is it time for a new owner?

[suttonpaul]

Some of the comments on here are unbelievable in my opinion I have said everything I am about to say before...

 

We are not a massive club! We are a big club in comparison to 80 clubs in the football league but not in the premier league we are a mid table club and that's where we belong for many reasons. The first reason is we haven't won anything of note for over 30 years, think of it like this someone born in 1945 at the end of the war has seen villa win (of note) an FA Cup in 1957 age 12, Premiership (Division 1) 1981 age 36, Champions League (European Cup) 1982 age 37, European Super Cup 1983 age 38, that fan would be 69 this season.

 

In what most would call modern football we have won nothing of note and someone who went to there first game at 10 is 40 this season and has seen us win nothing of note.

 

So why do I bore you about this? Simple our fans keep going on about some god given right for us to CHALLENGE for things. Now for me the above shows exactly the opposite and that our fans shouldn't expect this at all.

 

Next. MONEY! We make the same as every other club in the league bar 5 or 6 teams the reason there is a difference is yes a few clubs have more fans turn up but the real reason is merchandise sales and sponsorship take a look at Liverpool, Chelsea, Utd etc and see where there income comes from and you will see that a massive proportion comes from those revenue streams and simply we don't have it.

 

Lastly on the chairman I am disgusted that our chairman is expected to throw away his money or be vilified by his clubs own fans.

 

My view is this, a chairman should never take money out of a club year on year (fine to make a profit when selling the club) and clubs should spend what they have and that's it. No overdraft, no sugar daddy. Nothing.

 

Sport is about earning it on merit and if you want to do it the same way the others have done it recently then go and support them and be happy.

 

I doubt we will spend anything significant in January and I fully expect us to spend another 20m next season just like we have this season and last the difference will be that it doesn't HAVE to go on 7 or 8 players in future it can be spend on two or 3 players. We will move forward slowly but it will be forward if we carry on down this route.

 

Randy has made mistakes but the moves being made now are correcting them. Suck it up.

[tinker]

They should tell us whats happening, that's the problem, all very well having a plan, not communicating that plan to the most important members of the team, the fans, is a major mistake. IMHO

[thetrees]

I don't see why Lerner or Faulkner bring in Martin Laursen to help out with the defensive play. We need these sorts of people at the club. Surely Lambert could work with him.

Because it would be up to Lambert to bring in a defensive coach. Lerner/Faulkner would not interfere.

[Danwichmann]

I don't see why Lerner or Faulkner bring in Martin Laursen to help out with the defensive play. We need these sorts of people at the club. Surely Lambert could work with him.

Because it would be up to Lambert to bring in a defensive coach. Lerner/Faulkner would not interfere.

What is it that makes people think Laursen would magically fix the defence? Just because he was a great defender it doesn't mean he'll be a great coach.

[Big_John_10]

and clubs should spend what they have and that's it

I'd be very surprised if the wages Lambert can offer is the maximum we can afford.

Next. MONEY! We make the same as every other club in the league

After the mcleish season we made more money than 11 other teams but only finished above 4 teams.

we are a mid table club and that's where we belong for many reasons

I could partly understand your rant if we'd actually been a midtable team. For the last 3 years its been relegation worry and only a couple of shock wins when houllier was ill put us midtable that season.

Lastly on the chairman I am disgusted that our chairman is expected to throw away his money or be vilified by his clubs own fans.

Very strange. No one forced him to buy the club. If he didn't want to spend his own money then he should not have become a premiership club owner. But he did buy the club so yes I think he should be expected to make sure the club is competitive.

Sport is about earning it on merit and if you want to do it the same way the others have done it recently then go and support them and be happy

Was this your response to anyone unhappy with Doug?

Oh and I forgot to add that your argument is massively hypocritical. You defend Lerner yet until last year he was doing everything you say an owner shouldn't do so how come we didn't see you on here telling us all how terrible he was?

Edited December 23, 2013 by Big_John_10

[Denis_B]

 

Lastly on the chairman I am disgusted that our chairman is expected to throw away his money or be vilified by his clubs own fans.

No one asked him to throw it away. He bought the club in the full knowledge he was the 'custodian' therefore looking after it for ALL of us. Secondly he knew it would cost as at the time he said if he wanted to make money he wouldn't have bought the club.

 

As is pointed out above Everton are in a much worse position financially than we are but have a manager now who can get them playing good football. A manager who turned us down due to the owners plans.

