The Randy Lerner thread

[Oaks]

The idea of training ground was dougs, and he did start the work but it wasn't even out the ground when he put a stop to it because of costs

It was around 75% built when Doug pulled the plug. It's true Randy probably completed it to a higher speck but It's more Dougs than Randy's IMO.

 

It was about 75% built and building had stopped - under Doug it's unlikely it would ever have been completed.

That wiki states that Randy had to more than double his investment into BMH to finish it. That clearly indicates 75% is grossly overestimated.

And so is sayings it's Randy's.

We all knew Dougs problems, he ran Villa as a business and we needed investment he never had. But in his years in the premier league we never had 3 relegation seasons on the bounce, and we averaged 5th while under Lerner we are currently in our 4th relegation battle in a row and have averaged 10th.

[NSmith22]

 

 

 

 

The idea of training ground was dougs, and he did start the work but it wasn't even out the ground when he put a stop to it because of costs

It was around 75% built when Doug pulled the plug. It's true Randy probably completed it to a higher speck but It's more Dougs than Randy's IMO.

 

It was about 75% built and building had stopped - under Doug it's unlikely it would ever have been completed.

That wiki states that Randy had to more than double his investment into BMH to finish it. That clearly indicates 75% is grossly overestimated.

And so is sayings it's Randy's.

We all knew Dougs problems, he ran Villa as a business and we needed investment he never had. But in his years in the premier league we never had 3 relegation seasons on the bounce, and we averaged 5th while under Lerner we are currently in our 4th relegation battle in a row and have averaged 10th.

 

That was also 10+ years ago. Things have changed drastically since then across the board for all football clubs, especially those fighting to keep a place in the PL.

[Oaks]

The idea of training ground was dougs, and he did start the work but it wasn't even out the ground when he put a stop to it because of costs

It was around 75% built when Doug pulled the plug. It's true Randy probably completed it to a higher speck but It's more Dougs than Randy's IMO.

 

It was about 75% built and building had stopped - under Doug it's unlikely it would ever have been completed.

That wiki states that Randy had to more than double his investment into BMH to finish it. That clearly indicates 75% is grossly overestimated.

And so is sayings it's Randy's.

We all knew Dougs problems, he ran Villa as a business and we needed investment he never had. But in his years in the premier league we never had 3 relegation seasons on the bounce, and we averaged 5th while under Lerner we are currently in our 4th relegation battle in a row and have averaged 10th.

That was also 10+ years ago. Things have changed drastically since then across the board for all football clubs, especially those fighting to keep a place in the PL.

Without doubt Ellis was way outdated, Randy though has just been an idiot.

[NSmith22]

 

 

 

 

 

 

The idea of training ground was dougs, and he did start the work but it wasn't even out the ground when he put a stop to it because of costs

It was around 75% built when Doug pulled the plug. It's true Randy probably completed it to a higher speck but It's more Dougs than Randy's IMO.

 

It was about 75% built and building had stopped - under Doug it's unlikely it would ever have been completed.

That wiki states that Randy had to more than double his investment into BMH to finish it. That clearly indicates 75% is grossly overestimated.

And so is sayings it's Randy's.

We all knew Dougs problems, he ran Villa as a business and we needed investment he never had. But in his years in the premier league we never had 3 relegation seasons on the bounce, and we averaged 5th while under Lerner we are currently in our 4th relegation battle in a row and have averaged 10th.

That was also 10+ years ago. Things have changed drastically since then across the board for all football clubs, especially those fighting to keep a place in the PL.

Without doubt Ellis was way outdated, Randy though has just been an idiot.

 

Not arguing with you in regards to how Randy has run Villa just saying it hasn't been the end of the world when you look at Portsmouth, QPR, and what is probably going to happen to Fulham.

[Risso]

It will go down in history that deadly Doug was a far superior owner in the premier league. You can't give up half way though your stewardship. He's a rich mans son who got board playing with his toys, and not only that stuck 2 fingers up at its fan base by hiring McLeish.

10th, 6th, 6th, 6th, relegation battle, relegation battle, relegation battle, relegation battle.

 

First year under Lerner we finished 11th.

[benireduk]

Oaks you may not like Randy and that's your opinion but calling him an idiot is harsh.

We can all agree the last 3 seasons have been dire, but as long as Randy sells us on to the right people, I think he's left us in a better state than Ellis. We're ripe for investment with a great ground, training facility and of course great fans.

[Oaks]

Oaks you may not like Randy and that's your opinion but calling him an idiot is harsh.

We can all agree the last 3 seasons have been dire, but as long as Randy sells us on to the right people, I think he's left us in a better state than Ellis. We're ripe for investment with a great ground, training facility and of course great fans.

Doug left us ripe for investment, little debt and very reasonably priced and a very low wage bill. Which helped Lerner splash the cash, and almost tripling the wage bill which crippled us.

Lerners got lucky, we've been close to going down for 3 years now. We could have been another QPR/Portsmouth.

