The Randy Lerner thread

[Czechlad]

Haha have any of you seen this video about the Cleveland browns? Apparently they hate their ownership just as much as we do. Lerner is not meant to run sport franchises.

[Czechlad]

Another one

Funny sounds exactly like Villa

[Mazrim]

Oh dear, it seems some sensitive souls are getting a bit Butthurt over criticism of O'Neill. Bless.

Phil, you seem to be very confused. I haven't said anywhere that MON tried to sign Bent, that is after all one of the things I'm criticising him for, yes?

**** me, if I was trying to "win" a debate with you and some of the other genius types on this thread it wouldn't be much of a challenge. I'm only stating a case for why MON should not get away scott free in the blame game.

He knew how to buy a defence? LOL, he had enough **** practice buying defenders, it was awfully nice of him getting it right for a few months (at the expense of buying the striker we needed and sacrificing attacking play). Have you even asked yourself why he had to buy an entire defence twice in two years?

Yes, the last one he put together had half a good season but also included a centre half at right back who was terrible going forward and lets not forget half of the money he spent (wasted) was on defenders because he had to keep replacing the mistakes he made. Beye hardly ever played and he decided to forget to speak to Young and Shorey. There's £12m worth of full backs on £130,000 p/w that sat on their arse. Never mind letting our best young defender go and paying £10m for a defender who we let go for **** all and went straight into the Dogshit's reserves. Oh yes, very impressive.

Lets look at the transfer genius of St Martin the blameless, blessing and peace be upon him.

I'll let the court view this and decide how good or bad it was. Personally it's lack of imagination, long term vision and value for money makes me want to puke.

2006-07

In

Stiliyan Petrov (Celtic, £6.5m)

Didier Agathe (Celtic, Free)

Chris Sutton (Celtic, Free)

John Carew (Lyon, Swap)

Ashley Young (Watford, £9.65m)

Shaun Maloney (Celtic, £1.1m)

Out

Kevin Phillips (WBA, £700k)

Matthieu Berson (Levante, £1m)

Ulises De La Cruz (Reading, Free)

Peter Whittingham (Cardiff City, £250k)

Eric Djemba Djemba (Quatar, Free)

Milan Baros (Lyon, Swap)

Mark Delaney (Retired)

Juan Pablo Angel (New York Red Bulls, Free)

Spent: £17.25m

Brought in: £1.95m

Net spend: £15.3m

2007-08 In

Moustapha Salifou (FC Wil, Undisc)

Zat Knight (Fulham, £3.5m)

Harry Forrester (Watford, £250 000)

Eric Lichaj (Unattached, Free)

Marlon Harewood (West Ham, £3.5m)

Nigel Reo-Coker (West Ham £8.5m)

Wayne Routledge (Tottenham, £1.5m)

Out

Liam Ridgewell (Birmingham, £2m)

Jlloyd Samuel (Bolton, Free)

Lee Hendrie (Sheffield United, Free)

Chris Sutton Retired

Didier Agathe released

Steven Davis (Fulham, £4m)

Aaron Hughes (Fulham, £1m)

Gavin McCann (Bolton, £1m)

Gary Cahill (Bolton, £4.5m)

Robert Olejnik (Falkirk, Free)

Spent: £17.25m

Brought in: £12.5m

Net spend: £4.75m

2008-09 In

Curtis Davies (WBA, £10m)

Steve Sidwell (Chelsea £5.5m)

Brad Friedel (Blackburn, £2.5m)

Brad Guzan (Chivas US, £1m)

Nicky Shorey (Reading, £4m)

Luke Young (Middlesbrough, £5m)

Carlos Cuellar (Rangers £7.8m)

James Milner (Newcastle, £12m)

Arsenio Halfhuid (Excelsior, nominal)

Emile Heskey (Wigan £3.5m)

Out

Luke Moore (West Brom - £3.5m)

Olof Mellberg (Juventus - free)

Patrick Berger (Sparta Prague - free)

Thomas Sorensen (released)

Shaun Maloney (Celtic, £1m)

Wayne Routledge (undisclosed)

Spent: £51.3m

Brought in: £4.5m

Net spend: £46.8m

2009-10 In

Stewart "Broken Leg" Downing (Middlesbrough £10m)

