The Randy Lerner thread

[NowDoINotLikeThat]

Not being able to compete with Man City doesn't excuse the dreadful decisions made by our board.

Still

Proud history ....

I never said it did, I was just pointing out that the reality is that we can't compete financially with the top clubs and thus, probably wont be able to compete with them on the field most of the time.

Fine but again so why employ an antifootball curmudgeon of a manager??

Heskey in **** midfield?

We cant win anything = fine

Lets have a bit of entertainment then FFS

Apart from the Wigan game its been a chore watching us.

Sounds like maybe you want us to be a bit like Wigan and lose every game entertainingly?

Yeh great one

.......

[Woodytom]

Apart from the Wigan game its been a chore watching us.

Ahhh do us all a favour and don't watch then.

[NowDoINotLikeThat]

Apart from the Wigan game its been a chore watching us.

Ahhh do us all a favour and don't watch then.

Great insightful comment.

Tho If you haven't noticed down at Villa park its pretty obvious a lot of ppl have taken up your advice

[Papillon]

Apart from the Wigan game its been a chore watching us.

Ahhh do us all a favour and don't watch then.

Yes because you are the real fan and he is not, bla bla. Hey buddy, look at the **** numbers at the gates this season. People like you always come to the ground, but for Villa that is maybe 15.000 in total. We need those sitting on the fence to be even remotely close to competing. If we get 30K at the games every week we will be a Championship club within a few years.

[Mantis]

Apart from the Wigan game its been a chore watching us.

Ahhh do us all a favour and don't watch then.

Great insightful comment.

Tho If you haven't noticed down at Villa park its pretty obvious a lot of ppl have taken up your advice

That's a shame really. Oh well, it also has its benefits. At least we can see who the real fans are (not referring to you or anyone on here). I understand there are financial reasons but people who go to games and the suddenly stop going because they don't like the results/management aren't real fans IMO.

[Razor]

I'm at the point now where i simply can't be arsed to travel from Surrey to the games to be subjected to the snore fest that is our style of football, if the board can't be bothered to support the club properly then why should i be the mug that does, i was happy to travel to every single match when MON was manager but right now i feel less passion for the club than at any stage in my life.

[Mantis]

I'm at the point now where i simply can't be arsed to travel from Surrey to the games to be subjected to the snore fest that is our style of football, if the board can't be bothered to support the club properly then why should i be the mug that does, i was happy to travel to every single match when MON was manager but right now i feel less passion for the club than at any stage in my life.

Let's be honest here, our football isn't really better or worse than MON's.

[Papillon]

That's a shame really. Oh well, it also has its benefits. At least we can see who the real fans are (not referring to you or anyone on here). I understand there are financial reasons but people who go to games and the suddenly stop going because they don't like the results/management aren't real fans IMO.

And who the hell cares? Seriously, your argument is lame and your point is extremely ignorant. Supporting a football club is not like defending your country in a war, it is not last man standing. You, like everyone else, support Villa from a mere coincidence. Either you are born in Birmingham, your father supports the Villa or you watched them on TV when you were little. It could have been any other team, so do not pretend like it is some calling from God that you are supporting the Villa. What we fans deserve is the mutual respect from the club and we are not getting it, and people are fleeding from the ground. We have a big stadium, but we have attendances like any other club that find itself in the lower tier or even the Championship. The pattern is alarming, and like I said in an earlier post, what matters now is getting those "plastics" back to the ground by investing or otherwise enhancing the club. What they are doing now is giving up. Appointing that manager, selling those players, not showing up at the games, not signaling any intent, not giving away any information... just not caring, all in all, making Villa much more harder to support. Are you a better fan? Certainly not, who are you kidding really, you are simply more committed and too afraid of confrontations as a person. A bit like that guy who decides to stick with his wife even though she is caught banging the entire neighborhood.

[CI]

I'm at the point now where i simply can't be arsed to travel from Surrey to the games to be subjected to the snore fest that is our style of football, if the board can't be bothered to support the club properly then why should i be the mug that does, i was happy to travel to every single match when MON was manager but right now i feel less passion for the club than at any stage in my life.

Let's be honest here, our football isn't really better or worse than MON's.

WTF ?? Under MON we were an exciting, fast, counter attacking side

Great to watch

[Razor]

I'm at the point now where i simply can't be arsed to travel from Surrey to the games to be subjected to the snore fest that is our style of football, if the board can't be bothered to support the club properly then why should i be the mug that does, i was happy to travel to every single match when MON was manager but right now i feel less passion for the club than at any stage in my life.

Let's be honest here, our football isn't really better or worse than MON's.

Our football wasn't pretty under MON but it was exciting and it felt like we could beat any team home or away, plus the board seemed like they had at least a passing interest in the club. I will shamefully admit i was one of those who actually wanted MON out based on the cross, cross, cross style of football but that was with the understanding we would still be spending the same sort of money under a manager that encourages a passing game.

[NowDoINotLikeThat]

I'm at the point now where i simply can't be arsed to travel from Surrey to the games to be subjected to the snore fest that is our style of football, if the board can't be bothered to support the club properly then why should i be the mug that does, i was happy to travel to every single match when MON was manager but right now i feel less passion for the club than at any stage in my life.

Let's be honest here, our football isn't really better or worse than MON's.

The football under O'Neill was direct not antifootball.