 

We are going nowhere at the moment - no money, no plans, no leadership and poor players with no decent tactics. - HAPPY 2014!

[Dodgyknees]

Lastly on the chairman I am disgusted that our chairman is expected to throw away his money or be vilified by his clubs own fans.

No one asked him to throw it away. He bought the club in the full knowledge he was the 'custodian' therefore looking after it for ALL of us. Secondly he knew it would cost as at the time he said if he wanted to make money he wouldn't have bought the club.

As is pointed out above Everton are in a much worse position financially than we are but have a manager now who can get them playing good football. A manager who turned us down due to the owners plans.

We are going nowhere at the moment - no money, no plans, no leadership and poor players with no decent tactics. - HAPPY 2014!

All great men are called Den(n)nis, they speak with wisdom.

Totally agree.

[VillaCas]

 

 

Lastly on the chairman I am disgusted that our chairman is expected to throw away his money or be vilified by his clubs own fans.

No one asked him to throw it away. He bought the club in the full knowledge he was the 'custodian' therefore looking after it for ALL of us. Secondly he knew it would cost as at the time he said if he wanted to make money he wouldn't have bought the club.

 

As is pointed out above Everton are in a much worse position financially than we are but have a manager now who can get them playing good football. A manager who turned us down due to the owners plans.

 

We are going nowhere at the moment - no money, no plans, no leadership and poor players with no decent tactics. - HAPPY 2014!

 

 

Everton also had ten years of stability under Moyes. Martinez is reaping the benefits now

 

I think Lerner has good intentions but has made some bad mistakes - For me the proof of the pudding will be what happens next season - I'll reserve judgement until then

[Villastine]

 

 

 

Lastly on the chairman I am disgusted that our chairman is expected to throw away his money or be vilified by his clubs own fans.

No one asked him to throw it away. He bought the club in the full knowledge he was the 'custodian' therefore looking after it for ALL of us. Secondly he knew it would cost as at the time he said if he wanted to make money he wouldn't have bought the club.

 

As is pointed out above Everton are in a much worse position financially than we are but have a manager now who can get them playing good football. A manager who turned us down due to the owners plans.

 

We are going nowhere at the moment - no money, no plans, no leadership and poor players with no decent tactics. - HAPPY 2014!

 

 

Everton also had ten years of stability under Moyes. Martinez is reaping the benefits now

 

I think Lerner has good intentions but has made some bad mistakes - For me the proof of the pudding will be what happens next season - I'll reserve judgement until then

 

 

I pretty much agree with you. However if we don’t invest in January we could end in the Championship next year.

[Nigel]

 

If someone like Houllier/Red Bull came in with a few Billion to throw at us then you'd have to look at that.

Anyone from the Far East should be avoided.

Russians and Arabs possibly of interest.

 

I'd only take Red Bull if we kept our shirt colour, badge, name..etc.

 

Not too bothered about the ground being renamed, it will always be Villa Park.

 

But the rest is a big fat NO!

 

OK now here is the crux, just what could we do if the what happened to Hull/Cardiff happened to us (Im not even talking about Small Heath)?

 

Its not beyond the realms of possibility that unless we got a custodian with too much money to care, that they will be looking at any way to bring in money to the club.

Edited December 23, 2013 by Nigel

[smetrov]

Some of the comments on here are unbelievable in my opinion I have said everything I am about to say before...

 

We are not a massive club! We are a big club in comparison to 80 clubs in the football league but not in the premier league we are a mid table club and that's where we belong for many reasons. The first reason is we haven't won anything of note for over 30 years, think of it like this someone born in 1945 at the end of the war has seen villa win (of note) an FA Cup in 1957 age 12, Premiership (Division 1) 1981 age 36, Champions League (European Cup) 1982 age 37, European Super Cup 1983 age 38, that fan would be 69 this season.

 

In what most would call modern football we have won nothing of note and someone who went to there first game at 10 is 40 this season and has seen us win nothing of note.

 

So why do I bore you about this? Simple our fans keep going on about some god given right for us to CHALLENGE for things. Now for me the above shows exactly the opposite and that our fans shouldn't expect this at all.

 

Next. MONEY! We make the same as every other club in the league bar 5 or 6 teams the reason there is a difference is yes a few clubs have more fans turn up but the real reason is merchandise sales and sponsorship take a look at Liverpool, Chelsea, Utd etc and see where there income comes from and you will see that a massive proportion comes from those revenue streams and simply we don't have it.

 

Lastly on the chairman I am disgusted that our chairman is expected to throw away his money or be vilified by his clubs own fans.

