The Randy Lerner thread

[TrentVilla]

As for Mike Ashley being a better business man.......their in different leagues, Randy is a world player, Ashley owns a flagging retail business.

I agree they are in different leagues.

One is self made, the other has inherited his fortune.

One has taken a club saddled with debt, removed it and moved the club to generating an operating profit and a sustainable wage bill. The other has taken a virtually debt free club and put it in huge debt to himself while charging interest and management fee's by the million along the way. While allowing a wage bill to get completely out of control before having a change of heart.

Now don't get me wrong, Mike Ashley has made mistakes plenty of them in fact. He has made poor decisions in relation to managers and has shown a remarkable ability to upset the locals. I'm not by any stretch saying I'd rather Mike Ashley own us than Randy, not at all.

However when you say Ashley is in a different league to Randy I'm sorry to say you are right but on purely business terms its not a comparison that is favourable to Lerner.

[thetrees]

Well said Risso. People that think he will magically get it right live in Peter Pan land. If you look back at his appointments in American football he gets it wrong every single time.

Presumably he has all bar one wrong at th Villa?

What are you on about now?

If you follow American football you will know exactly how managerial appointments he has got wrong over there. :yawn:

I am on about Aston Villa, the subject of this forum.

Was your post purely to do with American Football, and nothing to do with Aston Villa then?

[steve_avfc]

Wheres the General? Anyone heard anything from him in the past few months? I wonder if he still stands by his prediction of 4th being the highest we could achieve this season and 9th being the very lowest? Then theres the classic imagine what Eck could do if backed quote. Mugged off.

Nobody knows. I asked the mods on here, they don't know. I emailed the General to wish him happy Christmas and I asked him a few questions, I had no reply. I emailed PF and RL the same, I also asked about GK, I had no reply. Strange because I had replies to other questions off GK and PF last year.

[tinker]

As for Mike Ashley being a better business man.......their in different leagues, Randy is a world player, Ashley owns a flagging retail business.

I agree they are in different leagues.

One is self made, the other has inherited his fortune.

One has taken a club saddled with debt, removed it and moved the club to generating an operating profit and a sustainable wage bill. The other has taken a virtually debt free club and put it in huge debt to himself while charging interest and management fee's by the million along the way. While allowing a wage bill to get completely out of control before having a change of heart.

Now don't get me wrong, Mike Ashley has made mistakes plenty of them in fact. He has made poor decisions in relation to managers and has shown a remarkable ability to upset the locals. I'm not by any stretch saying I'd rather Mike Ashley own us than Randy, not at all.

However when you say Ashley is in a different league to Randy I'm sorry to say you are right but on purely business terms its not a comparison that is favourable to Lerner.

Ok.....he made his own money, he is also well on his way to losing it all as well, his Black investment has turned into a nightmare, £1b to £4m in one year............lets see what 2012 holds for Mr Ashley, i think Newcastle may become his main cash cow.

[CI]

£200m profit for Sports Direct last year, I'd say as a self made successful business man, I have far more respect for Ashley over silver spoon Lerner

[tinker]

£200m profit for Sports Direct last year, I'd say as a self made successful business man, I have far more respect for Ashley over silver spoon Lerner

Fair enough, time will tell whos right on business front .FWIW, i would rather have Randy as our owner.

[CI]

I never said I wanted Ashley as our owner, just that I respect his streetwise business acumen, the guy was born to make money

[thetrees]

£200m profit for Sports Direct last year, I'd say as a self made successful business man, I have far more respect for Ashley over silver spoon Lerner

It's amazing how second generations don't deserve any credit when their families are rich. I don't see much difference between a rich kid and the brickies son whose dad gets him a job down on the building site. They are all capable in their own way, but all need a leg up in their formative working years.

I am in no position to judge Mr Lerner's abilities, except that if he didn't have any acumen or talent, then he would have been completely unable to continue after his father's passing.

And I entirely agree with you regarding Ashley. He appears to be one cute cookie and an excellent businessman.

[Morley_crosses_to_Withe]

So apart from setting up his own investment advisory firm, then becoming a director of MBNA for nine years, then chairman for almost three years, and then over seeing the sale of MBNA to BoA for 35 Billion USD, Randy has no business nous :?

[CI]

Listen, I'm not knocking Randy, he was dealt his hand as we all are I'm just giving Ashley some praise for as far as i can see, he's built an empire from scratch.

As a man I'm not sure but, I know a supplier to Ashley directly who hardly gives him glowing praise, from a commercial sense, the guy is tight as a crabs arse

[maqroll]

Wheres the General? Anyone heard anything from him in the past few months? I wonder if he still stands by his prediction of 4th being the highest we could achieve this season and 9th being the very lowest? Then theres the classic imagine what Eck could do if backed quote. Mugged off.