[OutByEaster?]

 

Oaks you may not like Randy and that's your opinion but calling him an idiot is harsh.

We can all agree the last 3 seasons have been dire, but as long as Randy sells us on to the right people, I think he's left us in a better state than Ellis. We're ripe for investment with a great ground, training facility and of course great fans.

Doug left us ripe for investment, little debt and very reasonably priced and a very low wage bill. Which helped Lerner splash the cash, and almost tripling the wage bill which crippled us.

Lerners got lucky, we've been close to going down for 3 years now. We could have been another QPR/Portsmouth.

 

Randy left us ripe for investment, little debt and very reasonably priced and a very low wage bill. Which might help a new owner splash the cash, and almost triple the wage bill which will help keep us competitive?

[Oaks]

Oaks you may not like Randy and that's your opinion but calling him an idiot is harsh.

We can all agree the last 3 seasons have been dire, but as long as Randy sells us on to the right people, I think he's left us in a better state than Ellis. We're ripe for investment with a great ground, training facility and of course great fans.

Doug left us ripe for investment, little debt and very reasonably priced and a very low wage bill. Which helped Lerner splash the cash, and almost tripling the wage bill which crippled us.

Lerners got lucky, we've been close to going down for 3 years now. We could have been another QPR/Portsmouth.

Randy left us ripe for investment, little debt and very reasonably priced and a very low wage bill. Which might help a new owner splash the cash, and almost triple the wage bill which will help keep us competitive?

And the cost is going to be over £200 million.

[OutByEaster?]

 

 

 

Oaks you may not like Randy and that's your opinion but calling him an idiot is harsh.

We can all agree the last 3 seasons have been dire, but as long as Randy sells us on to the right people, I think he's left us in a better state than Ellis. We're ripe for investment with a great ground, training facility and of course great fans.

Doug left us ripe for investment, little debt and very reasonably priced and a very low wage bill. Which helped Lerner splash the cash, and almost tripling the wage bill which crippled us.

Lerners got lucky, we've been close to going down for 3 years now. We could have been another QPR/Portsmouth.

Randy left us ripe for investment, little debt and very reasonably priced and a very low wage bill. Which might help a new owner splash the cash, and almost triple the wage bill which will help keep us competitive?

And the cost is going to be over £200 million.

 

Very reasonable. About one Bale.

[Jimzk5]

What did Fulham sell for again?

[TRO]

Hindsight is always an exact science

 

Randy Lerner put too much trust in Martin O'Neill( and we all did) He gave him the freedom to manage unhindered, he allowed him to buy over the odds and pay inflated wages for players that in the main did not live up to that value. It could have been poor signings it could have been poor coaching at BMH, I don't know, but in terms that all managers have duff signings Martin had simply too many. The ratio was too heavily loaded towards poor. Martins Mentor Brian Clough would have been completely made up with Randy Lerner as his chairman and probably so would Ron Saunders.....Brian was always belly aching about interfering chairmen..." knowing nothing about the game"...not the first top manager to say it either.

 

Randy then Appointed Gerard Houllier another gamble in as much as was his heart really at the Villa ( sorry no pun intended) been around the block, earn't his spurs, but was he right for us, spent an unusual amount of money on Darren Bent to keep us up ( bit like buying a sharp knife that does the job but goes blunt every few applications) we could have bought Suarez for the same amount of money, that if he would have come to us?

we again flirted with relegation and unfortunately Gerard experienced health problems that terminated his time with us.

 

by this time, we still had oodles of players on the books with little value to the team or the transfer market and on inflated wages that was crippling the club.

 

He then signed against popular opinion a manager in Alex Mcleish that in my view was bought in for one reason only to reduce the wage bill any way you can and keep us in the league....football reasons were secondary

(It is mooted in some circles Alex Ferguson dissuaded Martinez from considering us, citing Villa stitched Mcleish up, I'm not sure about that, but it isn't good to get that kind of reputation, when trying to recruit new managers)....Alex Mcleish signed players who we got very little value from.....produced dire football....and finished staying up by our finger nails and was subsequently sacked.

 

Enter Paul Lambert, good, but short pedigree and looked like the Manager to really build something with us on par with the up and coming Brendan Rodgers of Swansea who has been snapped up by Liverpool.

In his first season he bought a mixed bag of relatively cheap players all unknowns, due to the still irritating austerity programme that was largely borne out of past poor signings, unfortunately this new guy, just like the old guy still has a culling job to do whilst still keeping us in the League, inevitably a few good signings mainly Christian Benteke  who was showing lots of promise and proved to be invaluable as the season progressed, however it was a tough season and the customary relegation battle ensued, with Benteke almost single handedly keeping us up, but the overall view was that we were showing signs of general improvement, particularly

gleaned from the Sunderland game where the plaudits were wide spread.

 

The start of the new season went well with a surprise win at the Emirates against a title chasing Arsenal and a very unlucky away defeat with the backdrop of a good performance against the newly installed Jose Mourinho, things were looking like real progress, tangible progress.....sadly the season resembled a boat on the high seas, playing well against top teams and faltering against lowly teams....In short we went backwards.