Fabian Delph (Leeds United £6m)

Habib Beye (£2m)

Andy Marshall (free agent)

Stephen Warnock (£6m)

James Collins (West Ham United, £5m)

Richard Dunne (Manchester City, £6m)

Out:

Gareth Barry (Manchester City, £12m)

Stuart Taylor (Manchester City, free)

Zat Knight (Bolton £4.5m)

Martin Laursen (retired)

Craig Gardner (Birmingham, £3.5m)

Spent: £35million

Brought in: £20million

Net spend: £15million

£82m net spend plus all the wages those players were on. What would a better manager have done with that? Maybe one who actually had scouts.

What legacy would they have left if one day they **** off just before the start of a season with all their staff?

By the way, even though I couldn't stand O'Leary he still managed to equal MONs best league finish with a fraction of the resources. You can dress it up however you like, that's a 24k fact.

And his own players hated him at the end, true. I recall a few knives coming out for MON too, who ignored and never spoke to players he had recently bought at great expense because he's a childish petulant man. Then there was the resentment of anybody outside the usual starting XI because they were never used and awful training routines etc. It's all out there, if you want to look. Let's not pretend he was beloved of all the players because he wasn't.

Of course, I may as well piss into the wind than expect any of this to sink in because its all Randy's fault and I am an agent of the General and other fantastic reasoning.

He probably had MON sign all those average players on huge contracts at gunpoint and had MONs scouts drowned in the channel I suppose.

Anyway, I have nothing more to add and wouldn't waste my time anyway. I've presented the facts as I understand them and that's that.

Thanks to those people who liked and or agreed with what I had to say especially as it seemed to annoy Big Job.

[Big_John_10]

Anyway, I have nothing more to add and wouldn't waste my time anyway. I've presented the facts as I understand them and that's that.

You said similar a few pages back and then decided to bore us again.

I look forward to your next excellent, accurate assessment of the MON years.

Big Job

Clever.

[jon_c]

If your trying to be even handed you should count the sales of Young, Downing and Milner aswell. They're players MON bought that were sold for profit. Checked fees on soccerbase, totalled £63m.

I know paying stupid wages to players that don't play is a total disaster. But I remember at the time, many people moaning that the depth and quality of our squad was poor, and that we need these players in beyond the first 11.

Agreeing to get players to come when they're not first choice, meant paying them more than they were worth. It was a stupid policy, but at the time, as a fan. I thought we had a billionaire owner, so what the hell.

(Obviously the quality of some of these squad players was highly questionable)

[Voinjama]

*Gets the popcorn out, it all going to kick off*

I have to say I had forgotten about a few of those signings.

[VILLAFC2000]

Oh dear, it seems some sensitive souls are getting a bit Butthurt over criticism of O'Neill. Bless.

Phil, you seem to be very confused. I haven't said anywhere that MON tried to sign Bent, that is after all one of the things I'm criticising him for, yes?

**** me, if I was trying to "win" a debate with you and some of the other genius types on this thread it wouldn't be much of a challenge. I'm only stating a case for why MON should not get away scott free in the blame game.

He knew how to buy a defence? LOL, he had enough **** practice buying defenders, it was awfully nice of him getting it right for a few months (at the expense of buying the striker we needed and sacrificing attacking play). Have you even asked yourself why he had to buy an entire defence twice in two years?

Yes, the last one he put together had half a good season but also included a centre half at right back who was terrible going forward and lets not forget half of the money he spent (wasted) was on defenders because he had to keep replacing the mistakes he made. Beye hardly ever played and he decided to forget to speak to Young and Shorey. There's £12m worth of full backs on £130,000 p/w that sat on their arse. Never mind letting our best young defender go and paying £10m for a defender who we let go for **** all and went straight into the Dogshit's reserves. Oh yes, very impressive.

Lets look at the transfer genius of St Martin the blameless, blessing and peace be upon him.

I'll let the court view this and decide how good or bad it was. Personally it's lack of imagination, long term vision and value for money makes me want to puke.

