The Randy Lerner thread

[TrentVilla]

Not going into too much detail but soccerbase has the following as 'signed' with no monetary value for 2009/10.

Fair point, I'd not noticed that.

So although the investment has wained in the latter years it is still there.

Well, no it isn't in terms of the squad. There has been no net investment in players in 2 years.

Also the wages went up hugely.... which is an investment too and one that unchecked would have seen us even more financially restricted.

Which is Randy's mistake in the first place allowing wages to reach an unsustainable level.

[JulieB]

He hasn't been for months but in his defence he DID attend the Bolton debacle

And spend another five and a half days at the club.

I don't get this thing that he needs to attend matches. In general foreign owners don't attend matches, and it makes no difference to the majority of he VP crowd whether the owner attends or not.

When you're in the mire I think an owner should be there. I didn't know RL attended the Bolton game I was going on what Radio WM were saying after Stoke game.

I tended to agree... might be OK for him not to attend when we're going OK but when we're in the thick of a flipping relegation battle surely he needs to be seen to be attending to show his support.

Maybe that's just me...but that's how I feel anyhow.

[JulieB]

Which is Randy's mistake in the first place allowing wages to reach an unsustainable level.

It was ultimately. It might well have been the case that MON was in sole charge of all these matters but if you're allowed to run out of control by the owner then it's surely the boss's responsibility.

[Risso]

He hasn't been for months but in his defence he DID attend the Bolton debacle

And spend another five and a half days at the club.

I don't get this thing that he needs to attend matches. In general foreign owners don't attend matches, and it makes no difference to the majority of he VP crowd whether the owner attends or not.

I agree. His actual attendance is neither here nor there in my opinion. He's probably got to be careful about how many days he spends in the country in any case for tax reasons. But he could show a lot more leadership than he has. Part of the problem is that we appear to be a ship without a captain at the moment. Or as you'd probably put it, a plane without a pilot!

[KHV]

In an ideal world Lerner would leave in the summer. He is one of the most incompetent chairman I have ever seen in english football.

He hasnt got a clue what he is doing on any level at all and I dont trust him to make another decision regarding Aston Villa at all.

LERNER OUT

[villa_shere]

Lerner dropped a bollock employing Eck, and even Ged to a certain degree.

I personally think he is still the right owner for Villa and should stay for a while longer. But he really really needs to get a grip on someone with football knowledge to help him run the club and spend his money more efficiently.

Faulkner is the clown who seems to be making the calls and running things and he is shit.

Hopefully we will see the end of Faulkner and Eck at the end of the season regardless of which division we are in.

Lerner has invested a lot into the club. Never really shyed away from spending, when he wanted to tighten the purse strings it was totally acceptable IMO as MON had too many benchwarmers draining our wage bill. Problem was he brought in 2 managers who were incapale of turning this around properly.

have every confidence in Randy Lerner at the moment. I just think he needs to be better on making the BIG decisions

UTV

[CI]

I sometimes think RL is or was going through a mid-life crisis and the acquisition of Aston Villa FC is just part of it

Examine the evidence, Divorce, new Girlfriend, Tatoo, New Plane.

We are just collateral damage of the situation

[pacbuddies]

I sometimes think RL is or was going through a mid-life crisis and the acquisition of Aston Villa FC is just part of it

Examine the evidence, Divorce, new Girlfriend, Tatoo, New Plane.

We are just collateral damage of the situation

Most of us would have to settle for a motorbike or 2 seater roadster!

[thetrees]

When you're in the mire I think an owner should be there. I didn't know RL attended the Bolton game I was going on what Radio WM were saying after Stoke game.

Julie, Paul Franks on WM, normally a half decent radio hack, constantly bangs on about our 'absentee owner'. Recently he did this two Mondays on the trot, on both days of which Mr Lerner had arrived early morning. Uninformed journalism at its worst, unless WM is just trying to attract TalkShite listeners.

Last week the owner arrived at 0830 on Sunday morning (which I found strange), and left at lunchtime yesterday, so again a reasonable shift.

[momo]

Can I ask a stupid question...?

At Villa there is 15 players who can be classified as seniors, and are paid well. One of theses is Andy Marshall, so let's say 14 players...I don't understand...we can't afford having all of these players at the club...