 

My view is this, a chairman should never take money out of a club year on year (fine to make a profit when selling the club) and clubs should spend what they have and that's it. No overdraft, no sugar daddy. Nothing.

 

Sport is about earning it on merit and if you want to do it the same way the others have done it recently then go and support them and be happy.

 

I doubt we will spend anything significant in January and I fully expect us to spend another 20m next season just like we have this season and last the difference will be that it doesn't HAVE to go on 7 or 8 players in future it can be spend on two or 3 players. We will move forward slowly but it will be forward if we carry on down this route.

 

Randy has made mistakes but the moves being made now are correcting them. Suck it up.

 

Think your apply everday business rules to a football club - which is quite different:-

 

Basically billionaire owners bankroll football clubs

 

Those that don't - run the club with great expertise - ie Everton and to a lesser extent WBA

 

Lerner does neither of these - indeed he has been seen at villa park once in the last 18 months - the overwhelming evidence is he has got bored of Aston Villa....and his expertise has us being blown out of the water transferwise by WBA, Cardiff, stoke, southampton etc.  By his own choices he has blown millions on correcting the ill advised appointments of Houllier and Mcleish.

 

Currently he is bringing absolutley nothing to the club - whilst I don't doubt there are worse owners - his record is pretty indefesable.

[DelboyVilla]

 

Some of the comments on here are unbelievable in my opinion I have said everything I am about to say before...

 

We are not a massive club! We are a big club in comparison to 80 clubs in the football league but not in the premier league we are a mid table club and that's where we belong for many reasons. The first reason is we haven't won anything of note for over 30 years, think of it like this someone born in 1945 at the end of the war has seen villa win (of note) an FA Cup in 1957 age 12, Premiership (Division 1) 1981 age 36, Champions League (European Cup) 1982 age 37, European Super Cup 1983 age 38, that fan would be 69 this season.

 

In what most would call modern football we have won nothing of note and someone who went to there first game at 10 is 40 this season and has seen us win nothing of note.

 

So why do I bore you about this? Simple our fans keep going on about some god given right for us to CHALLENGE for things. Now for me the above shows exactly the opposite and that our fans shouldn't expect this at all.

 

Next. MONEY! We make the same as every other club in the league bar 5 or 6 teams the reason there is a difference is yes a few clubs have more fans turn up but the real reason is merchandise sales and sponsorship take a look at Liverpool, Chelsea, Utd etc and see where there income comes from and you will see that a massive proportion comes from those revenue streams and simply we don't have it.

 

Lastly on the chairman I am disgusted that our chairman is expected to throw away his money or be vilified by his clubs own fans.

 

My view is this, a chairman should never take money out of a club year on year (fine to make a profit when selling the club) and clubs should spend what they have and that's it. No overdraft, no sugar daddy. Nothing.

 

Sport is about earning it on merit and if you want to do it the same way the others have done it recently then go and support them and be happy.

 

I doubt we will spend anything significant in January and I fully expect us to spend another 20m next season just like we have this season and last the difference will be that it doesn't HAVE to go on 7 or 8 players in future it can be spend on two or 3 players. We will move forward slowly but it will be forward if we carry on down this route.

 

Randy has made mistakes but the moves being made now are correcting them. Suck it up.

 

Think your apply everday business rules to a football club - which is quite different:-

 

Basically billionaire owners bankroll football clubs

 

Those that don't - run the club with great expertise - ie Everton and to a lesser extent WBA

 

Lerner does neither of these - indeed he has been seen at villa park once in the last 18 months - the overwhelming evidence is he has got bored of Aston Villa....and his expertise has us being blown out of the water transferwise by WBA, Cardiff, stoke, southampton etc.  By his own choices he has blown millions on correcting the ill advised appointments of Houllier and Mcleish.

 

Currently he is bringing absolutley nothing to the club - whilst I don't doubt there are worse owners - his record is pretty indefesable.

 

 

 

I agree, all the money saving is 100% down to mistakes which are ultimately the responsibility of Lerner himself and have been caused by his and those around him lack of knowledge when it comes to running a football team.

 

Everton are a great and valid example of how a football club should be run on low wages and low net transfer fees. Lerner has had enough chances to get things right but when you consider that the guy has spent enough money on compensation and pay offs to fund a very decent player or two, he doesn't seem to learn from his mistakes.

 

We are rotting under Lerner, we don't necessarily need a billionaire just someone who knows how to run a club in an efficient manner. Go find them Lerner and leave with some of your good name intact!