 

We have had our unfair share of injuries particularly some long term ones, but all teams do, you have to manage that, just like managing young academy players coming in.

 

we have had our worst home record in the history of the club, whilst taking more points of the top teams than anyone outside the top four.....topsy turvy or what.

 

In my humble view our Owner lost most of his interest in the club after Martin O'Neill left a part of it all died for him when he realised how much a financial mess we was in....He has to take responsibility for that. he did not take charge of his man, he give him too much rope....Ironically the same rope that Martin O'Neill insisted upon and the same Rope The great Brian Clough Craved, the same rope Ron Saunders could only dream of.

 

Randy has basically appointed managers to clear up the mess and by definition, recruit for the wrong reasons  and you get what we have season after season of deeper and deeper in the proverbial.

 

The mess we are in is a set of circumstances that have just got worse and a set of people that have all contributed towards it but no one has been able to grab it by the scruff of the neck and fix it.

 

Randy in my view set out with decent enough intentions, provided decent enough funds to do a decent enough job , but appointed people who  havn't done a decent enough job on the football side.

 

In my view, Randy needs to go and put it down to a bad experience....The club needs a clearout and a proper business structure put in place.....a football philosophy need to be laid down, so as if managers do leave the new ones are recruited and slotted in to a regime that is suited to them and us, and continuity is not just a pipe dream

[Papillon]

People can say lots of things about Lerner and MON, and hindsight is a bitch, but I have never had so much fan as when MON were here. We played some very nice football, neutrals loved to see us play and we had a few cool players. I am only 28 years old, so I don't remember a whole lot from our 90's era etc. I do remember having Yorke, Milosevic and all those guys, we did really well in the mid-90's at times but that's a long time ago. The last few years have been dire, we have so many crap players it's unreal. We will seriously struggle to get rid of these guys, I mean, who the hell would want to buy Tonev, Luna, Bennett, Sylla et al?

[Eames]

What did Fulham sell for again?

£190m.... inflated due to London location.

[GENTLEMAN]

City went for 210 Million in 2008.

[OutByEaster?]

 

What did Fulham sell for again?

£190m.... inflated due to London location.

 

 

We're twice he size of them - so take into account the London thing and we're about right.

[TRO]

People can say lots of things about Lerner and MON, and hindsight is a bitch, but I have never had so much fan as when MON were here. We played some very nice football, neutrals loved to see us play and we had a few cool players. I am only 28 years old, so I don't remember a whole lot from our 90's era etc. I do remember having Yorke, Milosevic and all those guys, we did really well in the mid-90's at times but that's a long time ago. The last few years have been dire, we have so many crap players it's unreal. We will seriously struggle to get rid of these guys, I mean, who the hell would want to buy Tonev, Luna, Bennett, Sylla et al?

 

Strangely I did not like the football under O'Neill....I liked the pride he put back in to the club. I didn't like the home record or the home style of football, for me it was better styled for away games. The 6-6-6 was pretty decent in terms of finishes and the one season was much more believable than the others, what I mean was we fell back to 6 after spending most of the season in the top 6 the others we spent most of the season just above mid table and nosed over the line to sixth.... but I remember canceling my season ticket for the season under Houllier after being all villaed out watching " hoofball" under O'Neill.... despite the huge sums spent.

I simply lost interest in the style of football.....much like I feel right now.

 

.....But remember, some of us older ones remember football under Saunders and Taylor Mk1 Brian little and Ron Atkinson ( at first) John Gregory got some very decent league placings but the football wasn't great at times.

 

Expectation is a strange thing, They say once you have had it you always want it and that can be applied to many things.

 

We won the league, when it looked impossible,( even back then) so anything can happen.....If the team is balanced properly, it plays with a swagger, it believes in itself, its built properly, square pegs in square holes round pegs in round holes etc,etc etc

 

The teams that have spent the most money  traditionally  will not win the league this season..... so I say to all ,look a bit beyond Money( in isolation).

 

a good manager will take you much further, than ill spent money.

Edited April 20, 2014 by TRO

[macandally]

6/10?

8 years half of them awful and when awful club record breaking bad.

Really? Why havent you mentioned this before?

[ender4]

 

It will go down in history that deadly Doug was a far superior owner in the premier league. You can't give up half way though your stewardship. He's a rich mans son who got board playing with his toys, and not only that stuck 2 fingers up at its fan base by hiring McLeish.

10th, 6th, 6th, 6th, relegation battle, relegation battle, relegation battle, relegation battle.

 

 

11th, 6th, 6th, 6th, 9th, 16th,15th, 15th*

 

Not great, not awful.

Preferred Randy to Doug - Randy at least gave us hope, and also at least gave it a good go to try and break the top 4. 

[Dodgyknees]

He tried, it failed. It has turned sour but if he can move us on and we can progress, all is forgiven.