Is it time to get real...maybe we shouldn't be in the PL if we can't afford having a normal squad of seniors. Maybe we should be a feeder club, like West Ham once was with all the graduates...

[AVFCforever1991]

I sometimes think RL is or was going through a mid-life crisis and the acquisition of Aston Villa FC is just part of it

Examine the evidence, Divorce, new Girlfriend, Tatoo, New Plane.

We are just collateral damage of the situation

Its staring to all add up right?

has anyone seen him on his Harley, with a leather jacket haha.

[CI]

Ha yeah.

Also Hooks up with old Army General to chew the fat over Nam

[Denis_B]

When you're in the mire I think an owner should be there. I didn't know RL attended the Bolton game I was going on what Radio WM were saying after Stoke game.

Julie, Paul Franks on WM, normally a half decent radio hack, constantly bangs on about our 'absentee owner'. Recently he did this two Mondays on the trot, on both days of which Mr Lerner had arrived early morning. Uninformed journalism at its worst, unless WM is just trying to attract TalkShite listeners.

Last week the owner arrived at 0830 on Sunday morning (which I found strange), and left at lunchtime yesterday, so again a reasonable shift.

I admire you constantly sticking up for our owner BUT - he was in the UK for 5 days, not necessarily at VP. The press said quite clearly he was in London on Wednesday. He does have other interests over here ( the Lerner Gallery for example) and the one way to show his commitment to AVFC is turning up at games - or is he doing the same as many on here and boycotting them

[steve_avfc]

Don't know what Mcleish said in his half time team talk against Bolton but he seems incapable to give team talks anyway, so if the club are saying we should all stick together, is it worth me emailing Lerner and the General to get them to give a pre match team talk in person or by video / audio link ??

Something needs to be done to keep us up.

[VillaAndLoyal]

Don't know what Mcleish said in his half time team talk against Bolton but he seems incapable to give team talks anyway, so if the club are saying we should all stick together, is it worth me emailing Lerner and the General to get them to give a pre match team talk in person or by video / audio link ??

Something needs to be done to keep us up.

Lerner is the one who has created this whole mess. He and Faulkner know precisely nothing about English football. So what exactly do you think a pre-match team talk given by one of them is going to consist of? Banking advice for the players?

[steve_avfc]

I really don't know. Lerner did a 'pep talk' at BMH recently. The General would be good based on his background....if he can be bothered.

[thetrees]

When you're in the mire I think an owner should be there. I didn't know RL attended the Bolton game I was going on what Radio WM were saying after Stoke game.

Julie, Paul Franks on WM, normally a half decent radio hack, constantly bangs on about our 'absentee owner'. Recently he did this two Mondays on the trot, on both days of which Mr Lerner had arrived early morning. Uninformed journalism at its worst, unless WM is just trying to attract TalkShite listeners.

Last week the owner arrived at 0830 on Sunday morning (which I found strange), and left at lunchtime yesterday, so again a reasonable shift.

I admire you constantly sticking up for our owner BUT - he was in the UK for 5 days, not necessarily at VP. The press said quite clearly he was in London on Wednesday. He does have other interests over here ( the Lerner Gallery for example) and the one way to show his commitment to AVFC is turning up at games - or is he doing the same as many on here and boycotting them

Thanks Denis!

I don't stick up for the owner particularly, I just report facts that throw out some of the things that are written about him.

I agree that he may be working on other business interests while he is here, but I suspect that the vast majority of his time is spent on Aston Villa. Ths suspicion is backed up by the fact that his UK visits were much less frequent prior to the takeover, when he didn't even own an aircraft capable of flying westbound without refuelling.

I believe that his intentions are good, a belief backed up by the amount of money that he has invested into the club, money that he is never likely to get back.

I appreciate the fact that a decaying club off the pitch has been lifted to having some of the best facilities in the league, although i acknowledge that does not help the playing side.

He was ill advised and foolish over O'Neill, i think that he did everything right in the manner in which he sought out and appointed Houllier, and I think that the appointment of McLeish was crazy. But whoever has had the job, he has backed them in the transfer market and, in the cases of O'Neill and McLeish, he has been seriously let down.

I agree that he might not be a great 'sports team owner', whatever that is, but he is the best owner that Aston Villa have had in my lifetime and with the right manager, and perhaps one or two capable, hands on , board members, things could look much better in a couple of years time.

