Randy Lerner - Discuss

[Billy Walker]

I wish Randy would actually communicate with the fans.  Maybe a forum with ten to twenty representatives of the supporters could be a means to achieving this?  As things stand, his distant stance strikes me as being both a huge dereliction of duty and incredibly disrespectful.

The buck stops with Randy.  The sudden slide of the club, the amateurish PR, the shockingly-flawed decision making...it all goes back to the owner.  Of course, I balance these huge negatives out with the restoration of the Holte Hotel, the mosaics at the Holte End and so on...after such a superb opening couple of years as Chairman he seems to have completely lost the plot!  I understand that in these financially troubled times he feels the need to rein things in, but doing so in the manner that he has alarms me.  It strikes me that he is not a man of planning and strategy but more a man of heart and emotion -  if the money is there he will spend it freely, if it is not then it is a case of "Panic! Panic! Sell! Sell!"  We'll not get anywhere if we run our club along those lines.

As others have said, if we are to get anywhere under Randy he needs to start surrounding himself with top, top people, experts in football as a business and as a sport.  Sure that would cost money, but, in the long run, what prudent investment it would be.  He's had the best part of five years to see to this and do this and he has failed.  The money splashed out on a Reo-Coker and Harewood would entice some top football brains, surely?  That's where he needs to invest. It's where he needed to invest from the word go.

It's beyond frustrating thinking about all of this.  I just haven't got a clue where our club is headed or what we aspire to be.   Randy needs to show fight, courage and leadership and simply come out and talk to us.  He needs to hear the thoughts and concerns of fans face to face.  The credit tank is running on empty for me.

[Risso]

Terrible owner.  Completely hopeless when it comes to sports ownership, he's made a mess of the Browns, and now he's done the same here.  The worst thing is that he's wasted so much money that it's going to be very difficult to sell us.

How's your head today?! Good night, was it?

The head's shocking thanks, which means the night was good!

[richard moore]

He really has made a bit of a mess of things.  Not surprised given his lack of football experience.  Letting MON rule and spend like a tinpot dictator was mistake number one.  Appointing the awful PF is something that will continue to damage the clubs future.  GH was a gamble that didn't pay off but I won't critisise him for taking the risk.  But AM is simply unacceptable. What did he expect to happen.  The best thing he has done was the signing of Bent.  He has two options.  Replace AM and PF quick sharp or start looking for somebody with the pockets and know how to buy the club.  If he does neither then we are looking at a long spell in the lower leagues as the club has the stench of relegation at every corner. Time for Randy to man up or chip off.

Spot on Tony. Anyone who thinks we are too good to be relegated ought to wake up and smell the coffee. We will be bottom 6 by the New Year as I have been saying all season. There might just be 3 worse teams than us who will go down, particularly now Norwich and Swansea appear to have moved beyond the honeymooners' period in the Premier League, but when a team like Blackburn can put four past Swansea, you start to worry. Could anyone see us doing that just now? I could quite easily become an advocate of relegation - I am at the point of accepting anything rather than this stultifying nothingness

[Mister E]

There's not much wrong with the playing personnel ... well, other than than the currrent back four, all of whom would be replaced if I were in a position of influence at the club.

Which, to me, suggests either the players do not trust McMinge and are not giving 100% or he's asking them to do the wrong things; or both.

We are in a parlous state and if RL sees that he should do the right thing and replace the manager. However, given the debacle over the Summer appointment, can he be trusted to run the process? And would any of the tried and trusted candidates want to join us?

We are in a difficult place - I don't see an obvious managerial candidate out there other than Hughes, who may decide after the summer that Villa is not a place he wants to be. Unfortunately for him, it's a problem of huge proportions created by the Chairman himself.

On that basis, he will stick with McMinge until mid-January and hope that he can turn things around. Which he won't! By then, the rpoblem will be 'n' times worse, which will make a managerial appointment even harder.

If you can follow all of that.

[Billy Walker]

Well intentioned, heart in the right place, but absolutely clueless.

Faulkner too is out of his depth.

If we sacked AM, I fear they'd use the same flawed logic in finding another manager.

Spot on as usual Paulie.  The key problem is that the same man/men who managed to see some logic or sense in appointing AM, where most were shaking their heads in utter disbelief,  will be responsible for appointing his successor.   I dread to think who SAF will recommend next time.  Maybe Solskjaer if we're lucky, but beware, Bruce is on the loose.

Let's not forget they were also inquiring after Martinez?  I can't think of any club in the Premier League who would have looked upon those two men as suitable candidates for their club's management position.  It actually defies logic.  The more I think about it, the more I shake my head. 

