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Author Topic: RAL Takeover 5 Years In  (Read 35421 times)

Offline Villa'Zawg

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Re: RAL Takeover 5 Years In
« Reply #15 on: June 25, 2011, 04:57:53 PM »
To his credit Randy gave it his best shot, but his investment was placed in the hands of the wrong manager and the plan failed. Now we have to adjust to being happy with Premier League survival, and the occasional cup run if we're lucky, lest we 'do a Leeds'. We may still yet 'do a Leeds' if we do not sturdy ourselves and pull in the same direction for the grind ahead. Appointing a manager with a poor Premier League record from our most hated rivals will do little to unite fans in backing the 'new Villa'* especially in such a precarious transitional season.       

*Some might say this amounts to the same as the old Villa.

£80m invested in the squad over five years isn't enough, regardless of who the manager was/is. There was no reason to assume we could have a top four team based on that level of investment and we did extremely well to get as close as we did.

Offline Percy McCarthy

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Re: RAL Takeover 5 Years In
« Reply #16 on: June 25, 2011, 05:03:16 PM »
To his credit Randy gave it his best shot, but his investment was placed in the hands of the wrong manager and the plan failed. Now we have to adjust to being happy with Premier League survival, and the occasional cup run if we're lucky, lest we 'do a Leeds'. We may still yet 'do a Leeds' if we do not sturdy ourselves and pull in the same direction for the grind ahead. Appointing a manager with a poor Premier League record from our most hated rivals will do little to unite fans in backing the 'new Villa'* especially in such a precarious transitional season.       

*Some might say this amounts to the same as the old Villa.

£80m invested in the squad over five years isn't enough, regardless of who the manager was/is. There was no reason to assume we could have a top four team based on that level of investment and we did extremely well to get as close as we did.

Spot on, and it will be £40m if Downing is sold before we buy anyone. I predicted that it would take years of heavy losses to get us 'up there', but I was confident we'd do it as I thought Randy was aware of this and ready, willing and able to sustain it.
« Last Edit: June 25, 2011, 05:11:58 PM by Percy »

Offline Jimbo

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Re: RAL Takeover 5 Years In
« Reply #17 on: June 25, 2011, 05:07:18 PM »
To his credit Randy gave it his best shot, but his investment was placed in the hands of the wrong manager and the plan failed. Now we have to adjust to being happy with Premier League survival, and the occasional cup run if we're lucky, lest we 'do a Leeds'. We may still yet 'do a Leeds' if we do not sturdy ourselves and pull in the same direction for the grind ahead. Appointing a manager with a poor Premier League record from our most hated rivals will do little to unite fans in backing the 'new Villa'* especially in such a precarious transitional season.       

*Some might say this amounts to the same as the old Villa.

£80m invested in the squad over five years isn't enough, regardless of who the manager was/is. There was no reason to assume we could have a top four team based on that level of investment and we did extremely well to get as close as we did.

Spot on, and it will be £40m if Downing is sold before we buy anyone.

You may have a point, but when you consider fees and wages spent on distinctly average players, and players hardly ever used, one feels much of the outlay could have been put to much better use.

Offline TheSandman

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Re: RAL Takeover 5 Years In
« Reply #18 on: June 25, 2011, 05:07:48 PM »
I think what has happened is that the club has lost it's way over the past 12 months. For that first four years we were all pulling in the same direction with shared goals. Now, we are much less sure of ourselves and our goals. The Champions League, the dream to which the club aspired, is too distant a possibility to be that goal so senior figures are unsure of what they want.

I honestly don't know what is going to happen from here on in. Are the board going to invest and back McLeish or are we going to strive towards self sufficiency regardless of what goes on the pitch? My view and desire is quite simply. I want Aston Villa to win as many football games as possibly but if the decision from the board is to rein things in I can just about understand it. What is large scale spending going to achieve? Sixth or seventh at best as we cannot really compete with the spending now being committed by the five or six clubs above us or indeed their prestige. If MoN was still in charge and spending as he was things would be no better as much as some struggle to accept it. We had our chance in 08/09 and we blew it. Sixth/seventh is the glass ceiling and as much as some may delude themselves that FFP is going to change that it will only entrench an order that limits us to sixth/seventh at best.

God knows where we are going. I cannot pretend to be able to read the boards' minds so I don't know what they are going to do. A year ago before the malaise of summer 2010, MoN, Houllier and McLeish I could probably have read their intentions.

