daggy_333 Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 I think the statement today just confirmed what we already knew, that we had been primed for a takeover for the past 2 years. There is no way on earth that Lerner hasn't already been pimping out AVFC to potential suitors already. Today just officially unveils it to us, however, I'm sure the process is further along than we're being led to believe just in case of any unforeseen problems. I would imagine a deal is in the works but it would be premature and foolish to rush in and bare all at this stage. Lerner is a private guy, and I imagine any future owner would be of a similar nature. All the speculation from Pat Murphy and Sky Sports and co is just that... Speculation. They are none the wiser. We all need to be patient and sit back and enjoy what lies ahead. Looking at the sale of the Browns it seemed to follow a similar pattern, officially stating the club was for sale, then a matter of weeks later it's done. Nobody knows what's going on behind the scenes so until all is revealed lets not jump to any conclusions. I just can't wait to be able to not be there just making up the numbers anymore! I do hope you are right. My take is slightly different. I agree the club has been touted around for some time, it was funny the way Faulkner could not deny quick enough we were for sale a few months ago when the source was semi credible. However I think that process has been unsuccessful and RL has been forced to go public, probably because of the intense speculation of a couple of weeks ago and perhaps I would hope out of respect for the fans. Appointing Merrill Lynch and Keith Harris suggests to me that the process is at a very early stage. Bringing a couple of 'big hitters' on board suggests there is much work to be done. There may just be a few parties floating around who have expressed interest but I would be very surprised if there is anything firmer. I hate to agree with that clown Pat Murphy but he is probably right this time Sadly we are now on quite a tight time line as we need a new owner in place by mid July at the latest which is a mere two months away. Any new owner needs to decide whether Lambert has a future, fund his transfer dealings if he stays or recruit a new manager and give him enough time and money to reshape the squad. Quite a big ask either way I think. It also seems to me announcing the club is for sale within 24 hours of the final whistle of the season is all about maximising the time available to find a new owner. If a buyer has been found and a deal is close why not just wait and announce the deal. RL set no firm date for the announcement so it could have waited for the deal to be finalised. Personally I am pleased the Lerner era is ending but also very worried about what is going to happen in the next few weeks or months. The only thing that I don't understand is why wait til today to make the announcement? We were safe last weekend so why not announce the club was for sale last weekend and give them another week to find a buyer if they really are at the very early stages of finding a potential buyer? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amo69 Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 Yeah, Atari ST was shit, Commodore's Amiga was superior! **** ATARI! -regards, Amiga User. I had an Amiga 500 after the ST - with the Batman pack, Batman, New Zealand Story and Deluxe Paint 2. Mine came with New Zealand Story and that F18 Interceptor game.I had the Cartoon Classics pack with The Simpsons, Captain Planet and something else that I can't remember. Was I the only little teenage perv that had leisure suit Larry on the Amiga? I had something called 'Mega Maid' but needed the 1GB to view properly. 512MB wasn't enough power!!! * I realise this is horribly O/T Haha what a perv!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samjp26 Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 When Kendrick compares the takeover to the 'project', is he trying to say it doesn't actually exist? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suttonpaul Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 You can play with the voice emulators online... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 When Kendrick compares the takeover to the 'project', is he trying to say it doesn't actually exist? I think he's saying that Randy's selling of the club was part of the project all along. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
packoman Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 When Kendrick compares the takeover to the 'project', is he trying to say it doesn't actually exist? Or it will take 5 years...and still not work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted May 12, 2014 Moderator Share Posted May 12, 2014 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?no he won't. And the obvious difference is leverage. Next. Er, except that when Hicks and Gillette bought Liverpool, there wasn't any debt to begin with, it was only piled on later. Which is exactly the point I was making about "turning out to be good or bad". Yes he will. Next! hicks and Gillette bought Liverpool with leverage. Fenway didn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villan-scott Posted May 12, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted May 12, 2014 I think the statement today just confirmed what we already knew, that we had been primed for a takeover for the past 2 years. There is no way on earth that Lerner hasn't already been pimping out AVFC to potential suitors already. Today just officially unveils it to us, however, I'm sure the process is further