2006-07

In

Stiliyan Petrov (Celtic, £6.5m)

Didier Agathe (Celtic, Free)

Chris Sutton (Celtic, Free)

John Carew (Lyon, Swap)

Ashley Young (Watford, £9.65m)

Shaun Maloney (Celtic, £1.1m)

Out

Kevin Phillips (WBA, £700k)

Matthieu Berson (Levante, £1m)

Ulises De La Cruz (Reading, Free)

Peter Whittingham (Cardiff City, £250k)

Eric Djemba Djemba (Quatar, Free)

Milan Baros (Lyon, Swap)

Mark Delaney (Retired)

Juan Pablo Angel (New York Red Bulls, Free)

Spent: £17.25m

Brought in: £1.95m

Net spend: £15.3m

2007-08 In

Moustapha Salifou (FC Wil, Undisc)

Zat Knight (Fulham, £3.5m)

Harry Forrester (Watford, £250 000)

Eric Lichaj (Unattached, Free)

Marlon Harewood (West Ham, £3.5m)

Nigel Reo-Coker (West Ham £8.5m)

Wayne Routledge (Tottenham, £1.5m)

Out

Liam Ridgewell (Birmingham, £2m)

Jlloyd Samuel (Bolton, Free)

Lee Hendrie (Sheffield United, Free)

Chris Sutton Retired

Didier Agathe released

Steven Davis (Fulham, £4m)

Aaron Hughes (Fulham, £1m)

Gavin McCann (Bolton, £1m)

Gary Cahill (Bolton, £4.5m)

Robert Olejnik (Falkirk, Free)

Spent: £17.25m

Brought in: £12.5m

Net spend: £4.75m

2008-09 In

Curtis Davies (WBA, £10m)

Steve Sidwell (Chelsea £5.5m)

Brad Friedel (Blackburn, £2.5m)

Brad Guzan (Chivas US, £1m)

Nicky Shorey (Reading, £4m)

Luke Young (Middlesbrough, £5m)

Carlos Cuellar (Rangers £7.8m)

James Milner (Newcastle, £12m)

Arsenio Halfhuid (Excelsior, nominal)

Emile Heskey (Wigan £3.5m)

Out

Luke Moore (West Brom - £3.5m)

Olof Mellberg (Juventus - free)

Patrick Berger (Sparta Prague - free)

Thomas Sorensen (released)

Shaun Maloney (Celtic, £1m)

Wayne Routledge (undisclosed)

Spent: £51.3m

Brought in: £4.5m

Net spend: £46.8m

2009-10 In

Stewart "Broken Leg" Downing (Middlesbrough £10m)

Fabian Delph (Leeds United £6m)

Habib Beye (£2m)

Andy Marshall (free agent)

Stephen Warnock (£6m)

James Collins (West Ham United, £5m)

Richard Dunne (Manchester City, £6m)

Out:

Gareth Barry (Manchester City, £12m)

Stuart Taylor (Manchester City, free)

Zat Knight (Bolton £4.5m)

Martin Laursen (retired)

Craig Gardner (Birmingham, £3.5m)

Spent: £35million

Brought in: £20million

Net spend: £15million

£82m net spend plus all the wages those players were on. What would a better manager have done with that? Maybe one who actually had scouts.

What legacy would they have left if one day they **** off just before the start of a season with all their staff?

By the way, even though I couldn't stand O'Leary he still managed to equal MONs best league finish with a fraction of the resources. You can dress it up however you like, that's a 24k fact.

And his own players hated him at the end, true. I recall a few knives coming out for MON too, who ignored and never spoke to players he had recently bought at great expense because he's a childish petulant man. Then there was the resentment of anybody outside the usual starting XI because they were never used and awful training routines etc. It's all out there, if you want to look. Let's not pretend he was beloved of all the players because he wasn't.

Of course, I may as well piss into the wind than expect any of this to sink in because its all Randy's fault and I am an agent of the General and other fantastic reasoning.

He probably had MON sign all those average players on huge contracts at gunpoint and had MONs scouts drowned in the channel I suppose.

Anyway, I have nothing more to add and wouldn't waste my time anyway. I've presented the facts as I understand them and that's that.

Thanks to those people who liked and or agreed with what I had to say especially as it seemed to annoy Big Job.

In that case dont ever moan about this current absolute bunch of senior misfits that are playing for Villa at the moment who are clueless, who have no direction home.

