MikeMcKenna Posted January 4, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted January 4, 2016 7 hours ago, OutByEaster? said: I don't think we have very much debt now Mike. He wrote most of it off. There was a day that went largely unnoticed a year or so back when he wrote off about £80m of debt - it's now built into the asking price I guess, into the rumoured £150m - he's frittered away the family fortune, wasted it and achieved absolutely nothing, no new stand, no trophy, no glory and a football club bereft of hope or future - nothing. That nothing, that lack of achievement, is his legacy. He will leave us with less than he found us with and it will have been down to decisions he made, but he isn't leaving us with the bill, he's footing that himself. I understand the anger, and I share it to an extent, but mine's tempered with some pity. Scott, I can empathise but not sympathise. Some years ago I bought a business, albeit on a smaller scale. I knew nothing about the business, it was very different to our core activities but I thought it would be 'fun' and that I could employ others to run it. Stupidly I didn't get sufficiently involved and employed the wrong people. The losses mounted over the first two years and I employed some new 'experts', but still didn't get as involved as I should have, so failed to turn it round. In the third year it was obvious that I was never going to make it work, so I sold it for a pittance and had to accept my past losses as there was a danger it was going to affect my main business. Unlike Lerner, I learnt my painful & embarrassing lesson relatively quickly. OK I didn't lose 'hundreds of millions', but it is all relative. The money I did lose represented more to me proportionately than Lerner's losses via Aston Villa. Ultimately I was a clearing in the woods for buying it in the first place. I appreciate that RL may 'hopefully' not be leaving us loaded with debt, but I still have my doubts about the much quoted asking price of £150 million - something doesn't stack up and I fear there may be more strings than we realise. One last point; It would be more accurate to say he frittered away 'some of the family fortune' and with the sale of the Browns which was said to be for around $1 billion he is still a very, very rich man. Some you win, some you lose. The scale of his mismanagement and his lack of financial controls was frankly staggering for someone who was lauded from the outset as a super-charged billionaire entrepreneur. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 To do nothing is basically to demonstrate what I was accused of many many years ago by a former Welsh poster on this site, "passive acceptance" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 Something will happen like a new signing or a new Chairman, and this petition/protest will be forgotten about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted January 4, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted January 4, 2016 10 hours ago, dont_do_it_doug. said: Why won't it? It happened in 2000. Gut feeling. I think too many people realise it won't make a difference. Whereas back then it felt like it would. Happy to be proved wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMcKenna Posted January 4, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted January 4, 2016 17 minutes ago, Stevo985 said: Gut feeling. I think too many people realise it won't make a difference. Whereas back then it felt like it would. Happy to be proved wrong. An easy to prove yourself wrong would be to participate. But maybe it is easier to be totally apathetic? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 Whoops, that didn't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted January 4, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted January 4, 2016 9 minutes ago, MikeMcKenna said: An easy to prove yourself wrong would be to participate. But maybe it is easier to be totally apathetic? Depends I guess. It's not hard for me to stand outside the north stand with a bedsheet for a bit. So it is easy. Easier than drinking a pint, which is probably what I'll be doing instead? It's tough one. Both things will have the same effect on whether or not the club improves and/or is sold. One I will enjoy a lot more. I know which one I'm choosing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrytini Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 The key is " drop the price". The chant should be " drop the price". He said he was a custodian and would move on when he was no longer right for the Club. He didn't say " as long as I'm paid £ XYZ". Like a house for sale, if its not selling, its at too high a price. We are not worth what he wants, we are worth what someone will pay. So drop the price, do it by auction if you have to. You never know it might come within our price range ! Randy, you want rid, we want rid, drop the price. However little money it leaves you with you will still have more than the 30,000 who go every game will ever have all put together. Drop the price. Simple. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont_do_it_doug. Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 Why won't it? It happened in 2000. Gut feeling. I think too many people realise it won't make a difference. Whereas back then it felt like it would. Happy to be proved wrong. I get you. However, at least 2 people will show up. Whether you count that as a protest or not will define your opinion, mine is that whether it's 2 people or 2,000 it counts. For what it's worth we have 8 days to get this rolling, so let's have a go. If only as a way to vent our displeasure at how apathetic many of us have been made to feel. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 I Say everyone turns up to next home game with sick bags with lerner and foxs face on it, as we are sick of both of them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 I say burn a giant effigy of him outside Villa Park. Sure we could get a permit for that, no problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 1 hour ago, MikeMcKenna said: An easy to prove yourself wrong would be to participate. But maybe it is easier to be totally apathetic? Thats the trouble Mike Board have given up Management have given up Players have given up Now it looks like the fans have given up, so what's left at the club? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted January 4, 2016 Moderator Share Posted January 4, 2016 Just now, Richard said: Thats the trouble Mike Board have given up Management have given up Players have given up Now it looks like the fans have given up, so what's left at the club? It's always down to Doris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 50 minutes ago, terrytini said: The key is " drop the price". The chant should be " drop the price". He said he was a custodian and would move on when he was no longer right for the Club. He didn't say " as long as I'm paid £ XYZ". Like a house for sale, if its not selling, its at too high a price. We are not worth what he wants, we are worth what someone will pay. So drop the price, do it by auction if you have to. You never know it might come within our price range ! Randy, you want rid, we want rid, drop the price. However little money it leaves you with you will still have more than the 30,000 who go every game will ever have all put together. Drop the price. Simple. Thats another issue Terry. I dont think he drops the price as he wants to get back as much as possible of the debt. THATS WHY WE ARE IN DEBT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont_do_it_doug. Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 I don't think we are in debt? The debt was written off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 He's not dropping the price because the Chinese were prepared to pay it in the summer before the economical troubles over there, made it harder for money to be moved out of the country. Not sure how relegation would affect things but I wouldn't be surprised if Lerner just hung on to us, until we're back in the Premier, unless someone rich comes along and decides they'll pay the full price whichever division we're in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 8 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said: I don't think we are in debt? The debt was written off. So he doesnt want to recoup some / most / all of it in the asking price Dave? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duck Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 Understand people want Lerner gone, in an ideal world id get rid of him too... but the fact is he's not walking away til he gets a buyer. a buyer that so far has failed to materialise. Even if he does drop the price it doesn't mean anyone will step in. Protesting is all well and good, I support the idea. But I'm not sure what it'll achieve. It won't magically make a buyer appear. Ffs look how long Newcastle have wanted rid of Ashley 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 17 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said: I don't think we are in debt? The debt was written off. Dave to expand a bit. He didnt write it off. He converted SOME of it to equity giving himself more shares in the company, creating ,more shares that need buying once the company is sold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont_do_it_doug. Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 I don't think we are in debt? The debt was written off. So he doesnt want to recoup some / most / all of it in the asking price Dave? That's not the same as having debt. If he wanted to recoup his investment he'd have to sell us for £400m, to be fair. If I bought a house for £200k, spent £200k doing it up I would be well within my rights to sell it for £300k with a clear conscience. It's not even semantics, there's no debt involved. However if I then fail to sell that house for £300k, I wouldn't then pie off to another continent leaving the gas on. Madness and frankly this is where the analogy falls down, WE are not a house. The fans are the club and it is us he is choking out. Please McGrath nobody light a match... He doesn't want this anymore, he doesn't want us anymore. So let's make the bastard as uncomfortable as possible for as long as it takes. Let's get the journalists knocking on his door at least. He will bloody hate that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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