And there are no buyers, so I prefer to support him.

[KiwiVillain]

Maybe Lerner is a sneaky, sly little bastard and has been lining up Pep Guardiola for the past 12 months. He brings in the ginger clearing in the woods to get rid of some high profile high paid players, make the rest of the higher paid players look like crap and get everyone believeing that we are shite only to sack McMuppet and mastermind the arrival of Guardiola, followed closely by Iniesta, Xavi, Alves & Messi and a 100 million pound transfer kitty.......or maybe not!!!

[markavfc40]

whoever has had the job, he has backed them in the transfer market

WTF :shock: do you really believe this? last summer we sold Downing, Ash, Luke Young for approx 39 mill and also saw first team regulars in Friedel and Reo Coker leave. We then spent approx 17 mill on Given, Hutton and NZogbia and brought in Jenas on loan. How the **** is selling two of your best players and giving a manager less than half the money brought in to replace them backing them in the transfer market?

The only saving grace in the above is that he didn't give a poor manager like McLeish more money to spend. A poor manager that he appointed of course. His second managerial **** up on the spin.

[VillaAndLoyal]

When you're in the mire I think an owner should be there. I didn't know RL attended the Bolton game I was going on what Radio WM were saying after Stoke game.

Julie, Paul Franks on WM, normally a half decent radio hack, constantly bangs on about our 'absentee owner'. Recently he did this two Mondays on the trot, on both days of which Mr Lerner had arrived early morning. Uninformed journalism at its worst, unless WM is just trying to attract TalkShite listeners.

Last week the owner arrived at 0830 on Sunday morning (which I found strange), and left at lunchtime yesterday, so again a reasonable shift.

I admire you constantly sticking up for our owner BUT - he was in the UK for 5 days, not necessarily at VP. The press said quite clearly he was in London on Wednesday. He does have other interests over here ( the Lerner Gallery for example) and the one way to show his commitment to AVFC is turning up at games - or is he doing the same as many on here and boycotting them

Thanks Denis!

I don't stick up for the owner particularly, I just report facts that throw out some of the things that are written about him.

I agree that he may be working on other business interests while he is here, but I suspect that the vast majority of his time is spent on Aston Villa. Ths suspicion is backed up by the fact that his UK visits were much less frequent prior to the takeover, when he didn't even own an aircraft capable of flying westbound without refuelling.

I believe that his intentions are good, a belief backed up by the amount of money that he has invested into the club, money that he is never likely to get back.

I appreciate the fact that a decaying club off the pitch has been lifted to having some of the best facilities in the league, although i acknowledge that does not help the playing side.

He was ill advised and foolish over O'Neill, i think that he did everything right in the manner in which he sought out and appointed Houllier, and I think that the appointment of McLeish was crazy. But whoever has had the job, he has backed them in the transfer market and, in the cases of O'Neill and McLeish, he has been seriously let down.

I agree that he might not be a great 'sports team owner', whatever that is, but he is the best owner that Aston Villa have had in my lifetime and with the right manager, and perhaps one or two capable, hands on , board members, things could look much better in a couple of years time.

And there are no buyers, so I prefer to support him.

I'm sorry, but this is simply not true. You moan about people who don't stick to the facts, when you don't yourself.

Who exactly let Lerner down re: O'Neill? Faulkner? Or O'Neill himself? If you mean Faulkner then that stems back to Lerner anyway because it was Lerner's choice to surround himself with his mates instead of footballing people. And if you mean O'Neill, that is also a daft statement to make, considering O'Neill was by and large a success at this club. It was not O’Neill who sanctioned the unsustainable and suicidal transfer and wage deals.

I'm really getting fed up with people still blinded by some sort of "he's better than Doug, so he must be a really good owner" mentality among a lot of fans. See my detailed post in the 'Lerner: The fans will always own Aston Villa 2006' thread for some actual facts about this so-called "best owner in your lifetime". If that is indeed the case, then it doesn't say much for the quality of our past chairman. Randloph Lerner has and is a complete and utter failure and is fully culpable for this god awful mess we find ourselves in thanks to two and a half years of spiralling decline. Read my aforementioned post if you honestly can't understand why.