Dont ever moan about McClesish dire tactics, inability to get the best out of players and attacking ineptness.

Now MON has gone you should be satisified with the reduction in wages and net profit ratios of player. You cant have your cake and eat it. The PL is about mega bucks.

Unfortunately MONs Spending was more of a symptom of the PL. You are missing what the PL is all about you cannot compete in the PL without gambling and spending millions of $$$£££. Its a terrible league, 99% of teams can not compete.

It says a lot when Chelsea cant compete.

At the end of the day it was not MON that sanctioned the signings - the FINAL decsion was down to Faulkner and Learner. There fore when you make the point that MON signed these players when it was ultimately down to the board.

Look MON was not without his limitations - he certainly bought some signings that proved to be costly. However Have you seen some of signings United, City and Chelsea and Arsenal have made over the years.

We were lucky to witness three class attacking players in Young, Milner and Downing, its rare that you get a player like that in a generation let alone three. It will be a long time before we have one players like that let alone three.

You have to spend 30 million in the PL just to stay still. Look at Liverpool 125 million - where are they.

A few questions:-

-What is our sales turnover now compared to when MON was manager.

-Where are we in the League.

-How are attendences and Season ticket sales compared to MON.

-How many times have we scored from a corner now compared to MON.

-You seem crictical of MON defence - did we not have ONE of the best defensive records in the league under MON.

Churs.

[Randy_0'Neill]

Oh dear, it seems some sensitive souls are getting a bit Butthurt over criticism of O'Neill. Bless.

Phil, you seem to be very confused. I haven't said anywhere that MON tried to sign Bent, that is after all one of the things I'm criticising him for, yes?

**** me, if I was trying to "win" a debate with you and some of the other genius types on this thread it wouldn't be much of a challenge. I'm only stating a case for why MON should not get away scott free in the blame game.

He knew how to buy a defence? LOL, he had enough **** practice buying defenders, it was awfully nice of him getting it right for a few months (at the expense of buying the striker we needed and sacrificing attacking play). Have you even asked yourself why he had to buy an entire defence twice in two years?

Yes, the last one he put together had half a good season but also included a centre half at right back who was terrible going forward and lets not forget half of the money he spent (wasted) was on defenders because he had to keep replacing the mistakes he made. Beye hardly ever played and he decided to forget to speak to Young and Shorey. There's £12m worth of full backs on £130,000 p/w that sat on their arse. Never mind letting our best young defender go and paying £10m for a defender who we let go for **** all and went straight into the Dogshit's reserves. Oh yes, very impressive.

Lets look at the transfer genius of St Martin the blameless, blessing and peace be upon him.

I'll let the court view this and decide how good or bad it was. Personally it's lack of imagination, long term vision and value for money makes me want to puke.

2006-07

In

Stiliyan Petrov (Celtic, £6.5m)

Didier Agathe (Celtic, Free)

Chris Sutton (Celtic, Free)

John Carew (Lyon, Swap)

Ashley Young (Watford, £9.65m)

Shaun Maloney (Celtic, £1.1m)

Out

Kevin Phillips (WBA, £700k)

Matthieu Berson (Levante, £1m)

Ulises De La Cruz (Reading, Free)

Peter Whittingham (Cardiff City, £250k)

Eric Djemba Djemba (Quatar, Free)

Milan Baros (Lyon, Swap)

Mark Delaney (Retired)

Juan Pablo Angel (New York Red Bulls, Free)

Spent: £17.25m

Brought in: £1.95m

Net spend: £15.3m

2007-08 In

Moustapha Salifou (FC Wil, Undisc)

Zat Knight (Fulham, £3.5m)

Harry Forrester (Watford, £250 000)

Eric Lichaj (Unattached, Free)

Marlon Harewood (West Ham, £3.5m)

Nigel Reo-Coker (West Ham £8.5m)

Wayne Routledge (Tottenham, £1.5m)

Out

Liam Ridgewell (Birmingham, £2m)

Jlloyd Samuel (Bolton, Free)

Lee Hendrie (Sheffield United, Free)

Chris Sutton Retired

Didier Agathe released

Steven Davis (Fulham, £4m)

Aaron Hughes (Fulham, £1m)