[Risso]

Let's not forget they were also inquiring after Martinez?  I can't think of any club in the Premier League who would have looked upon those two men as suitable candidates for their club's management position.  It actually defies logic.  The more I think about it, the more I shake my head. 

Indeed Billy.  Both men had had very poor seasons, yet at least you could argue that Martinez had decent footballing ideals.  To then appoint the polar opposite in McLeish just shows how truly clueless Lerner is.

[Walmley_Villa]

Christ the other options were Martinez or McLaren. With that short list of managers we would be in the shit regardless which is even more worrying. I don't think Hughes would want the job now and the compensation we would have to pay out would wipe out any transfer funds for January. We are Royally bolloxed.

[PaulTheVillan]

McLeish is the fall guy. Lerner is to blame. Put a manager in who will get all the shit from the fans, deflecting it away from the mess that is our board, whilst they cut costs & try do it all on the cheap. I almost feel sorry for him.

[AV82EC]

I didn't think I'd be asking myself this question but was Rob Yates from Tile Cross right? <very large winky thing>

[JUAN PABLO]

Danny Guthrie in January probably . These are the sort of players we will be signing in future . 

Ive never felt this disillusioned in a long time .  Even when I was season ticket holder watching the likes of Steve Sims , Gary Penrice and David Hunt , I loved going down VP and watching my team .... 

I gave the manager a chance , I dont mind losing when you see some effort , some passion etc but at the moment
I am losing interest in Villa , they have become dire.

Lerner takes responsibilty .

[villasjf]

It must be something in the water Juan Pablo I have the same feeling and I am a season ticket holder, these are dark times but I fear Randy will not admit he made a mistake. Just think of the millions he has paid out to MON Houllier and paying money to Brum for this idiot.
Edit Oh and Faulkner thinks we can qualify for Europe. Please find an owner with a bit of football knowledge and with a bit of ambitition. Proud history bleak future.

[JUAN PABLO]

It must be something in the water Juan Pablo I have the same feeling and I am a season ticket holder, these are dark times but I fear Randy will not admit he made a mistake. Just think of the millions he has paid out to MON Houllier and paying money to Brum for this idiot.

Lerner has made mistake after mistake really , when you put it like that .

I remember our conversations when we could not believe who MON was signing on big fees and big wages and it kept happening , wasting money , Lerner has to be to blame for letting him get away with it .

But getting Mcleish against alot of fans wishes , does take the biscuit....

[brian green]

I think Randy is just the money provider.   The really bogeyman in all of this is Faulkner.   A really savvy proper football man would have read the warning signs when O'Neill wanted to continue buying bad players for big money and was allegedly refused because he had already signed so many which he did not use.   That scenario did not arise overnight.   Faulkner should have read the signs or at least had eyes and ears in places to spot the straws in the wind.   He did not and the O'Neill bombshell blew the bottom out of our boat.

We were left scrambling about like kids playing musical chairs.   We should have taken our time to get a top manager.   The heavy defeat at Newcastle caused panic and the dumping of KMac.   Top football brains on our board would have steadied the ship but, just like the appointment of McLeish later the whole thing was bodged and we got a man who was too old and too sick and too rich and with all his glories behind him.

A top CEO would at least have made a contingency plan for the day when Houllier's heart  misfired as it inevitably would given the pressure on Premiership managers.   There was no contingency plan and we were treated to the unedifying spectacle of a stream of managers snubbing us.

I have no evidence whatsoever for my account of what came next but I believe Randy Lerner got so pissed off with the board making a laughing stock of us he jumped in his plane and flew to Corsica personally to get McLeish.   I think he asked him four questions.   What is your health like? Are you available?   Will you work with very little money and strip out the wages bill?  Can you keep us in the Premiership? McLeish answered four times in the affirmative and the job was his.

Sunderland went from sacking Bruce to having a new manager in less than a week and that included O'Neill's obsession for faffing about before signing anything.

The only thing I criticize Randy for is his choice of men to run the club for him.

Is there a contingency plan in place now?   Of course there is.   If we stay up McLeish has done the job.   If we go down he will continue to be our manager because we will be told he is the best possible man to get us back in the Premiership.

[ROBBO]

I don't think the defence are that bad to be honest apart from Hutton, okay they make mistakes but so would any defence that had to contend with playing most of the games around our penalty box, most defences get free time when their team is attacking that does not happen anymore at Villa. I am suprised the crowd didn't start chanting Birmingham Birmingham so like them we have become.

[JUAN PABLO]

Is there a contingency plan in place now?   Of course there is.   If we stay up McLeish has done the job.   If we go down he will continue to be our manager because we will be told he is the best possible man to get us back in the Premiership.

That has ruined my Sunday ...