Nobody knows. I asked the mods on here, they don't know. I emailed the General to wish him happy Christmas and I asked him a few questions, I had no reply. I emailed PF and RL the same, I also asked about GK, I had no reply. Strange because I had replies to other questions off GK and PF last year.

I'm guessing that the General is bowing out of his mouthpiece role for good. He's been M.I.A. for months anyway...and what else does he offer? He's not giving the team Marine-style pep talks at halftime...

[TheDrums]

Well said Risso. People that think he will magically get it right live in Peter Pan land. If you look back at his appointments in American football he gets it wrong every single time.

Presumably he has all bar one wrong at th Villa?

What are you on about now?

If you follow American football you will know exactly how managerial appointments he has got wrong over there. :yawn:

I am on about Aston Villa, the subject of this forum.

Was your post purely to do with American Football, and nothing to do with Aston Villa then?

It was a post based on Randy Lerner, in a topic that discusses issues relating to Randy Lerner, the owner of Aston Villa. It isn't that difficult to work out really.

[deaceydeaceyaggro]

Wheres the General? Anyone heard anything from him in the past few months? I wonder if he still stands by his prediction of 4th being the highest we could achieve this season and 9th being the very lowest? Then theres the classic imagine what Eck could do if backed quote. Mugged off.

Nobody knows. I asked the mods on here, they don't know. I emailed the General to wish him happy Christmas and I asked him a few questions, I had no reply. I emailed PF and RL the same, I also asked about GK, I had no reply. Strange because I had replies to other questions off GK and PF last year.

I'm guessing that the General is bowing out of his mouthpiece role for good. He's been M.I.A. for months anyway...and what else does he offer? He's not giving the team Marine-style pep talks at halftime...

He's quit as a Villa director. His profile on his official twitter acount says he's a former Villa director.

[Fuse]

Firstly I don't buy into this Randy Lerner isn't a businessman bollocks. As others have stated he has a very good pedigree and knows far more about business than anyone posting on here I would suggest.

As far as Villa are concerned I think he has had some unbelievable bad luck. He arrives on the scene closely followed by the Arabs at City who completely change the footballing landscape that not only sees them propelled into the toip 4 but has forced Liverpool to sell up and spend over £100m on decent but hardly spectacular players and still have no sign of a new stadium. As well as forcing Abramovich to ditch his make Chelsea sustainable plan and spend over £80m on two players who can't get in the team. So Lerner is not on his own in having the best laid plans thrown out of the window.

As for his managment choices well he made a mistake in Houllier in as much as his illness was almost guaranteed to return and it cost Lerner a fortune because of it. As for MON he has admitted that he got over excited and let his love of Villa allow MON to spend out of control. He is now trying to put that right.

Onto McLeish. Now here is where I disagree with most people. I actually don't think McLeish is as bad as people make out he is. I think he has an incredibly strong character to have taken the job on and I think he is just the type we need to control the personalities we have and the youngsters coming through. I would go as far as saying that he is doing Lerner's dirty work very well. I sincerely hope he is here in 18 months time as I think he will have done what is needed financially, which is to ride out the storm of no investment whilst we await getting the wage bill back down to manageable levels, and then be given a reasonable budget to go and try and compete for the top 6.

I might be wrong but I think that in 18 months we will see a return to Lerner investing decent sums in the playing squad and I would not be surprised if McLesih wins us a trophy, given time.

[OnlyOne]

Randy has got to be the worst owner at making appointments. Every single one he has hired has been compensated down the line.

In his NFL club he hired someone called Eric Mangini and that was like an Alex McLeish appointment where it made no logical sense. He was sacked from another NFL team for doing a really bad job and within a week Randy hired him that caused a major uproar amoungst the fans and the media were stunned. Oh, and guess what? He did a bad job there as predicted and Randy had to compensate him about 8 milion dollars.

Honestly, I think Randy is just trolling for the sake of it. He feeds off the fans reactions. That's about the light worthy excuse I can make for him.

[brommy]

Randy has got to be the worst owner at making appointments. Every single one he has hired has been compensated down the line.

In his NFL club he hired someone called Eric Mangini and that was like an Alex McLeish appointment where it made no logical sense. He was sacked from another NFL team for doing a really bad job and within a week Randy hired him that caused a major uproar amoungst the fans and the media were stunned. Oh, and guess what? He did a bad job there as predicted and Randy had to compensate him about 8 milion dollars.

Honestly, I think Randy is just trolling for the sake of it. He feeds off the fans reactions. That's about the light worthy excuse I can make for him.

The NFL might be different but with the original football most managers are sacked and are therefore compensated.

[Mantis]

Firstly I don't buy into this Randy Lerner isn't a businessman bollocks. As others have stated he has a very good pedigree and knows far more about business than anyone posting on here I would suggest.