Gavin McCann (Bolton, £1m)

Gary Cahill (Bolton, £4.5m)

Robert Olejnik (Falkirk, Free)

Spent: £17.25m

Brought in: £12.5m

Net spend: £4.75m

2008-09 In

Curtis Davies (WBA, £10m)

Steve Sidwell (Chelsea £5.5m)

Brad Friedel (Blackburn, £2.5m)

Brad Guzan (Chivas US, £1m)

Nicky Shorey (Reading, £4m)

Luke Young (Middlesbrough, £5m)

Carlos Cuellar (Rangers £7.8m)

James Milner (Newcastle, £12m)

Arsenio Halfhuid (Excelsior, nominal)

Emile Heskey (Wigan £3.5m)

Out

Luke Moore (West Brom - £3.5m)

Olof Mellberg (Juventus - free)

Patrick Berger (Sparta Prague - free)

Thomas Sorensen (released)

Shaun Maloney (Celtic, £1m)

Wayne Routledge (undisclosed)

Spent: £51.3m

Brought in: £4.5m

Net spend: £46.8m

2009-10 In

Stewart "Broken Leg" Downing (Middlesbrough £10m)

Fabian Delph (Leeds United £6m)

Habib Beye (£2m)

Andy Marshall (free agent)

Stephen Warnock (£6m)

James Collins (West Ham United, £5m)

Richard Dunne (Manchester City, £6m)

Out:

Gareth Barry (Manchester City, £12m)

Stuart Taylor (Manchester City, free)

Zat Knight (Bolton £4.5m)

Martin Laursen (retired)

Craig Gardner (Birmingham, £3.5m)

Spent: £35million

Brought in: £20million

Net spend: £15million

£82m net spend plus all the wages those players were on. What would a better manager have done with that? Maybe one who actually had scouts.

What legacy would they have left if one day they **** off just before the start of a season with all their staff?

By the way, even though I couldn't stand O'Leary he still managed to equal MONs best league finish with a fraction of the resources. You can dress it up however you like, that's a 24k fact.

And his own players hated him at the end, true. I recall a few knives coming out for MON too, who ignored and never spoke to players he had recently bought at great expense because he's a childish petulant man. Then there was the resentment of anybody outside the usual starting XI because they were never used and awful training routines etc. It's all out there, if you want to look. Let's not pretend he was beloved of all the players because he wasn't.

Of course, I may as well piss into the wind than expect any of this to sink in because its all Randy's fault and I am an agent of the General and other fantastic reasoning.

He probably had MON sign all those average players on huge contracts at gunpoint and had MONs scouts drowned in the channel I suppose.

Anyway, I have nothing more to add and wouldn't waste my time anyway. I've presented the facts as I understand them and that's that.

Thanks to those people who liked and or agreed with what I had to say especially as it seemed to annoy Big Job.

Agree with a lot of your points tbh. Not all, but most!

You don't deserve the criticism you've had. MON is a great manager of men who has a fantastic ability to inspire his players. If somebody else was buying the players, sorting tactics and making the substitutions he'd be winning everything going.

He'd be Alex Ferguson.

[Mantis]

Well said Mazrim.

[briny_ear]

Oh dear, it seems some sensitive souls are getting a bit Butthurt over criticism of O'Neill. Bless.

Why have you suddenly decided to fill page after page of the the Randy Lerner thread with distorted, desperate nonsense about MON, who left two seasons ago?

Have you only just noticed he's left or something?

Got any views on the two fantastic managers Lerner appointed in his place?

Care to make a list of their transfer records so we can see how all the players they bought have slotted immediately and successfully into the 1st XI?

And could you give us a rundown on Randy Lerner's forward strategy to get us back into the top 6?

[Big_John_10]

We have Alex Mcleish as our **** manager and some fans seem more concerned with a man who hasn't had anything to do with this club in 18 months.

How does Lerner do it? I didn't think those Pr stunts would cloud people for this long when for the 2nd season in a row we find ourselves with a shit manager near the bottom 3.

The hilarious thing is the blame is put on Mon yet it must just be coincidence that the other sports team Lerner owns is a bag of shit followed by depressed fans fed up with the same crap season after season.