[McGregor1888]

Some of the comments on here are unbelievable in my opinion I have said everything I am about to say before...

 

We are not a massive club! We are a big club in comparison to 80 clubs in the football league but not in the premier league we are a mid table club and that's where we belong for many reasons. The first reason is we haven't won anything of note for over 30 years, think of it like this someone born in 1945 at the end of the war has seen villa win (of note) an FA Cup in 1957 age 12, Premiership (Division 1) 1981 age 36, Champions League (European Cup) 1982 age 37, European Super Cup 1983 age 38, that fan would be 69 this season.

 

In what most would call modern football we have won nothing of note and someone who went to there first game at 10 is 40 this season and has seen us win nothing of note.

 

So why do I bore you about this? Simple our fans keep going on about some god given right for us to CHALLENGE for things. Now for me the above shows exactly the opposite and that our fans shouldn't expect this at all.

 

Next. MONEY! We make the same as every other club in the league bar 5 or 6 teams the reason there is a difference is yes a few clubs have more fans turn up but the real reason is merchandise sales and sponsorship take a look at Liverpool, Chelsea, Utd etc and see where there income comes from and you will see that a massive proportion comes from those revenue streams and simply we don't have it.

 

Lastly on the chairman I am disgusted that our chairman is expected to throw away his money or be vilified by his clubs own fans.

 

My view is this, a chairman should never take money out of a club year on year (fine to make a profit when selling the club) and clubs should spend what they have and that's it. No overdraft, no sugar daddy. Nothing.

 

Sport is about earning it on merit and if you want to do it the same way the others have done it recently then go and support them and be happy.

 

I doubt we will spend anything significant in January and I fully expect us to spend another 20m next season just like we have this season and last the difference will be that it doesn't HAVE to go on 7 or 8 players in future it can be spend on two or 3 players. We will move forward slowly but it will be forward if we carry on down this route.

 

Randy has made mistakes but the moves being made now are correcting them. Suck it up.

All the clubs that have won more trophies than us in the past thirty years have done so through having access to more money than us - nothing more and nothing less.  It's nothing to do with the size of "support" etc. but more to do with the size of the owner's pockets.  Villa are a huge club which has, alas, been hamstrung by having relatively poor/unambitious chairmen for several decades.  If you run a Rolls-Royce on the budget of a Nissan Micra you'll soon find yourself getting into problems.

[Papillon]

Silly topic. Time for a new owner?

Do we decide the fate of Randy Lerner? Fans can have their say about certain managers, like when Real Madrid wave their white flags/handkerchiefs, the manager will be sacked in a matter of hours.

 

Man Utd were owned by Magnier/McManus for a long time before Glazer took over, the same happened here when Doug Ellis sold to Randy Lerner.

 

Lerner is neither extremely wealthy nor is he the one to make irrational or rash decisions after a loss. So all in all, he is pretty decent. We have no right to become wealthy over night and very few people would want to spend a billion pounds on an unfashionable football club coming from an unfashionable city (compared to London and the football cities of Manchester/Liverpool).

 

Bitch all you want about Lerner, but he is here for as long as he wants. 

[Qwpzxjor1]

The grass is always greener...

 

Of course I'm not happy about the threadbare nature of our squad now, with every transfer window seemingly running at a net profit and reduced quality in players.

 

However, I look at what's happened at Blackburn, QPR and most recently Cardiff, and I think it could be far worse.

 

I like how we're building a young side. We just need to supplement that with a bit of quality.. not talking £40m signings, just a couple of 10m or so to add a bit of proven quality to our emerging squad. 

 

In an ideal world, I'd like Lerner to stay, but find a compromise between the big(ish) spending on the gamble of getting champions league, and the current ethos of signing players for peanuts who don't have the experience or ability to genuinely compete in the Premier League.

[Dr_Pangloss]

Unless you're happy with being a plodding bottom half side that will flirt with relegation each season then Randy has to go.

[Shillzz]

Surprised by the amount of people defending Lerner.

 

He's operating a Premier League club under a Championship budget. Lambert is over achieving by keeping this group of players in the league, never mind anything else.

 

It's not realistic in this day and age to impose a wage cap of £20k per week on a Premier League side (yes there's some guesswork there, but that's certainly the impression you get from HH).