I don't think there is an Arab consortium waiting around the corner and I don't think anyone on here is stupid enough to believe it. I see us as having to make the best of what we have got. I don't believe in unstinting praise of the board and I also don't believe in the nonsense spouted by some of our more hysterical posters.

Offline kippaxvilla2

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Re: RAL Takeover 5 Years In
« Reply #19 on: June 25, 2011, 05:10:15 PM »
Lerner's shit. He's done nothing for us. I always said so, I just kept quiet about it for 4 1/2 years. He should sell up now to a consortium of Arab billionaires. There's bound to be one waiting.

There you go - that'll save a few pages.
That's possibly one of your more petulant responses.

The reign is 5 years old, given the events of especially this summer, I think it is worth analysing its record.

Obviously you dont believe what you write is correct, but I am fairly certain you do not think RAL have been perfect either in their stewardship so why not give us the good and bad points, assuming you want to contribute any further to this debate, if not fair enough.

Really? Well it's one of your more tedious threads so that makes us even.

We're having this debate just about everywhere now, and it's getting a bit boring. Randy does what we want him to do for four years - Randy's great. Randy does something unpopular - he's crap and he always has been, everything the club does now is wrong. 

I start a thread about an analysis of the 5 year stewardship of the club under the current owner and I state everything he has done is crap.  You will have to point to my post where I actually say that.

Offline regular_john

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Re: RAL Takeover 5 Years In
« Reply #20 on: June 25, 2011, 05:10:37 PM »
Can't see how Lerner could have done much more to be fair, I think he's been brilliant for us in every manner. The situation we're currently in is largely caused by MON signing average players on large contracts, only to not play them. Our top players have been poached by bigger, richer sides - that's just reality for a club of our stature, all of those players were offered new contracts to tempt them to stay but they all chose to leave, whether for CL football, money or both.

The PR gaffes were pretty much all Houllier running his mouth (Liverpool comment, team belongs 7-12th etc). The appointment of McLeish is IMO a good one and Randy was right to not let fan pressure put him off appointing the man he felt was best for the job. McLeish's achievements in the game dwarf those of the other candidates we were strongly linked with (Hughes, Moyes, Martinez, Jol, McClaren etc.).

There's a lot that has gone wrong over the last few years, but I can't think of anything that you could directly attribute to Lerner.

What we can do however is directly give him credit for many of the things that have gone very right over the last few years:

- Massive investment in the squad
- Direct communication with the fans via General Krulak, to my knowledge the ONLY top flight team in any of the major leagues to do this
- Massive investment in the training facilities and academy
- Involving the fans in designing the new badge
- Giving a lot back to the local community, especially in the form of charity work
- Doing everything in his power to enable the manager in charge

Can't fault Lerner at all.

edit: And I don't think his goals have changed. I think he still wants to get the club to the very top, but thanks to a combination of the huge amount of money wasted by MON and the inflation in transfer fees since Man City came along it's no longer financially viable to buy our way in. I think he'll have to turn to a longer term, more financially viable method and I'd like to see his focus switch to building the academy and scouting system so it rivals the absolute best in the world. If we want to be competitive in the long run we need to be finding good players while they're young and cheap.
« Last Edit: June 25, 2011, 05:14:44 PM by regular_john »

Offline Clampy

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Re: RAL Takeover 5 Years In
« Reply #21 on: June 25, 2011, 05:12:46 PM »
It's amazing that it was only 6 months ago that everyone was thanking Randy for Darren Bent.

Online dave.woodhall

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Re: RAL Takeover 5 Years In
« Reply #22 on: June 25, 2011, 05:14:08 PM »
Lerner's shit. He's done nothing for us. I always said so, I just kept quiet about it for 4 1/2 years. He should sell up now to a consortium of Arab billionaires. There's bound to be one waiting.

There you go - that'll save a few pages.
That's possibly one of your more petulant responses.

The reign is 5 years old, given the events of especially this summer, I think it is worth analysing its record.

Obviously you dont believe what you write is correct, but I am fairly certain you do not think RAL have been perfect either in their stewardship so why not give us the good and bad points, assuming you want to contribute any further to this debate, if not fair enough.

Really? Well it's one of your more tedious threads so that makes us even.