I suppose MoN was at fault for the browns failure as a sports team as well. I'm sure Marzim could produce a well thought out post blaming him.

[Big_John_10]

Well said Mazrim.

You hate a manager who saw us winning games and challenging top 4. You loved a manager who saw us losing games and fighting relegation. You now hate a manager for doing exactly the same.

It's very strange.

[bose]

How is it that if you didn't hate Houllier you must have loved him?

[Ulver]

If anyone thinks a net spend of 20m a season is going to get you automatically into the top 4 they need their heads looking at.

We were still playing major catch up with those above, who also strengthened their significantly better sides season by season

I'd have thought, a solid top 6 spot was about right for that kind of outlay. But like Doug before him, Randy wouldn't go the extra mile and (like Doug before him) it's been downhill ever since

If you want to play with the big boys, either spend BIG or employ a manager who might just pull off a miracle.

Take the fees gained from the sale of O'Neill's signings and the picture doesn't look bad at all. Not that it ever did

[TheSufferingVilla]

MASSIVE WALL OF TEXT

Very convenient that you managed to ignore the massive profits we made on selling Young, Downing and Milner which put a substantial dent in your argument.

To balance things here's my (own massive wall of text) breakdown of MON's transfer activity posted to the MON thread in January:

Stiliyan Petrov (Celtic, £6.5m) Excellent Signing worth every penny.

Didier Agathe (Celtic, Free) Failure but cost nothing.

Chris Sutton (Celtic, Free) Good stop gap signing, unlucky to get a career ending injury whilest at Villa.

John Carew (Lyon, Swap) Considering it was a swap deal for that tool Baros, Carew was an excellent signing, excited the fanbase and scored some important goals.

Ashley Young (Watford, £9.65m) One of the best signings any Villa manager has made.

Shaun Maloney (Celtic, £1.1m) An inexpensive gamble, produced a couple of great performances and some lousy ones before seperation from his mammy syndrome sent him back up North.

Moustapha Salifou (FC Wil, Undisc) Bizarre signing but thankfully cost Eck all

Zat Knight (Fulham, £3.5m) On paper looked good, English international and a Villa fan to boot for a low fee, believe it or not we made a tidy profit on him and got some decent performances while he was here

Harry Forrester (Watford, £250 000) Who?

Eric Lichaj (Unattached, Free) Jury is still out.

Marlon Harewood (West Ham, £3.5m) Strange signing, you could almost call him the poor mans Heskey. At the time it looked like it could be a shrewd bit of business after all he did bag 14 Premiership goals a season before but he certainly proved to be a flop.

Nigel Reo-Coker (West Ham £8.5m) Nobody divides opinion quite like Reo, as club captain he led West Ham through Promotion to the FA Cup final and for all purposes it looked like a soliddeal but Reo and MON were constantly at war with one another. Still he played over a hundred times for Villa so certainly he can't be labelled a flop.

Wayne Routledge (Tottenham, £1.5m) Inexpensive flop, who like all former players came back to haunt us with his goal on Monday. FFS.

Curtis Davies (WBA, £10m) Expensive flop, in part due to injury, looked good at times, pub player at others and arrived as part of some puzzling loan to buy contract that we were oblidged to execute despite him getting crocked before becomming officially our player.

Steve Sidwell (Chelsea £5.5m) Ginger Flop. Went missing on arrival, still has not been found.

Brad Friedel (Blackburn, £2.5m) Excellent signing, served us very well

Brad Guzan (Chivas US, £1m) Solid number 2, for a reasonable price.

Nicky Shorey (Reading, £4m) Garbage

Luke Young (Middlesbrough, £5m) Excellent player, produced many fine performances out of position.

Carlos Cuellar (Rangers £7.8m) I like and rate Carlos, certainly I think he's had a raw deal at Villa in part due to MON playing him out of position for extended periods but for the price we paid, not a terrible deal.

James Milner (Newcastle, £12m) Many people thought 12 million was too much for a then unproven player. In the end we doubled our money lost our best player which in part most likely led to O'Neills departure.

Emile Heskey (Wigan £3.5m) Good ****.

Stewart Downing (Middlesbrough £10m) 10 million for a crocked player sounded like madness and for the first season it appeared so until he finally found his form. We doubled our money so Downing has to be considered a superb bit of transfer business.

