If Randy had bought Villa five years earlier...?

[Chris Harte]

If Randy Lerner had bought our club five years earlier than he actually did (2001 rather than 2006) how do you think things would have turned out differently?

Assuming that Mr Ellis had decided to sell up way before he did. Randy Lerner would have inherited John Gregory as manager back then - a manager known for costing the club millions on poor signings. Would Randy have bankrolled him further? Would Sir Graham Taylor have come back to the club? Would we ever have known a manager as bad as David O'leary?

With money to spend (as history and Martin O'Neill demonstrated, sometimes well, sometimes badly) how would things have turned out differently?

I have an opinion of how things would have turned out, but I'd like to see other people's thoughts first before posting and being called a Randy-lover/Randy-hater.

[dave.woodhall]

I think we'd have established ourselves in the top four.

[Concrete John]

Although it's hard to judge, I'd pretty much go along with being a top 4 side.  We have to remember that had Ramdy released the same funds in 2001, when fees and wages were a fair bit lower, we'd have been the Chelsea/Man City of the day.  In truth he probably wouldn't have, but there'd have been enough to make more headway as at the time there were less of the big clubs with their act together. 

[not3bad]

I think there's a big possibility that since John Gregory was an ex Villa player who had already taken Villa to the FA Cup final he may well have been given the nod to continue, in which case he'd have pissed a load of money up the wall.  On the bright side we'd never have bought Mark Kinsella or Ovynd "I forgot he was playing" Leonardson.

[darren woolley]

I wished he would have been around in 2001 we would've won things and played in the champions league on a regular basis.

[dave.woodhall]

Don't forget, though, that Gregory was interested in some big names - Vieri, Juninho, some South Africa we were reportedly linked with. 

[TheMalandro]

It would be about five years ago since the General disappeared

[cheltenhamlion]

I would go along with established in the top four.

[Mister E]

I agree that we would possibly have got ourselves into the Top Four Club.
Regarding JG: he spent a net of £17.1m between 1997 and 2002 and bought in the likes of Gazza Bazza, Merson, Mellberg, David James, Dion D, Delaney, Boateng, JPA and the Hitz. So he made some decent signings as well as some dogs.
But would Lerner have gelled with the slick smoothie that JG liked to project? - not sure; I think had RL come in he'd have found a new manager.

[Bad English]

I have an opinion of how things would have turned out, but I'd like to see other people's thoughts first before posting and being called a Randy-lover/Randy-hater.

Don't get splinters in your arse!

[Billy Walker]

Although it's hard to judge, I'd pretty much go along with being a top 4 side.  We have to remember that had Ramdy released the same funds in 2001, when fees and wages were a fair bit lower, we'd have been the Chelsea/Man City of the day.  In truth he probably wouldn't have, but there'd have been enough to make more headway as at the time there were less of the big clubs with their act together. 

I wonder if people would have looked at us in the way they do Chelsea/Man City?  Unlike those clubs we, at least, could point to a very well-stocked trophy cabinet and pretty special history.  Fans of other clubs wouldn't have been able to chant, "You ain't got no history," at us for starters.

EDIT:  Just re-reading your post, John, you are making the point that, like Man City/Chelsea now, we would have been hoovering up quality players?  If that scenario had panned out I would have loved it - just to see the looks on gloryhunting Man Utd fans' faces!

[Concrete John]

Regarding JG: he spent a net of £17.1m between 1997 and 2002 and bought in the likes of Gazza Bazza, Merson, Mellberg, David James, Dion D, Delaney, Boateng, JPA and the Hitz. So he made some decent signings as well as some dogs.

Gregory wasn't our manager in 1997 - he came in Feb 1998.   

One of the issues with him trasfer wise was that too much of the money went on older players (Dublin, Merson, Steve Stone) who were good, but had no re-sale value.  That meant that the money spent, which was largely from the floatation, gave us a quick fix and nothing longterm. 

[DeKuip]

He'd have been broke by now and living in a shop doorway somewhere.

[ktvillan]

There would have been a massive opportunity to establish ourselves as on of the CL elite, but it would have depended on who RL had as team manager.   JG I don't know, he did make some very good signings but he also played some ultra-cautious, flair free football (look no further than our FA Cup Final non-performance) despite having some very decent footballers like Merson, Barry, Yorke (briefly) and Carbone.  I don't think we'd have seen SGT back, and that would have been no bad thing with hindsight.  We could well have ended up with someone like George Graham who I think left Spurs around that time.   

[TheSandman]

I'm not sure. We'd be ahead of the curve of big money coming into clubs like Chelsea and Man City but we also had the proto-Martin O'Neill in charge. On balance I'd reckon we would break into the top four and maybe win some silverware under Gregory or his replacement.