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2015 Takeover Thread


samjp26

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Tim has said "I'm allowed to sign whoever I want in the summer, as long as i can justify it.....It sounds to me like a bit of trust is raising its head again between Owner & Manager...which is Great News.

 

Like Blandy has eloquently illustrated in his earlier post, The landscape is changing for the better and all parties ...Fans/owner/Manager & Staff /Players will gain confidence from it all.

 

....just got an end of season to focus on. UTV

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Money talks. I'm not suggesting that new owners overspend beyond their means and "do a Leeds" but that rich enough owners (as unlikely as that may be) can make anything happen - including finding ways around FFP.

 

There are currently no known "ways around" domestic FFP, because no sanctions have been brought against anyone yet due to the sanctionable period still being ongoing. You're confusing UEFA FFP and Premier League FFP. The latter carries potential points deductions, as well as financial penalties. And you can bet your bollox if we overspend and pip one of the big boys to 4th, we'll be docked just enough points to make sure they get in instead of us

Edited by P3te
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Great post sums our current situation up in a nutshell.The key appointment was Fox obviously knows the score in the business/commercial world and a whole different individual to Faulkner,stay up which we should do and probably next season will see a revolution in the fortunes of our great club.Lerner has proved in the past that he is not afraid to spend a bob or 2,if it that has to occur again on the odd occasion hopefully the outlay will be more beneficial in terms of player recruitment that some of the mugs signed by O'Neill & Co.

Thanks. One thing I'll add, seeing as your post prompted it, is there's still perhaps a bit of a lack of football experience in the boardroom area. Yes TF worked at Arsenal, but that was more the commercial side - where he did a good job. It's just that in terms of appointments and working with the manager directly, there's still a gap in knowledge. Of course it's not a simple matter to find someone who is a perfect fit in all respects, or to find a combination of people who work well together and have complete trust in each other, if just one person can't tick all the boxes.

It's often the case, I guess that if you get someone with the deep understanding of the sport side of things, they may not be quite so hot on the commercial and business side, and vice versa.

So what I'm saying is that while TF is experienced in terms of football sponsorships, and all that side of it, he's not experienced in the other side of it. I also think that Paul Faulkner wasn't the terrible CEO some might think. I'm not at all sure that he was responsible for the choices made in terms of managers and so on. I think he worked well with the managers that were chosen by Randy, and did a lot to help them. I think he was not in favour of appointing Macleish, for example. He ended up being a bit of a fall guy in some respects. Still he was well paid for it, and did his best.

 

Anyway, we've moved on, but we still really need to stay up (obviously) and as welcome as the recent performances have been, you're never far from things all going a bit pete tong. The thing you can do, I guess, as an owner is to put the best people in place in all the roles and trust them to get on with it, to use their expertise. You shouldn't just wing it, and hope a run of luck continues, or think "job done", everything's great. That was a mistake made over and over again by the previous bloke - he's mostly pull out the stops when we were struggling, and then once things settled down, he'd stop and be complacent, meaning we'd slip back. That's not a comment based on just my view, but on looking at the way we'd be up and down the table from season to season for large parts of his time as Chairman.

What we've seen with RL is very different - we were consistently decent, then we were consistently rubbish. With Ellis is was (apart from a spell of a few years) one then the other, then back to the one and so on.

This club needs to be run properly year on year and to have continued striving to be the best we can at all levels, all the time. You can't just stop and sit on your Laurels.

 

What's that got to do with a take over? I'm just observing that disruption can be very detrimental - whether it's internal - changing tack from spending to selling, or by chopping and changing managers every year or two, or by doing welsh for a spell, then thinking "that's that sorted" and sitting back.

We have to remember that all the other clubs (apart from Newcastle and QPR, who are not run properly, IMO) are trying to do the same thing we are - to be better and more competitive and get more money. It's a constant race and competition, and we need to keep at it. Stopping to change owners, managers and the like gives everyone else an advantage for a time. These things should only be done, then, when there's no alternative, or when the alternative available is clearly and demonstrably an improvement worth making.

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I'm really surprised anyone is happy for Lerner to continue.

Our points totals the last five years have been absolutely awful and we've allowed plenty of clubs to catch us and over take us during his time at the club. Why would anyone want that to continue? Because we've had a nice month thanks to Sherwood?

I want nothing more to do with him. This has easily been the longest shit period of my time as a villa fan, I hope it will end soon.

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I'm really surprised anyone is happy for Lerner to continue.

Our points totals the last five years have been absolutely awful and we've allowed plenty of clubs to catch us and over take us during his time at the club. Why would anyone want that to continue? Because we've had a nice month thanks to Sherwood?

No, because the dirty work is, or at least should be, done now.

A self sufficient club needs little input from its owner any more, with the financial restrictions that now exist. Fox is in as CEO to run the club from top to bottom, and there's not really anything for Lerner, or any other owner, to do.