We're having this debate just about everywhere now, and it's getting a bit boring. Randy does what we want him to do for four years - Randy's great. Randy does something unpopular - he's crap and he always has been, everything the club does now is wrong. 

I start a thread about an analysis of the 5 year stewardship of the club under the current owner and I state everything he has done is crap.  You will have to point to my post where I actually say that.

I didn't say you had. I said that's what is being said and that this is another pointless thread about the board. Perhaps if it were anywhere near the fifth anniversary of their arrival it might have been worth opening.   
« Last Edit: June 25, 2011, 05:17:13 PM by dave.woodhall »

Offline eastie

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Re: RAL Takeover 5 Years In
« Reply #23 on: June 25, 2011, 05:15:58 PM »
If the bent signing was made with the anticipated cash for young then it will not be easy to improve the squad with very limited money- it would explain why the likes of ancelotti and Benitez were not interested if reports are to be believed.

The days of aiming for and competing foe champions league football have passed us by , but I hoped we could compete for top 6 and Europe- however if our finances are not there as kendrick suggests then it may well be top 10 ambitions?

Without spending decent amounts the likes of Sunderland and Newcastle will overtake us and we have to accept that no manager will get us where we want to be on a few million to spend, time to reassess our expectations I sadly feel.

Offline kippaxvilla2

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Re: RAL Takeover 5 Years In
« Reply #24 on: June 25, 2011, 05:21:26 PM »
It's amazing that it was only 6 months ago that everyone was thanking Randy for Darren Bent.

So we should just keep thanking him because he bought a player.

I do a good job at work results wise one month and receive praise, I do a shit job results wise the next and I am rightly questioned on what happened.  This is the same.

« Last Edit: June 25, 2011, 05:23:23 PM by kippaxvilla2 »

Offline ktvillan

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Re: RAL Takeover 5 Years In
« Reply #25 on: June 25, 2011, 05:21:57 PM »
I think it's a valid time to assess RL's reign.  If you find it boring perhaps you could just ignore it?

He's done very well on the heritage and facilities upgrades fronts,  but for me he's been a massive disappointment regarding the football side.  Yes he's provided funds, and I applaud him for that.  But he's allowed too much of them to be spunked away too easily, and with it probably the best, and possibly last,   opportunity the club had to break into the big time.   I expected us to be in much better shape after 5 years.   The recruitment of the last two managers show he and his team lack the genuine football nous to run a PL club and his handling of the media is really dismal. 

But hey, he's way better than Doug and better than most other chairmen and owners (see Venkeys, Ashton, Young, the dildo peddlers Hicks and Gillett etc.) But you don't have to be that good to be better than that lot.  Disappointing but could have been a lot worse.

Offline Legion

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Re: RAL Takeover 5 Years In
« Reply #26 on: June 25, 2011, 05:27:55 PM »
Pedantic note: It's RDL as his name is Randolph (Randy) D. Lerner. RAL is Reform Acquisitions Ltd, the company set up to launch the initial bid.

Offline hilts_coolerking

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Re: RAL Takeover 5 Years In
« Reply #27 on: June 25, 2011, 05:28:03 PM »
I suppose a fair summary would be 'long on promise, short on achievement'.  I've lost count of the times I've heard people on here say 'one or two players and we're not far short of being a very good side'.  To be still saying that after 5 years (and in fact it's probably more than one or two now) shows that we've failed to really take things to the next level.

Previously we were a decent upper mid-table side that occasionally got into the UEFA Cup and had the odd cup run.  Which is basically what we are now.  Lerner has done well in his off-the-field endeavours but where things really count, on the pitch, we've not made any significant or, seemingly, lasting progress.

Offline eastie

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Re: RAL Takeover 5 Years In
« Reply #28 on: June 25, 2011, 05:31:05 PM »
Is it his fault though that he backed mons judgement on players? The chairman has to back his manager and if money was wasted on many signings then it seems unfair to blame randy for that- at least he gave his manager the money to spend.

I think the big problem was the lack of an experienced football CEO and i feel there  is not enough football experience on the board- sir Graham, big Ron or even GED would have been useful members to provide an input.

Offline Clampy

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Re: RAL Takeover 5 Years In
« Reply #29 on: June 25, 2011, 05:32:52 PM »
It's amazing that it was only 6 months ago that everyone was thanking Randy for Darren Bent.

So we should just keep thanking him because he bought a player



There's not much i can say to a ridiculous reply like that, so i won't bother.

 


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