Aston Villa Protest Group

[markavfc40]

55 minutes ago, Woodytom said:

 

But again, you were attacking an individual who was already trying to get out.

I'm pretty sure we're now at the stage where your 3 wishes have been met. I think there was 3?

 

One of the requests was met and then within weeks was relevant again when Bernstein left.

Another of the requests was met when Lerner made a statement on 22nd April 2016 and addressed the club being for sale.

The one that has been totally outstanding is the need for him to commit to invest if he is to remain the owner. The fact that the club is up for sale doesn't mean he can negate his responsibility for it. The club has been for sale for almost two years now. There is a chance it could still be up for sale in another two years.

The squad we currently have is the worst I can remember in my 30+ years following us. It needs a reasonable level of investment if we are to achieve what should be the least of this clubs aims now – promotion. Without it the club is likely to stagnate in the Championship or worse still drop again. If the club doesn't sell in the coming weeks then Lerner will need to invest to stop that happening whilst at the same time protecting his investment. It therefore seems a more than reasonable request to ask him to commit to invest failing the club selling.

However, as has been shown over recent years, investment without the expertise on the board above the manager will be futile. Therefore if he does remain the board member issues will also need to be resolved.

The bottom line in all this is that we chose to focus these protests on Randy Lerner. To address him both becoming more motivated to sell the club, as last we heard over a year ago was that he was no longer a motivated seller. We also asked him to address issues regarding what needs to happen if he remains owner which as stated above seems reasonable given the club had been up for sale for two years already.

Your first post in this thread today revolved around why we didn't focus our attention on the players as it would have gained more media attention. That would have been as good for our aims as me being a Labour supporter and campaigning for the Tories just because it would gain more media attention. It would have been totally against what we ultimately believe to be the cause of the issues at this club. We focused on Lerner and did our best to get media attention onto the issues with him and we think we did OK in that regard.

Edited May 10, 2016 by markavfc40

[briny_ear]

1 hour ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

At the minute it sounds like "I wish you guys had done what I wanted rather than what you wanted", which is a bit, I dunno, immature IMO. 

 

 

1 hour ago, Woodytom said:

Not at all.

I'm not really that bothered.

[dont_do_it_doug.]

47 minutes ago, Woodytom said:

 

[dont_do_it_doug.]

@Stevo985 Fair enough. 

I have not taken it to heart, not really. I'm sat on a beach in Cyprus, happy as Larry. I was merely countering your opinion with my own honest one. As I always try to do. 

[Mark Albrighton]

1 hour ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

3 wishes, like we rubbed a **** bottle and a genie came out. 

Oh bollocks, the third one should have been to wish for three more wishes. Is it too late to change it? Damn it.

Ah well, you live and learn.

[GENTLEMAN]

 

[blandy]

On ‎10‎/‎05‎/‎2016 at 14:34, dont_do_it_doug. said:

So when you put your house up for sale and it doesn't sell for what you're asking you stop cleaning the toilet, stop replacing the light bulbs, cutting the grass?

Poor analogy - that's not "investing", that's doing the bare minimum to keep the "house" presentable. Investing would be like building an extension, replacing the single glazing with double glazing, new central heating etc.

Woody is right IMO.

You can have "sell" or you can have "invest", but not both. The realities of finance and takeover processes basically make the two mutually exclusive.

[dont_do_it_doug.]

So you think he should do what if/when he can't sell the club? Invest the bare minimum to keep it ticking over? You'll be happy with that because it's the sound thing to do financially, for him?

We're a football club, not a corner shop. Yes the analogy was poor, but to suggest he should not invest because the club is up for sale is absurd. What if it takes him 10 years??

You can have both. I'm literally asking him to do both. So there. 

[dont_do_it_doug.]

By the way, at no point has any one of us suggested he isn't investing already. Only that he must continue to do so whilst a buyer is found. 

Perhaps you're reading something that isn't there. 

Edited May 12, 2016 by dont_do_it_doug.

[dont_do_it_doug.]

1. To make a public statement indicating that you are once again motivated to sell the club at a price at which Aston Villa can be sold to a person, or persons, with the means and vision to restore this club to its rightful place. You must then follow through on this pledge.

2. Whilst a buyer is found we require you to make the necessary changes to ensure that Aston Villa is ran with the intention of winning football matches. That must include a guarantee from yourself to provide the necessary financial support to achieve this aim.

3. You must also ensure that people with the correct expertise and a proven track record are brought into the club to provide the tools for the Manager to succeed.

[sidcow]

The problem with Randy is that he HAS been investing in us. He invested £30m in us last year. I bet no owner outside the top 6 has personally invested anything even approaching that. The problem is that EVERY SINGLE THING HE HAS DONE IN 5 YEARS HAS BEEN ABSOLUTELY HORRENDOUS.  He has not merely made a lot of poor decisions he has made tons and tons of them. Wrong managers wrong executives wrong players wrong contract lengths wrong scouts not just once or twice but over and over and over again. 

The money Randy has invested has been amazing,  totally OTT in fact. To have spent SO much money for us to be so utterly awful is actually breathtaking.  It's actually hard to understand how he has been so bad. He could have given us away for nothing 3 years ago and be better off than he will be when he sells us. It's unbelievable 

[Tubby]

There's Capital expenditure (using financial reserves to purchase with the intent of generating future economic benefits) and Revenue expenditure (improving or maintaining what you already have to return similar results)

There's definitely been capital expenditure on players, Managers and Bodymoor Heath could probably fall under that too, but in the main the Capex expense has been poorly judged and likely not returned anywhere near to what was expected given that we have had poor selling prices on all but 6 players and falling out of the Premier League losing access to its riches. We also seem to undergenerate revenue for our size meaning our potential for Capex is limited whilst preference would lurch towards revenue expense at that point.

Something like this is why we are where we are. An owner that's backed away and taken no interest because he simply doesn't know how to run a football club (acknowledging I nor many of us here do either). An owner that's been on the end of some awful decisions and failed to help the club generate reserves other than to sell the best assets which clearly isn't sustainable.

No seller will spend more than they have to if they cant influence the selling price of their business so we can't expect any future benefits of his existence here at Aston Villa. Relegation to the championship because of Randy

Lerner Out 

Edited May 13, 2016 by Tubby

[Demitri_C]

Hopefully this nightmare is over and a new dawn will shine through Villa Park soon