 

The only reason a new owner could be worthwhile now is if, like in the case with potential Chinese owners, they bring with them an immediate ability to open up new markets or major revenue streams. If that's not on the table, then a big part of Fox's job (and prior experience) is to increase commercial revenue streams organically. Whether Randy Lerner or A.N. Other holds the keys to Villa Park makes no difference on that front.

 

If he starts taking money out of the club in lieu of selling up to make his losses back, then I'll have issue with him, but there's nothing so far to suggest he'll do that. A successful, well run, self-sustaining club is worth a lot more to Lerner when it comes time to sell than an under performing, loss-making club. It's in his best interests for us to improve. If and when he sells, he'll be entitled to pocket as much as he can get, and I think he's now realized that he could make a bit more than he was looking for a few months ago just by continuing to let things go as they are.

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I'm really surprised anyone is happy for Lerner to continue.

Our points totals the last five years have been absolutely awful and we've allowed plenty of clubs to catch us and over take us during his time at the club. Why would anyone want that to continue? Because we've had a nice month thanks to Sherwood?

I want nothing more to do with him. This has easily been the longest shit period of my time as a villa fan, I hope it will end soon.

Im a little uneasy with a takeover, it concerns me who would be in charge as it doesnt always end well and you only have to look at Fulham as a prime example. I quite like the set up we have at the moment, I like Fox, I like Sherwood, I like the backroom set up which was farcical under Lambert and I am enjoying the football. Sometimes the grass isn't greener. The MON years were good but it has been poor since until now, the sinking ship now seems to be sailing smoothly and heading in the right direction. Be careful what you wish for.....

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I'm really surprised anyone is happy for Lerner to continue.

Our points totals the last five years have been absolutely awful and we've allowed plenty of clubs to catch us and over take us during his time at the club. Why would anyone want that to continue? Because we've had a nice month thanks to Sherwood?

I want nothing more to do with him. This has easily been the longest shit period of my time as a villa fan, I hope it will end soon.

In reality what has happened had to be done. In hindsight It has all been as a result of the overspending at the start and the structure running the club not being right. Yes you can say there has been some bad decisions made since then and the size/speed of the cost reduction has meant playing a risky game with relegation but providing we have come through, then it has been the right decision and the alternative could be far worse.

 

I want someone else to come in and take us forward but until then It does appear that things are starting to be done right. So if it has been matter of getting finances in order and going from there rather than the Mike Ashley approach of just about running a profit with no ambition then i'm OK with it. Though at the same time I don't want Lerner to use us being 'up for sale' like Kenwright does at Everton in a way to lower fans expectations a little.

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Pete it all sounds good but i've seen little to have much faith in him.  Yes the dirty work has been done, lets not forget he's the reason it had to be done, and I also believe it was done, more to benefit him with trying to sell the club than because he had a longer term plan to make us successful again.

 

Lets see what we do in the transfer window this summer, I have little faith that it will be much different to the previous ones, where it seemed that Lerner was happy to gamble with the premier league status of the club.  This is also the man that hired houllier, mcleish and lambert and stuck with and rewarded lambert when it was obvious to all it was going nowhere.

 

I think there's lots to be fairly excited about with villa at the moment but I guess i've lost a lot in faith in Lerner.

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We're seeing right now that there wasn't actually all that much of a gamble in terms of player acquisitions over the past 3-4 years. We've built a really good squad. There was nobody there to manage it properly was the issue. This current squad can finish top half, and that's with it not costing all that much money at all

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Pete it all sounds good but i've seen little to have much faith in him.  Yes the dirty work has been done, lets not forget he's the reason it had to be done, and I also believe it was done, more to benefit him with trying to sell the club than because he had a longer term plan to make us successful again.

 

 

What if he doesn't sell the club? What if he thinks **** it, I've gone this far, with the restrictions in place and the right man in Fox at the helm (in Lerner's opinion) and a bright young manager why not have another go. It wouldn't be the first time somebody had a genuine change of heart. 

 

Being pragmatic, I am also of the view that what difference does it really make now? It's all about the structure of the club and the revenue it can generate. FFP is an abomination in many ways, but it is here to stay and we need to find a way to work within it. If the age of austerity is over (and I agree we shall see to a degree this summer) then I'm willing to let bygones be bygones I suppose. I'm really not in the mood for more upheaval unless absolutely necessary. 

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We're seeing right now that there wasn't actually all that much of a gamble in terms of player acquisitions over the past 3-4 years. We've built a really good squad. There was nobody there to manage it properly was the issue. This current squad can finish top half, and that's with it not costing all that much money at all

Then the gamble was hiring mcleish and sticking with lambert.

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Pete it all sounds good but i've seen little to have much faith in him.  Yes the dirty work has been done, lets not forget he's the reason it had to be done, and I also believe it was done, more to benefit him with trying to sell the club than because he had a longer term plan to make us successful again.

 

 

What if he doesn't sell the club? What if he thinks **** it, I've gone this far, with the restrictions in place and the right man in Fox at the helm (in Lerner's opinion) and a bright young manager why not have another go. It wouldn't be the first time somebody had a genuine change of heart. 