And at least under O'Neill the club sold us the dream of chasing top 4 and we really were .

What now?

McWanks appointment was always going to be greeted with utter apathy.

[Mantis]

I'm at the point now where i simply can't be arsed to travel from Surrey to the games to be subjected to the snore fest that is our style of football, if the board can't be bothered to support the club properly then why should i be the mug that does, i was happy to travel to every single match when MON was manager but right now i feel less passion for the club than at any stage in my life.

Let's be honest here, our football isn't really better or worse than MON's.

WTF ?? Under MON we were an exciting, fast, counter attacking side

Great to watch

Under MON we spent most of the game sitting back and letting the team come at us. That wasn't exciting. MON's style was probably more exciting away from home but certainly not at home.

I'm at the point now where i simply can't be arsed to travel from Surrey to the games to be subjected to the snore fest that is our style of football, if the board can't be bothered to support the club properly then why should i be the mug that does, i was happy to travel to every single match when MON was manager but right now i feel less passion for the club than at any stage in my life.

Let's be honest here, our football isn't really better or worse than MON's.

The football under O'Neill was direct not antifootball.

And at least under O'Neill the club sold us the dream of chasing top 4 and we really were .

What now?

McWanks appointment was always going to be greeted with utter apathy.

We were chasing the top 4 because we spent all that money. However, that level of spending was never sustainable unless we actually reached and cemented our place in that top 4.

[Papillon]

Let's be honest here, our football isn't really better or worse than MON's.

We finished 6th three seasons in a row, which means we were able to lead games and score goals, hey, even win games. It also means creating chances, one way or another. A club like Villa cannot expect to dominate games every week and score beautiful goals, but what we can do is simply score goals and simply compete. That is exciting in itself, very much so indeed. We went to the big grounds and even won a few, like away to United and Arsenal. Even one of the seasons I think we finished 3rd in the scoring charts. Now we are extremely boring to watch, totally uninspiring and always knowing that McLeish looks happy with 1 point.

The mentality right now seems to be that 1 points is always decent, because we are too good to go down and we will always win a few with this approach as well. Zzzzz

[Papillon]

We were chasing the top 4 because we spent all that money. However, that level of spending was never sustainable unless we actually reached and cemented our place in that top 4.

When you buy players like Ashley Young, i.e investments in the "likely to double his value in 1-2 years", you can sustain the spending we did. It was not City or Chelsea spending. And another thing, why did Randy Lerner invest like that if he was suddenly going to stop it? Very strange. Sure he could not anticipate the Financial Crisis which probably hit him very hard, and he could not really see City coming on like that, but I highly doubt our spending would have been like that anyway. We need an explanation, and we deserve it.

[briny_ear]

I just don't think randy had a fully thought through business model - certainly not a realistic one. He initially spent at a rate it turned out he couldn't sustain long enough to achieve the top 4/regular CL aim. Now he's retrenching and it's not clear what the goal is.

[Mantis]

We were chasing the top 4 because we spent all that money. However, that level of spending was never sustainable unless we actually reached and cemented our place in that top 4.

When you buy players like Ashley Young, i.e investments in the "likely to double his value in 1-2 years", you can sustain the spending we did. It was not City or Chelsea spending. And another thing, why did Randy Lerner invest like that if he was suddenly going to stop it? Very strange. Sure he could not anticipate the Financial Crisis which probably hit him very hard, and he could not really see City coming on like that, but I highly doubt our spending would have been like that anyway. We need an explanation, and we deserve it.

No, that kind of spending was never sustainable. It's simply not feasible to have a financial plan based around spending heavily and having to rely on unearthing gems and then selling them on a few years later for double the price. When MON stormed out Randy had already put a lot of money into the club and our wage to turnover ratio was dangerously high. It wasn't just players like Young that MON bought, but a lot of duds as well who always ended up on high wages. That's not sustainable. We don't make enough as a club for that to be sustainable.

I don't know why he stopped the excessive spending, probably a number of factors. I expect one of the reasons was that he got his hand burnt by MON's reckless spending. The financial crisis also undoubtedly had an effect although some will try and say otherwise.

To put it simply, we were spending beyond our means and unless you want to see Villa hit the wall in the near future it's necessary that the excessive spending and wages are curtailed.

[spamm]

Let's be honest here, our football isn't really better or worse than MON's.

Right now I would beat the blindness out of you..

[Mantis]

Let's be honest here, our football isn't really better or worse than MON's.

Right now I would beat the blindness out of you..

Come again?

Surely I can't be the only here who thinks MON's kick and rush sit back for most of the game football isn't any better than McLeish's football?

[ryanvilla_1994]

Let's be honest here, our football isn't really better or worse than MON's.

Right now I would beat the blindness out of you..

Come again?

Surely I can't be the only here who thinks MON's kick and rush sit back for most of the game football isn't any better than McLeish's football?

I personally found it exciting however I can see why some didn't like it.

[Holtender_in_Sky]

I'm at the point now where i simply can't be arsed to travel from Surrey to the games to be subjected to the snore fest that is our style of football, if the board can't be bothered to support the club properly then why should i be the mug that does, i was happy to travel to every single match when MON was manager but right now i feel less passion for the club than at any stage in my life.

Your paragraph is exactly why the knuckledraggers call us fickle.... you go through thick and thin mate - you go because you're a fan and you love the club.