Fabian Delph (Leeds United £6m) Jury still out Delph remember suffered a near career ending knee injury. He may still come good but I wouldn't rate this as a poor signing, time will tell.

Habib Beye (£2m) Shit signing, shit player the club gave big wages to only for MON to not bother using.

Andy Marshall (free agent) Who cares

Stephen Warnock (£6m) Good player playing well this season, Houllier didn't like him for whatever childish reason but it's hard to know if MON would have gotten the best out of him had he stayed. the transfer fee includes the England International surcharge

James Collins (West Ham United, £5m) I really can't decide if he's worth the money or not.

Richard Dunne (Manchester City, £6m) City's captain and 4 time player of the season, personally I think he's one of the best defenders in the league and worth every penny.

So from all that I reckon 8 really excellent signings: Petrov, L Young, A Young, Carew(considering the circumstances), Milner, Friedel, Downing, Dunne.

5 Good signings: Knight(Made a profit), Reo-Coker, Guzan, Cuellar, Warnock.

1 Still to be determined signing: Delph.

1 I can't make my mind up about: Collins.

6 Brutal signings: Harewood, Davies, Sidwell, Shorey, Heskey, Beye.

The rest were short loans or gambles that cost **** all.

Isn't as bad as some people make out is it?

Couple it with the deadwood MON had to clear out:

Kevin Phillips, Matthieu Berson, Ulises De La Cruz, Peter Whittingham, Eric Djemba Djemba, Milan Baros, Mark Delaney (Sadly retired), Juan Pablo Angel, Liam Ridgewell, Jlloyd Samuel, Lee Hendrie, Steven Davis, Aaron Hughes, Gavin McCann, Gary Cahill (Terrible decision), Luke Moore, Olof Mellberg(Legend), Patrick Berger, Thomas Sorensen, Gareth Barry (word removed), Martin Laursen (retired), Craig Gardner.

You can paint his tenure in as many layers of shit as you like but at the end of the day he built a competitive team from a load of rubbish and his biggest purchases all turned a major profit.

[MrDuck]

You can paint his tenure in as many layers of shit as you like but at the end of the day he built a competitive team from a load of rubbish and his biggest purchases all turned a major profit.

Well put.

I think those who think any manager would have had success spending what MON did should take a look at Liverpool... at a much bigger club, Dalglish (a managerial legend with a brilliant track record far outstripping MON's) has spent a bloody fortune and a year or so later Liverpool are... 7th. It ain't as easy as it looks.

[macandally]

Emile Heskey (Wigan £3.5m) Good ****.

I knew there had to be some reason people loved room sharing with him! :-)

[thetrees]

Was Scott Carson so crap at £2m for a one season loan that he doesn't rate a mention?

Oh, and we had an option to buy for a further £10m....

[PussEKatt]

Can we stop with the McStupid/McLeish/Whatevers..... It is highly unoriginal, how about McLeiSH, Alex, or Eck?

Seconded, children please take note

I am sorry,I can"t do that.That is asking me to show more respect than that spineless, gutless jellyfish deserves.

All you hear from him is excuses.We can"t be expected to beat the elite teams above us,We did not beat the 2 bottom teams below us,the players at Swansea and Norwich are better than our lot,the supporters don"t get behind the team etc etc etc.

BUT when something goes right for once ( our 1-0 win against Fulham ) then all you hear is " it was me, it was me, it was me, I did it, it was my calculated substitutions that got us the 3 points.

I am sick to death of this excuse for a manager and his stupid team selections,his stupid tactics,his stupid comments, and his stupid management of the team.

The very least I would expect of him is to at least try to pretend that he is a man and take the blame for his mistakes.

If you can"t be a decent manager then at least be a **** man.

However, as one Aston Villa supporter to another I will do as you ask and call him by his proper name,once, and once only.

Why don"t you do us all a favour McLeish and crawl back under the rock you came out from.

[Big_John_10]

£12 million paid to MoN and houllier. Compensation paid to Birmingham City. Pay rise and a 3 year contract for Mcleish.

And some people have the nerve to defend Lerner and constantly complain about MON wasting money.