 

Being pragmatic, I am also of the view that what difference does it really make now? It's all about the structure of the club and the revenue it can generate. FFP is an abomination in many ways, but it is here to stay and we need to find a way to work within it. If the age of austerity is over (and I agree we shall see to a degree this summer) then I'm willing to let bygones be bygones I suppose. I'm really not in the mood for more upheaval unless absolutely necessary. 

 

I guess this summer will show us certain things.  If it's different and we're going to be ambitious within FFP then yeah, i agree, lets get on with it and see where it goes.

 

I just don't have much faith that Sherwood will have much more to play with than Lambert did.

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Randy Lerner fell out with aston villa in the same way we did.

We love the club, but was unhappy with the way it was performing.

Randy was happy with aston villa but unhappy with the way it was performing.

The manager was unhappy too, but didn't know what to do.

New manager does know what to do.

All parties happy again.....we all move forward with confidence.

......simples.

Edited by TRO
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Pete it all sounds good but i've seen little to have much faith in him.  Yes the dirty work has been done, lets not forget he's the reason it had to be done, and I also believe it was done, more to benefit him with trying to sell the club than because he had a longer term plan to make us successful again.

 

 

What if he doesn't sell the club? What if he thinks **** it, I've gone this far, with the restrictions in place and the right man in Fox at the helm (in Lerner's opinion) and a bright young manager why not have another go. It wouldn't be the first time somebody had a genuine change of heart. 

 

Being pragmatic, I am also of the view that what difference does it really make now? It's all about the structure of the club and the revenue it can generate. FFP is an abomination in many ways, but it is here to stay and we need to find a way to work within it. If the age of austerity is over (and I agree we shall see to a degree this summer) then I'm willing to let bygones be bygones I suppose. I'm really not in the mood for more upheaval unless absolutely necessary. 

 

I guess this summer will show us certain things.  If it's different and we're going to be ambitious within FFP then yeah, i agree, lets get on with it and see where it goes.

 

I just don't have much faith that Sherwood will have much more to play with than Lambert did.

 

 

Neither do I. But given £20m net like Lambert was in his first summer with a bit more flexibility on wages now that we are not paying the likes of Habib Beye £50k a week then he will get the same as the vast majority of clubs in the league. Frankly, I don't think he would need much more, though I would like to see it of course. 

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We're seeing right now that there wasn't actually all that much of a gamble in terms of player acquisitions over the past 3-4 years. We've built a really good squad. There was nobody there to manage it properly was the issue. This current squad can finish top half, and that's with it not costing all that much money at all

Then the gamble was hiring mcleish and sticking with lambert.

 

McLeish was a mess start to finish. Lambert should've gone earlier, that's certain, but if he had, would we have gotten Sherwood? Pie in the sky really. Maybe getting rid of Lambert earlier would've relegated us, we just don't know. All I'm concerned with is the right decision was made, the right man was brought in, and things look up for the first time in a long time - with Lerner still owning the club.

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Pete it all sounds good but i've seen little to have much faith in him.  Yes the dirty work has been done, lets not forget he's the reason it had to be done, and I also believe it was done, more to benefit him with trying to sell the club than because he had a longer term plan to make us successful again.

 

What if he doesn't sell the club? What if he thinks **** it, I've gone this far, with the restrictions in place and the right man in Fox at the helm (in Lerner's opinion) and a bright young manager why not have another go. It wouldn't be the first time somebody had a genuine change of heart. 

 

Being pragmatic, I am also of the view that what difference does it really make now? It's all about the structure of the club and the revenue it can generate. FFP is an abomination in many ways, but it is here to stay and we need to find a way to work within it. If the age of austerity is over (and I agree we shall see to a degree this summer) then I'm willing to let bygones be bygones I suppose. I'm really not in the mood for more upheaval unless absolutely necessary.

I guess this summer will show us certain things.  If it's different and we're going to be ambitious within FFP then yeah, i agree, lets get on with it and see where it goes.

 

I just don't have much faith that Sherwood will have much more to play with than Lambert did.

.....but sherwood has already said to the contrary

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We're seeing right now that there wasn't actually all that much of a gamble in terms of player acquisitions over the past 3-4 years. We've built a really good squad. There was nobody there to manage it properly was the issue. This current squad can finish top half, and that's with it not costing all that much money at all

Then the gamble was hiring mcleish and sticking with lambert.

 

McLeish was a mess start to finish. Lambert should've gone earlier, that's certain, but if he had, would we have gotten Sherwood? Pie in the sky really. Maybe getting rid of Lambert earlier would've relegated us, we just don't know. All I'm concerned with is the right decision was made, the right man was brought in, and things look up for the first time in a long time - with Lerner still owning the club.

 

But we've said this before. Things looked up when he first came and hired MON and that led to problems and things looked up when we sacked mcleish and hired lambert and that came close to ending in disaster.

 

Things do look up, but history with Randy Lerner doesn't point to it going anywhere while he is in charge.

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