As far as Villa are concerned I think he has had some unbelievable bad luck. He arrives on the scene closely followed by the Arabs at City who completely change the footballing landscape that not only sees them propelled into the toip 4 but has forced Liverpool to sell up and spend over £100m on decent but hardly spectacular players and still have no sign of a new stadium. As well as forcing Abramovich to ditch his make Chelsea sustainable plan and spend over £80m on two players who can't get in the team. So Lerner is not on his own in having the best laid plans thrown out of the window.

As for his managment choices well he made a mistake in Houllier in as much as his illness was almost guaranteed to return and it cost Lerner a fortune because of it. As for MON he has admitted that he got over excited and let his love of Villa allow MON to spend out of control. He is now trying to put that right.

Onto McLeish. Now here is where I disagree with most people. I actually don't think McLeish is as bad as people make out he is. I think he has an incredibly strong character to have taken the job on and I think he is just the type we need to control the personalities we have and the youngsters coming through. I would go as far as saying that he is doing Lerner's dirty work very well. I sincerely hope he is here in 18 months time as I think he will have done what is needed financially, which is to ride out the storm of no investment whilst we await getting the wage bill back down to manageable levels, and then be given a reasonable budget to go and try and compete for the top 6.

I might be wrong but I think that in 18 months we will see a return to Lerner investing decent sums in the playing squad and I would not be surprised if McLesih wins us a trophy, given time.

That's not a bad post and I agree with a lot of it but if Randy is going to invest once the wage bill is down I really do hope McLeish isn't around then. Fine if he absolutely must stay he can do the dirty work but no more. I wouldn't trust McLeish with any money and I certainly don't want to see him "build" a team here. We will lose a lot of money if he's still here in 18 months because attendances will be down and we will be struggling for survival in the league.

[thetrees]

Well said Risso. People that think he will magically get it right live in Peter Pan land. If you look back at his appointments in American football he gets it wrong every single time.

Presumably he has all bar one wrong at th Villa?

What are you on about now?

If you follow American football you will know exactly how managerial appointments he has got wrong over there. :yawn:

I am on about Aston Villa, the subject of this forum.

Was your post purely to do with American Football, and nothing to do with Aston Villa then?

It was a post based on Randy Lerner, in a topic that discusses issues relating to Randy Lerner, the owner of Aston Villa. It isn't that difficult to work out really.

I know, which is why I was surprised that you didn't work out my response. Ah well.

[thetrees]

Onto McLeish. Now here is where I disagree with most people. I actually don't think McLeish is as bad as people make out he is. I think he has an incredibly strong character to have taken the job on and I think he is just the type we need to control the personalities we have and the youngsters coming through. I would go as far as saying that he is doing Lerner's dirty work very well. I sincerely hope he is here in 18 months time as I think he will have done what is needed financially, which is to ride out the storm of no investment whilst we await getting the wage bill back down to manageable levels, and then be given a reasonable budget to go and try and compete for the top 6.

I might be wrong but I think that in 18 months we will see a return to Lerner investing decent sums in the playing squad and I would not be surprised if McLesih wins us a trophy, given time.

An excellent post.

I agree with you entirely on McLeish, with my hope being that, if he gets that far, he changes his playing style. We have had to watch hoof football for too many years at VP.

My fear though is that he is unable to change, and that like a certain previous manager was, he is the best man for the specific moment, and that once his job is done, he should step aside for someone with a greater footballing vision.

[krenborg]

Firstly I don't buy into this Randy Lerner isn't a businessman bollocks. As others have stated he has a very good pedigree and knows far more about business than anyone posting on here I would suggest.

As far as Villa are concerned I think he has had some unbelievable bad luck. He arrives on the scene closely followed by the Arabs at City who completely change the footballing landscape that not only sees them propelled into the toip 4 but has forced Liverpool to sell up and spend over £100m on decent but hardly spectacular players and still have no sign of a new stadium. As well as forcing Abramovich to ditch his make Chelsea sustainable plan and spend over £80m on two players who can't get in the team. So Lerner is not on his own in having the best laid plans thrown out of the window.

As for his managment choices well he made a mistake in Houllier in as much as his illness was almost guaranteed to return and it cost Lerner a fortune because of it. As for MON he has admitted that he got over excited and let his love of Villa allow MON to spend out of control. He is now trying to put that right.

Onto McLeish. Now here is where I disagree with most people. I actually don't think McLeish is as bad as people make out he is. I think he has an incredibly strong character to have taken the job on and I think he is just the type we need to control the personalities we have and the youngsters coming through. I would go as far as saying that he is doing Lerner's dirty work very well. I sincerely hope he is here in 18 months time as I think he will have done what is needed financially, which is to ride out the storm of no investment whilst we await getting the wage bill back down to manageable levels, and then be given a reasonable budget to go and try and compete for the top 6.

I might be wrong but I think that in 18 months we will see a return to Lerner investing decent sums in the playing squad and I would not be surprised if McLesih wins us a trophy, given time.

Enjoyed that Fuse thanks, i agree with a lot of it.

I just hope we're not relegated first :?