be used as an argument because great owners don't exist like a good striker is available for a large fee. If Lerner has indeed lost his interest and is looking to sell this club (I wouldn't hold anything against him!), then I am sure he is biding his time and using his sources to find the right buyer. He could probably sell to another half-rich sheik or steel tycoon, but would that do any good to our club if that person offered just the same amount of money but more interference to our daily proceedings? In that way Lerner does care about the people who support Villa, because like I said, this was never an investment to make money in the true capitalist way. Selling to the wrong owner and that would be something that stings him for the rest of his life. I think our results have been crap the last few seasons, our team is for the most part very boring to watch and the passion around the place has gone down by many notches. We have very few exciting players in our team and we don't even know how good certain players are because they are never playing or never given the chance to excel by our manager. However, results go up and down in a matter of years and who knows what is around the corner? That is part of being a fan I guess, and I would much rather be 10th - 15th in the Premier League than 17th in League 1 like Coventry. 20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villarule123 Posted October 22, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted October 22, 2013 Can you blame him? Spending millions on a team that plays so crap at home would make me not want to go either! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Posted October 22, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted October 22, 2013 Good post Papillon! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 Personally couldn't care less that he doesn't turn up. I'm more interested in how the team performs on the pitch than looking for people in the crowd off it It's the running of the club that I care about and to be honest him being at a match or not does not largely affect that. Does the fact that Ellis is at most games make people think he is super? Not really Besides with Lerner there are other far more reasonable sticks to beat him with than the better fan card Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted October 22, 2013 Moderator Share Posted October 22, 2013 He was doing a pretty poor job running the club when he used to come to the games. I'm not sure him staying away is going to hurt us all that much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1974Centenary Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 Think he was at Norwich away the other week to be fair. Delia's home cooking is hard to ignore. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_John_10 Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 (edited) Lerner is better than Doug Ellis, not according to results one could argue, but if the latter had stayed on we would have been buried in the Championship alongside Leicester and Coventry a long time ago That was Doug at his senile, sickend worst. That's what Lerner is currently struggle to be better than. Lerner has invested a lot of money in Villa and he has gotten nothing back. lets see how he ends up before we all pity the billionnaire. He could have stuck his cash in a cluster of other investments and he would have made a lot more from it. He could have put it in the bank, invested in bonds, purchased companies in totally different sectors or invested in real estate. The last thing his financial advisors at Goldman Sachs would have said were "buy an unfashionable football club in Birmingham!". Exactly, no one forced him to buy the club. But he did and now we're stuck with him. Now we have the target of mid table glory to look forward to until we're lucky enough to see him gone. but he has not stopped cash injections when we need it the most utter rubbish. Last season and the season before when we were in awful form and looking like serious relegation candidates he barely provided any funds to both Mcleish and Lambert during the January transfer window. but then came Man City, Tottenham, Liverpool, Arsenal and all the others and we couldn't even dream of reaching the Champions League You make it sound like none of those clubs were known. Before the big takeover man city were still spending huge amounts of money. It's not a given right for a club like ours to have the richest owner You seem to think the only problem we have with Lerner is that he isn't rich. but he is fair and he doesn't make irrational decisions all the time. The last thing I would have wanted is a guy that makes a spectacle and acts before he has done his due diligence in a proper manor Again just rubbish. He allowed the wages to spiral completely out of control and then decided to waste more money hiring a past it manager with heart problems and then making probably the worst managerial appointment any club in premiership history has made. If Lerner has indeed lost his interest and is looking to sell this club (I wouldn't hold anything against him!), then I am sure he is biding his time and using his sources to find the right buyer. He could probably sell to another half-rich sheik or steel tycoon, but would that do any good to our club if that person offered just the same amount of money but more interference to our daily proceedings? In that way Lerner does care about the people who support Villa [\quote] That's one massive Lerner loving assumption. I would much rather be 10th - 15th in the Premier League than 17th in League 1 like Coventry. That's the big finish? That's your argument for defending Lerner summed up? Edited October 22, 2013 by Big_John_10 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Electric Avenue Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 Can the OP acknowledge his post is flawed. Lerner was at Norwich the other week !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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