Five year plans yours/ours

[Lucky Eddie]

A lot of criticism of Randy on here and constant reference to his/their/our five year plan.

Truth is the whole worlds changed since Villa wrote their five year plan. How many of us who were going on foreign holidays and every away game five years ago can afford to do it now? How many of us who climbed the 'property ladder' in the nineties and noughties  bit off a little more than they can comfortably chew in 2011?

If you're not affected then you're in the fortunate minority but Randy's not the only one to have lost a few quid and finds himself re evaluating his future!

He's a Villa fan less well off than he was five years ago - just like every other Villa fan I know.

[Vanilla]

Yes, but most Villa fans have seen the prices rise for tickets, shirts etc without seeing their wages rise. So they are expected to put a higher percentage of their earnings in the club.

Under this argument, the less investment by Randy in the club will equal more modest expenditure, the decline of calibre of players at the club and the decline in ambition (or realism as most people are now calling it). This should equal at least a freeze in ticket prices for the next few years.

[Risso]

I don't really think you can compare somebody who inherited a fortune, and who has therefore been free to do pretty much whatever he likes in life, with ordinary fans who may have lost their job or otherwise faced financial hardship through no fault of their own.  Nobody forced Lerner to pay Heskey and Beye the stupid amounts they earn.  The money he has lost at Villa is entirely his own fault.

[old man villa fan]

I don't really think you can compare somebody who inherited a fortune, and who has therefore been free to do pretty much whatever he likes in life, with ordinary fans who may have lost their job or otherwise faced financial hardship through no fault of their own.

Different arguement to the OP.

The point made was that times have changed and Lerner's circumstances have changed, just like many fans.

I don't think many people are saying that he has not made mistakes in how he has backed his managers.  The sooner the decks are cleared of the overpaid players that do not offer value for money, the better.

Like many, I will be upset if the club is run by only balancing the books without some investment because I do not believe Lerner can market the club well enough to raise our turnover significantly and lacks the experience of building a club from the bottom.

[MarkM]

A lot of criticism of Randy on here and constant reference to his/their/our five year plan.

Truth is the whole worlds changed since Villa wrote their five year plan. How many of us who were going on foreign holidays and every away game five years ago can afford to do it now? How many of us who climbed the 'property ladder' in the nineties and noughties  bit off a little more than they can comfortably chew in 2011?

If you're not affected then you're in the fortunate minority but Randy's not the only one to have lost a few quid and finds himself re evaluating his future!

He's a Villa fan less well off than he was five years ago - just like every other Villa fan I know.

Taking the emotion away and concentrating on the business side, the strategic plan the club had should have had assesment points built in that would allow a change to be made if circumstances dictated it.

We do seem to have seen some major knee jerk reactions over the past 18 months that would suggest that the club failed to appreciate the potential impact of there actions and suddenly woke up one morning and thought "crap, this isnt working what are we going to do?"

The five year plan should have been an outline framework that could be changed if needed, but it needed to be closely monitored and policed to ensure it was relevant to the current circumstances

[TimTheVillain]

I wonder what Randy's 5 year plan would be if he wrote it today ?

Apparently, there was no 5 year plan it has been said ....

[Dave Javu]

His 5 year investment in Aston Villa has been a much better investment than his shares in the Bank of America as this interesting link demonstrates.

Down around 85-90%...

[Dante Lavelli]

Yes, but most Villa fans have seen the prices rise for tickets, shirts etc without seeing their wages rise. So they are expected to put a higher percentage of their earnings in the club.

Under this argument, the less investment by Randy in the club will equal more modest expenditure, the decline of calibre of players at the club and the decline in ambition (or realism as most people are now calling it). This should equal at least a freeze in ticket prices for the next few years.

Hmmmm, A more accurate analogy would be if any fans that own a business.  Have they raised their prices due to any number of factors - fuel increases, desperation etc etc

[Phil from the upper holte]

I don't think there was a plan, he threw money at it for a while, a lot of it was spent in vain, Heskey, Beye, Sidwell etc, if we'd have brought Bent when we were 4th then I think we would have stayed there, since then its all about saving money. Depressing state of affairs at the moment

[DB]

Five year plan??? Did anyone watch Citeh last night? Because that's it right there. The only thing that matters is money and how much. Sure you can talk about plans for the club, training facilities, improvements to catering etc, but what most of us want iis inprovement on the pitch, unless you have the cash and lots of it like City then 5 year plans mean squat. 5 years ago City were a mid-lower prem side going no-where then in comes the millions - now look at them. We don't have a pt to p*ss in compared to them, Chelsea etc.
We'll bring a player through the ranks or buy a youngster, develop him and when he's good enough the top wage players will snap him up. Doom and gloom I know, but that's the way it is.

[willywombat]

I imagine his most immediate plan is to get out of the money pit he has found himself in ASAP. Let's all hope he's as dilligent about who he sells the club to as Doug was. I feel for RL, a decent man who understands the history and traditions of this great club but, due mainly to the financial meltdown, has found himself now out of his depth.

[Concrete John]

I don't think he's out of his depth, but he has had a reality check over the last year or two with the financial collapse and the man City investment. 

What the new longterm strategy is remains to be seen, but I'm guessing it will revolve around youth, both our own and purchases, to allow us to try and compete without the massive finances of some other clubs.  The problem we'll have is that unless we actually achieve something then we'll see the next generation of Youngs, Milners and Downings (Clark, Bannan, Delph & Albrighton?) leave us in a few years time and the cycle will start again.   

[pauliewalnuts]

The worrying thing is the degree to which it looks like his strategy was "shit or bust".

Nobody was complaining when we were spending big on players, but we might have done had we known how utterly abruptly it would stop.

Having said that, though, I don't think our major problem is lack of investment, it is that the club has looked for a long while like it is run by well intentioned bumbling amateurs.

[willywombat]

The worrying thing is the degree to which it looks like his strategy was "shit or bust".

Nobody was complaining when we were spending big on players, but we might have done had we known how utterly abruptly it would stop.

Having said that, though, I don't think our major problem is lack of investment, it is that the club has looked for a long while like it is run by well intentioned bumbling amateurs.

Difficult to argue with that paulie

[Concrete John]

The worrying thing is the degree to which it looks like his strategy was "shit or bust".

I don't think 'shit or bust' is right, but rather 'invest until we get into the CL'.  We didn't and the worldwide financial climate means we can't keep trying as we were.