along than we're being led to believe just in case of any unforeseen problems. I would imagine a deal is in the works but it would be premature and foolish to rush in and bare all at this stage. Lerner is a private guy, and I imagine any future owner would be of a similar nature. All the speculation from Pat Murphy and Sky Sports and co is just that... Speculation. They are none the wiser. We all need to be patient and sit back and enjoy what lies ahead. Looking at the sale of the Browns it seemed to follow a similar pattern, officially stating the club was for sale, then a matter of weeks later it's done. Nobody knows what's going on behind the scenes so until all is revealed lets not jump to any conclusions. I just can't wait to be able to not be there just making up the numbers anymore! I do hope you are right. My take is slightly different. I agree the club has been touted around for some time, it was funny the way Faulkner could not deny quick enough we were for sale a few months ago when the source was semi credible. However I think that process has been unsuccessful and RL has been forced to go public, probably because of the intense speculation of a couple of weeks ago and perhaps I would hope out of respect for the fans. Appointing Merrill Lynch and Keith Harris suggests to me that the process is at a very early stage. Bringing a couple of 'big hitters' on board suggests there is much work to be done. There may just be a few parties floating around who have expressed interest but I would be very surprised if there is anything firmer. I hate to agree with that clown Pat Murphy but he is probably right this time Sadly we are now on quite a tight time line as we need a new owner in place by mid July at the latest which is a mere two months away. Any new owner needs to decide whether Lambert has a future, fund his transfer dealings if he stays or recruit a new manager and give him enough time and money to reshape the squad. Quite a big ask either way I think. It also seems to me announcing the club is for sale within 24 hours of the final whistle of the season is all about maximising the time available to find a new owner. If a buyer has been found and a deal is close why not just wait and announce the deal. RL set no firm date for the announcement so it could have waited for the deal to be finalised. Personally I am pleased the Lerner era is ending but also very worried about what is going to happen in the next few weeks or months. Bang on for me. The crux of it all is that none of know and can only speculate. One thing we do know is that it's more than likely that by the time the new season rolls round there will be a new 'custodian'. I guess I just hope it's further along than is being let on, but your thoughts could also be more than right, and this could be a 'make me an offer plea' however I doubt that a 200m deal would require that, it's not like advertising on eBay or autotrader, there's a niche market for buying football clubs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillakevBromsgrove Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 The problem growing organically is that you loose future fans, only the top clubs get major media attention and all the kids align themselves with these teams, it saddens me to walk round town and see so many kids in non Birmingham club shirts, An Arsenal fan got it right when he said even talksport treat Arsenal as a joke because Wenger wont splash the cash. Stan is full of it and talks out his nether regions. He then proved my point about the bias when in the so called hour to discuss his beloved Villa he broke away to discuss the major breaking news that Rio is being released by Man U. Wow this and the fact the class of 92 were poisoning man U. Word removed. He poured his heart out declaring his love for the club for 40+ minutes...christ sake what more do you want??? He talks sense as well. As good as it may sound being the next city, the title win was completely souless...id rather we became the next Southampton in the short term and add three or four quality players from the premiership or abroad alongside some of our most talented youth and players already at the club like delph, benteke, guzan, westwood. The thought of watching a bunch of mercenarys from around the world with no local players, or even english home grown players is depressing. Successful or not. Common sense is what I want from him not emotional drivel. No one has said we need to spend 150m like Man U to compete, what we need is a reasonable pot to get 4 or 6 players of between 5 and 10 Million to start and then add more class players each season to keep improving. Just because an owner is a multi billionaire does not mean he has to spend it all. The dream of taking lower league and foriegn youth players for peanuts and moving the club forward has been proven to be inneffective. No I dont want to be Man C who have a bench worth more than our team and can not get rid of players because no one can afford the wages. There should be a rule that if you loan a player you are 100% responsible for his wages, that would stop them buying up all the players to stop others competing with them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeanO Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 For me this is what I feared most, hence staying quiet on the speculation. If we don't get a buyer quickly and I very much doubt we will (not many would buy into the money pit in a rush) then we will be in limbo, stuck with a poor manager and a very under strength squad. I really can't see Lerner sanctioning any transfers in unless there isn't any buyers in the offing, even then it would probably be more cheap dross. I really hope that the sale is much further on than it appears to be. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 To be honest with you I have the same reservations as everyone with regards to the timescale of the "takeover". However I think the talks may have been more advanced than we think and news has only been broken as per the rumoured "until we are safe" view. I feel even if we go through the summer without new owners at the very latest we will be sold before January. I also am confident we will sign better players this summer. Worst case scenario if we are in a bad situation come January it will be sorted. (The fear is obviously the team could be so dejected by January we could do a QPR no matter who we sign.). I doubt we would be there with a couple quality additions, a fit Benteke and Kozal, Nzogbia back etc. I'm more upbeat than most. There was also a rumour the two Texans pulled out because of the early leaks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amo69 Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 For me this is what I feared most, hence staying quiet on the speculation. If we don't get a buyer quickly and I very much doubt we will (not many would buy into the money pit in a rush) then we will be in limbo, stuck with a poor manager and a very under strength squad. I really can't see Lerner sanctioning any transfers in unless there isn't any buyers in the offing, even then it would probably be more cheap dross. I really hope that the sale is much further on than it appears to be. This is why I think a deal is a lot closer than we think. No way is Lerner going to risk the chance of still being owner for next season with the state the squad has been left in. He will no full well relegation is very likely and then his loss's will be hugh! A deal we'll be done sooner rather than later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bannedfromHandV Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 It's a different Kraft.... Kraftwerk? Damn you, beat me to it! Soz 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amo69 Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 To be honest with you I have the same reservations as everyone with regards to the timescale of the "takeover". However I think the talks may have been more advanced than we think and news has only been broken as per the rumoured "until we are safe" view. I feel even if we go through the summer without new owners at the very latest we will be sold before January. I also am confident we will sign better players this summer. Worst case scenario if we are in a bad situation come January it will be sorted. (The fear is obviously the team could be so dejected by January we could do a QPR no matter who we sign.). I doubt we would be there with a couple quality additions, a fit Benteke and Kozal, Nzogbia back etc. I'm more upbeat than most. There was also a rumour the two Texans pulled out because of the early leaks. I never liked the idea of the two Texans. I don't why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Djemba_Villan Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 Pat murphy tweet, Keith Harris,investment banker who finessed Lerner's takeover of Villa in '06 on board again for sale,along with Merrill Lynch.RL trusts him Understand Harris starting from scratch,that RL doesn't have buyer up his sleeve.Any deal wouldn't go ahead without Harris' recommendation I really don't believe that there is currently no interest, or that Randy woke up this morning and called up his banker mates to get the ball rolling. This has been going on for a while IMO. What about if Randy has been trying to sell us on the quiet for a couple of years with no takers - realising that relegation is a distinct possibility next season - this is his last ditch effort to sell us a top flight club ? Ok i'm usually an optimist..but that post is soberingly probable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supernova26 Posted May 12, 2014 Author Share Posted May 12, 2014 (edited) Merill Lynch isn't a person, it's a brand , part of The Bank Of America who oversee such things as takeovers. So the buyer could already be in place. Edited May 12, 2014 by supernova26 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 Lerner will have to spend at least a bit if there's no sale. He'll know as well as anybody that relegation will knock a lot off the value of the club. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudevillaisnice Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 Phil Williams @PhilWilliams Just spoken to Doug Ellis. He told me he's heard a deal's been done for Villa with an American. Hear it at 23.15 on @bbc5live 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 It's 8 weeks until the players return to pre season training so I'd start getting seriously worried if there's no sign of a takeover then. Worth remembering the circumstances in which the Lerner takeover occurred, it wasn't announced until mid August 2006 (indeed MON had only been appoint a week before) and yet with a squad not much superior to this one we started 10 unbeaten. Also didn't Man. City get taken over the day before the transfer window closed on August 2008...and then spent the next day just bidding for any player that had scored a goal in football. Those were the days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 (edited) pulled out because of the early leaks. An alarmingly common problem, apparently... Edited May 12, 2014 by maqroll 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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