 

It's not good enough to simply be slightly less bad than some of the other owners in the league. Yes there's a few eccentrics out there who we wouldn't want at the club, but even they have invested in their teams. People can defend Lambert by saying he's not the kind of owner to make rash decisions, sacking managers needlessly after poor performances. But there has been no stability at the club over the past 4 seasons. We've gone through managers on an annual basis because of Lerner's inability to recruit the right man. Even Lambert is starting to look like a questionable choice, though the jury is still out on that one at present.

 

Lerner has shown a complete dis-interest in the club for some time, and it seems pretty clear that the team simply cannot move forward under his ownership, regardless of the manager. As long as he's here, we will struggle to finish outside of the bottom third of teams in the league. How can people be happy with that? I don't understand.

[chrisp65]

be careful what you wish for

[MikeMcKenna]

Some of the comments on here are unbelievable in my opinion I have said everything I am about to say before...

 

We are not a massive club! We are a big club in comparison to 80 clubs in the football league but not in the premier league we are a mid table club and that's where we belong for many reasons. The first reason is we haven't won anything of note for over 30 years, think of it like this someone born in 1945 at the end of the war has seen villa win (of note) an FA Cup in 1957 age 12, Premiership (Division 1) 1981 age 36, Champions League (European Cup) 1982 age 37, European Super Cup 1983 age 38, that fan would be 69 this season.

 

In what most would call modern football we have won nothing of note and someone who went to there first game at 10 is 40 this season and has seen us win nothing of note.

 

So why do I bore you about this? Simple our fans keep going on about some god given right for us to CHALLENGE for things. Now for me the above shows exactly the opposite and that our fans shouldn't expect this at all.

 

Next. MONEY! We make the same as every other club in the league bar 5 or 6 teams the reason there is a difference is yes a few clubs have more fans turn up but the real reason is merchandise sales and sponsorship take a look at Liverpool, Chelsea, Utd etc and see where there income comes from and you will see that a massive proportion comes from those revenue streams and simply we don't have it.

 

Lastly on the chairman I am disgusted that our chairman is expected to throw away his money or be vilified by his clubs own fans.

 

My view is this, a chairman should never take money out of a club year on year (fine to make a profit when selling the club) and clubs should spend what they have and that's it. No overdraft, no sugar daddy. Nothing.

 

Sport is about earning it on merit and if you want to do it the same way the others have done it recently then go and support them and be happy.

 

I doubt we will spend anything significant in January and I fully expect us to spend another 20m next season just like we have this season and last the difference will be that it doesn't HAVE to go on 7 or 8 players in future it can be spend on two or 3 players. We will move forward slowly but it will be forward if we carry on down this route.

 

Randy has made mistakes but the moves being made now are correcting them. Suck it up.

"Simple our fans keep going on about some god given right for us to CHALLENGE for things"

 

Show me where anyone has expressed "some god given right". As fans and paying customers however we do have the right to express an opinion if we dont agree with the way the club is being run. However some fans like you think blind allegiance without criticism is the lot of fans.

 

"Sport is about earning it on merit and if you want to do it the same way the others have done it recently then go and support them and be happy."

 

Gobbledygook and insults in one sentence!

 

The definition of "merit" is to be "particularly good or worthy". We may be worthy but we are not particularly good, nor showing any prospect of becoming "particularly good" and that is a direct result of the current owners "rush of blood" when he took over and incompetent business management since. However I am sure you will "support them (the board) and be happy" come hell or high water as you seem so certain we "will move forward slowly" despite there being little evidence to back up your claim.

 

I and many others would be happy with a well run and professional club that shows signs of progressing but you are imo deluded if you think we are. Being critical of Lerners Business model doesnt mean everyone wants some Arab or Russian take over the club. Southampton, Swansea are hardly awash with cash but they seem to be on the up or at least more contented than AVFC. Everton have been cashed strap for years and are regularly in the top 6-8.

 

"Randy has made mistakes but the moves being made now are correcting them."

 

Really? His plan is to slash costs, cap wages at Championship levels and hope for the best that Lambert can pull off a miracle. At best such a plan will mean we are struggling for years and at worst that we will be relegated within the next couple.

 

I am sure Randy Lerner is a nice guy but imo the constraints he has placed on Lambert are unreasonable and that the only challenging we will be doing in the next few years is in the Championship,

Edited December 23, 2013 by MikeMcKenna

[AshVilla]

I think we may have to go down before the most stalwart of fans who are defending him turn their back

 

Its only a matter of time. Wigan went down eventually which is who i compare us to based on the current regime's thrift transfer policy

Edited December 23, 2013 by AshVilla