The American Billionaire Who Got Chewed Up by English Soccer

[London Villan]

Even with the oil money there was no reason why we couldn’t have competed with a decent management team and decent organisation, but with that added bit of wealth.

[Mister E]

A vastly melodramatic piece. A "wild-west" business landscape? "Poorly regulated"? "Charlatan owners"?

Yes, some of that has some grains of truth, but - really - was he that naive?!

It would appear so.

[Clampy]

I wouldnt say I feel for him but I don't really hold a grudge against him either. What's done is done.

[Risso]

A terrible owner, a terrible businessman and in my opinion, an all round terrible person.  We're still paying the price for his cock ups, he couldn't even sell the club to somebody decent.  Lerner can fuck off, and when he's finished fucking off, he can fuck off some more.

[LeeB]

A terrible owner, a terrible businessman and in my opinion, an all round terrible person.  We're still paying the price for his cock ups, he couldn't even sell the club to somebody decent.  Lerner can fuck off, and when he's finished fucking off, he can fuck off some more.

Absolutely this, the fucking cockwomble.

[Clark W Griswold]

Yes, i'm very surprised as well at most of the comments, if you want one person to blame for the position we're currently in and the largely woeful experience of following the Villa for the past 8 years you need to just look at him.

The article is interesting in parts but is also full of assumptions, inaccuracies and waffle. The silly bastard obviously thought he could buy the club and just sit back and own it without really putting much thought, effort and attention in, like he had with the Browns but with the Browns there was no major repercussions for this kind of malaise due to the nature of the rules. I'm not sure how that is better than the way it works over here, but of course we have a lot more clubs to consider than they have franchises.

[aj2k77]

His attitude the last few years, where he turned his back on all obligations and let us drift in to the poorest team in our history and a neglect behind the scenes that left a lot of departments down to the bare bones puts him down as a disgrace and I hope to never here his name and the Villa in the same sentence again. A fraud of a man.

[The Man With A Stick]

Never read such nonsense in all my life.  Are we supposed to feel sympathy for him now?

If he'd bothered doing any research into how the league system works, maybe he wouldn't have been so surprised about the whole promotion/relegation thing. Perhaps he should have plugged his telly in as they tend to mention it quite often, especially around April/May time.

Besides, who has a self-imposed TV ban?  Would he rather be chatting to the general about all that marines shite?  Probably means he's never even watched The Sopranos, the ruddy idiot.

[Damo70]

He came with good intentions but was an incompetent custodian of the club and acted like a spoilt rich kid when it went wrong. I could possibly forgive him his honest mistakes but towards the end it was a total dereliction of duty from him that was unforgivable. The general might have had grounds under military law to shoot him for cowardice and desertion.

[dave.woodhall]

When discussing Lerner it's almost impossible to separate fact from fiction, and justified criticism from rissible hyperbole. For example:

Never read such nonsense in all my life.  Are we supposed to feel sympathy for him now?

If he'd bothered doing any research into how the league system works, maybe he wouldn't have been so surprised about the whole promotion/relegation thing. Perhaps he should have plugged his telly in as they tend to mention it quite often, especially around April/May time.

Besides, who has a self-imposed TV ban?  Would he rather be chatting to the general about all that marines shite?  Probably means he's never even watched The Sopranos, the ruddy idiot.

Nowhere has it ever been said that he didn't know about relegation. To think he bought a football club without knowing that fact is the real nonsense. There's a lot you can criticise him for, but to say that he 'never' gave the Villa any thought or attention is wildly off the mark as well. Ultimately though, what's done is done and to still get upset about him is a bit pointless.

[Risso]

When discussing Lerner it's almost impossible to separate fact from fiction, and justified criticism from rissible hyperbole. For example:

Never read such nonsense in all my life.  Are we supposed to feel sympathy for him now?

If he'd bothered doing any research into how the league system works, maybe he wouldn't have been so surprised about the whole promotion/relegation thing. Perhaps he should have plugged his telly in as they tend to mention it quite often, especially around April/May time.

Besides, who has a self-imposed TV ban?  Would he rather be chatting to the general about all that marines shite?  Probably means he's never even watched The Sopranos, the ruddy idiot.

Nowhere has it ever been said that he didn't know about relegation. To think he bought a football club without knowing that fact is the real nonsense. There's a lot you can criticise him for, but to say that he 'never' gave the Villa any thought or attention is wildly off the mark as well. Ultimately though, what's done is done and to still get upset about him is a bit pointless.

I see what you did there.

[hilts_coolerking]

He came with good intentions but was an incompetent custodian of the club and acted like a spoilt rich kid when it went wrong. I could possibly forgive him his honest mistakes but towards the end it was a total dereliction of duty from him that was unforgivable. The general might have had grounds under military law to shoot him for cowardice and desertion.

This sums it up for me.  Except about the General: he was a nitwit too.

[SoccerHQ]

When discussing Lerner it's almost impossible to separate fact from fiction, and justified criticism from rissible hyperbole. For example:

Never read such nonsense in all my life.  Are we supposed to feel sympathy for him now?

If he'd bothered doing any research into how the league system works, maybe he wouldn't have been so surprised about the whole promotion/relegation thing. Perhaps he should have plugged his telly in as they tend to mention it quite often, especially around April/May time.

Besides, who has a self-imposed TV ban?  Would he rather be chatting to the general about all that marines shite?  Probably means he's never even watched The Sopranos, the ruddy idiot.

Nowhere has it ever been said that he didn't know about relegation. To think he bought a football club without knowing that fact is the real nonsense. There's a lot you can criticise him for, but to say that he 'never' gave the Villa any thought or attention is wildly off the mark as well. Ultimately though, what's done is done and to still get upset about him is a bit pointless.

Wasn't it said Carson Yeung didn't actually realise SHA could go down in 2011?

I do agree the relegation thing was very much POV of the author of the piece. Lerner did know about English football from his time studying here in the 80s.

[dave.woodhall]

When discussing Lerner it's almost impossible to separate fact from fiction, and justified criticism from rissible hyperbole. For example:

Never read such nonsense in all my life.  Are we supposed to feel sympathy for him now?

If he'd bothered doing any research into how the league system works, maybe he wouldn't have been so surprised about the whole promotion/relegation thing. Perhaps he should have plugged his telly in as they tend to mention it quite often, especially around April/May time.

Besides, who has a self-imposed TV ban?  Would he rather be chatting to the general about all that marines shite?  Probably means he's never even watched The Sopranos, the ruddy idiot.

Nowhere has it ever been said that he didn't know about relegation. To think he bought a football club without knowing that fact is the real nonsense. There's a lot you can criticise him for, but to say that he 'never' gave the Villa any thought or attention is wildly off the mark as well. Ultimately though, what's done is done and to still get upset about him is a bit pointless.

I see what you did there.

I'm sorry,  I couldn't resist it.

On a more serious note, we talk about O'Neill being the watershed but it's been hinted that something happened regarding Houlier that really got to him and marked the beginning of his withdrawal. What it was, I've no idea but I think that the whole Lerner era was based around him buying something to enjoy and when he stopped enjoying it he lost interest. Would that I could drop a couple of hundred million because I didn't want to play any more.

[Nelly]

I wish when he came in, Lerner had appointed better football management people. I think we'd still be a top-end Premier League club now. Purely conjecture of course but on paper money and football sense is hard to argue against.

As we found out though, money and a bunch of banking executives won't cut it in football.