The Randy Lerner thread

[DCJonah]

Dont agree with that. 20 million gets you nothing these days and we all knew we had to rebuild our squad.Our high wage bill has nothing to do with Lambert it's the previous managers and our admin who allowed it.People are whingeing about 2 fullbacks and El Ahmadi.Do people realise maybe they were the only players Lambert could afford.

I think he's had enough money to steer us away from relegation. £20m to spend on players is something that a lot of teams above (and the majority of our relegation rivals) would love to be able to do.

That's why I think it's such a waste of money. We obviously needed quite a few recruits and he chose 2 positions where we already had a starter and cover. The £6m spent on Bennett and Lowton could've got us another CB and CM.

[Big_John_10]

£20 million for 8 players get you the poor quality we now have.

And £20 million wasn't backing the manager, it was doing the minimum to give his investment a chance of surviving. But as some said in the summer it wasn't enough.

And seriously think about the wages the 4 lower league lads are on. I don't see how that can be ignored. I'd be amazed if Bowery is on more than £10,000 a week. Now I know we didn't need a striker but what quality player is coming to this club for the transfer fee and wages that we got Bowery for?

We can talk about net spend all day but the players don't make their decision to come here on what their transfer fee is.

Wages is the key and Lambert had to cut them.

[ozvilla28]

£20 million for 8 players get you the poor quality we now have.

And £20 million wasn't backing the manager, it was doing the minimum to give his investment a chance of surviving. But as some said in the summer it wasn't enough.

And seriously think about the wages the 4 lower league lads are on. I don't see how that can be ignored. I'd be amazed if Bowery is on more than £10,000 a week. Now I know we didn't need a striker but what quality player is coming to this club for the transfer fee and wages that we got Bowery for?

We can talk about net spend all day but the players don't make their decision to come here on what their transfer fee is.

Wages is the key and Lambert had to cut them.

Spot on there.You can get the best manager with out the backing and players he will fail.

[DCJonah]

£20 million for 8 players get you the poor quality we now have.

Holman was free and Bowery was apparently £500k (so it's really only 6 players that we've spent £20m on).

[ender4]

For anyone thinking it might be better financially for us to not spend anything & get relegated...

Next seasons TV money in Prem League - at least £70mill guaranteed (thats just for finishing 17th).

next seasons parachute payment in Championship - estimating around £20m (this season its £16mil).

So we would lose around £50mill by being relegated.

If i was Randy, i would gamble another £20-30mill this January, so as not to lose £50mill next year.

[Big_John_10]

And 1 cost £7 million. So that's 5 players for around £13 million. I think we're asking a lot of any manager to bring in they amount of quality players for £13 million and the wages he was able to offer.

[Daniel1Avfc]

No offence meant here mate but what makes you think we will be able to get rid of the high earners if we get relegated? We can't sell them now whilst they're Premier League players. Why would anyone want them if the help relegate us?

I personally believe that we will be much worse off if we get relegated. Lambert needs to find a way of getting these high earners into th team, if only to advertise them for the fire sale in the summer.

Sunday Mirror Sport understands top-paid Villa players Darren Bent, Stephen Ireland, Shay Given and Charles N’Zogbia do not have relegation clauses in their contracts.

Im just trying to understand why people think lerner would try to get us relegated.

Edited January 13, 2013 by Daniel1Avfc

[Big_John_10]

For anyone thinking it might be better financially for us to not spend anything & get relegated...

Next seasons TV money in Prem League - at least £70mill guaranteed (thats just for finishing 17th).

next seasons parachute payment in Championship - estimating around £20m (this season its £16mil).

So we would lose around £50mill by being relegated.

If i was Randy, i would gamble another £20-30mill this January, so as not to lose £50mill next year.

I honestly can't see what Lerner is thinking here.

It's utterly stupid to not spend big this window.

[markavfc40]

Holman was free and Bowery was apparently £500k (so it's really only 6 players that we've spent £20m on).

I'd say its just as much if not more about the wages than the fees. For 20 mill and having to at best balance the wages with those who left ( Heskey, Cuellar, Collins ) and most likely reduce it then in all fairness you were not going to sign proven quality for that. The squad needed quantity and proven quality and we were not getting both. It seems Lambert gambled on going with quantity and signing potential from lower leagues and players from foreign leagues unproven in the Premier League. This gamble combined with the lack of backing has backfired.

Edited January 13, 2013 by markavfc40

[DCJonah]

I'd say its just as much if not more about the wages than the fees. For 20 mill and having to at best balance the wages with those who left ( Heskey, Cuellar, Collins ) and most likely reduce it then in all fairness you were not going to sign proven quality for that. The squad needed quantity and proven quality and we were not getting both. It seems Lambert gambled on going with quantity and signing potential from lower leagues and players from foreign leagues unproven in the Premier League. This gamble combined with the lack of backing has backfired.

I agree that Lambert has had restrictions to work to, and that we won't be offering big wages. I imagine teams such as West Brom, Stoke, Swansea, and Norwich will all have similar restrictions, but are all comfortably above us.

The fact that we have these restrictions in place makes it even more ridiculous that we signed another 2 full backs. We're now paying wages for 3 RB's and 3 LB's, when we could've bought a CB and a CM instead.

[John]

Thanks for those net spending figures duke.

As I read them our net spend over the last 3 seasons is £5.9m. That is far from being enough in this league.

Edited January 13, 2013 by John

[dukes]

Thanks for those net spending figures duke.

As I read them our net spend over the last 3 seasons is £5.9m. That is far from being enough in this league.

True, but the alternative is that in the 7 years sine Lerner arrived, our net spend is the 8th highest amount in the premier league, so you could argue he deserves much better.

[Mendi]

he should sell up and take Lambert with him.

[dukes]

And him employing the wrong managers over the past 2 years has cost us £15m, which has been paid with the sale of our best players.

Much like me owning a shop, employing shit managers too often, sacking them and then selling off the brilliant stock for cheap. Then buying in goods of worse quality to save on money and losing out because of it.

You don't think Randy has had to support the club with other money ? You really believe that one years profit on player sales in any way balances the books ?

[dukes]

£20 million for 8 players get you the poor quality we now have.

So why would a manager buy 8 players when they werent all needed ?

Is lowton really an advance on Hutton ?

Bennet an advance on Warnock ?

Is KEA any better than Delph ?

Was Benteke really needed when we already had bent ?

20 Million on 8 players doesn't go far, but £20M on 4 players would have at least vastly improved the quality of the starting lineup.

[Amo69]

So why would a manager buy 8 players when they werent all needed ?

Is lowton really an advance on Hutton ? No

Bennet an advance on Warnock ? Hell NO

Is KEA any better than Delph ? NO

Was Benteke really needed when we already had bent ? yes

20 Million on 8 players doesn't go far, but £20M on 4 players would have at least vastly improved the quality of the starting lineup.

See answers above. In hindsight money not spent well at all!

[turnbull]

For the past 20-plus years and up to 3-ish years ago, managers have come into the club, done well, hit the VP wall and been sacked. Lately managers have been coming in and doing sh!t and the squad has been weakened, weakened, weakened. And the common denominator has been RL.

Randy, just sell the club to someone who knows what they're doing, simple as.

[CrackpotForeigner]

"Is lowton really an advance on Hutton ? No"

Sweet titty-fecking Jesus.

[PussEKatt]

The biggest problem is that Lerner wants to have a premier league club with championship players and wages.

If it was that easy to stay in the Premier League then we would have 40 team division.

[VillaForever1970]

I honestly can't see what Lerner is thinking here.

It's utterly stupid to not spend big this window.

I suppose he could spend big still go down and be completely **** to the point of threatening the existence of the club.

I'd rather have a club than not and football does exist outside the premier league believe or not.

Most of these fans asking to just spend spend spend will move onto supporting City or Utd when we go down anyway, the ONLY thing that will be worth us being relegated.