Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Legion on October 26, 2011, 07:09:29 PM
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I know our owner is reluctant (to say the least) to give interviews and I'm sorry if I'm going over old ground but I really think Mr. Lerner needs to finally break his silence in order to converse with the media about his hopes, wishes and aspirations for the future of his tenure with our club.
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I think this is one of the major reasons for the current discontent.
I can't remember who, but someone said on a previous thread that fans can handle most things as long as the board are honest with them.
Even if Randy came out just to reiterate his commitment to the club, then I'm sure the mood would slightly improve.
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If he does not turn up at matches and does not utter a word it fosters disquiet and discomfort among the fans that he simply does not care or has got bored. For all his faults, Ellis was always vocal and told it how it was, even if for many of us it was not what we wanted to hear.
Having said all that, when things were going well we were quiet happy that our chairman was quieter than a church mouse, so why should it really matter now?
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It must be very embarrassing when Randy Lerner turns up at an away match, none of the home directors know him and they all rush up to shake Doug's hand.
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I always try to stick up for RL and it really winds me up when people ask him to leave because he's been excellent for us. However I am concerned he hasn't travelled to VP this season. I would like something to be said, actions speak louder than words, but when theres no words it doesn't make much difference imo. Theres no communication with the board, it feels like he's an alien right now.
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It's hardly surprising is it, I mean would you travel thousands of miles to watch McLeish's Villa fail miserably to beat the likes of Wolves and Albion at home? Oh wait....
Seriously though, he's not exactly shown much support for AM by staying away. Considering he must be practically the only Villa fan to actually want him for the job that is pretty shocking.* Not exactly leading by example either.
I'd cringe if he came out on the pitch and did some sort of Delia Smith impression, however we need inspiration and leadership from somewhere because we sure can't get it from our captain or manager.
* Disclaimer - if he is missing games for personal reasons then fair enough his absence is understandable.
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Reality check time.
Randy is a decent, credible solvent owner (Unlike Small heath, Blackburn, Newcastle, Everton).
Outside of the top four the only two teams to spend serious money over the past twelve months were Sunderland and Liverpool, but even FSG have spent less net, than Randy has.
Everton and Newcastle have done exactly what we have done, lower the wage bill and take capital receipts.
Like everyone, I wish that Randy was a bit more visible, but he doesn’t comment on team formations, and doesn’t make a fool of himself in public, he just keeps things ticking over. But where is the upgrade? Newcastle and Everton are up for sale with no takers. Liverpool have been up for sale twice in five years, sold first to the only remaining bidders, a pair of cowboys, sold second to the only serious bidders a 20 strong foreign consortium taking a (relatively) low exposure punt on some foreign stocks.
The frustration we all feel is the lack of hope – as many PL fans feel now. But there are a lot worse fates than being owned by Randy Lerner.
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I find the fact he hasn't been to a game this season pretty disturbing. When you add it to all the drastic cost cutting measures its hard to come to a conclusion beyond he's lost interest and is looking to sell or just do the minimum to keep us in the division. When you think back to that footage of I forget who we were playing but we scored and he dived over Faulkner in celebration, he looked like it really meant something to him. I hope he still has that passion and I want to hear from that guy.
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I agree with Legion and others that it is time he came out and showed he still has the pasion for the club. Not only has he not been to a ame this season but he only came to 10 games last year - if he hasn't lost the passion then he is hiding it well. How can he expect the fans to come if he can;t be bothered.
Add to this the disappareance of his PR machine and the selling off of any tangible asset and it isn;t difficult to conclude he wwants out. Problem for him and us is that there isnlt anyone out there.
We will just have to accept we are an also ran and forever will be - how depressing :-((
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I can understand Randy's perspective in both not courting the media and also pulling in the purse strings however it strikes me that in Randy's absence Faulkner is probably getting spread a bit too thin compared to other clubs.
Where the owner wants to be hands off - like randy - then there is usually a football man and also a business man on the board reporting up to him. Off the top of my head:
Tottenham have Pleat (I think he has recently re-joined) and Levy
Man City had Marwood and that w**ker who just resigned
Liverpool have Comoli doing the football bit and Ian Ayre doing the business side
I would really like to see a football man at the club who can act as a bit of a cheerleader with the fans and media and also help ensure that a MON situation does not occur again. A Southgate, G. Taylor or Little type figure would be ideal.
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What we need is a good old fashioned 'tickets for Hospital Beds' deal! Perhaps that'll inspire Randy to come back.
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I can understand Randy's perspective in both not courting the media and also pulling in the purse strings however it strikes me that in Randy's absence Faulkner is probably getting spread a bit too thin compared to other clubs.
Where the owner wants to be hands off - like randy - then there is usually a football man and also a business man on the board reporting up to him. Off the top of my head:
Tottenham have Pleat (I think he has recently re-joined) and Levy
Man City had Marwood and that w**ker who just resigned
Liverpool have Comoli doing the football bit and Ian Ayre doing the business side
I would really like to see a football man at the club who can act as a bit of a cheerleader with the fans and media and also help ensure that a MON situation does not occur again. A Southgate, G. Taylor or Little type figure would be ideal.
A good post.
But Faulkner is to Randy, what Ayres is to FSG, a placeman, beholden to their bosses, who reside several thousand miles away.
My worry is where Randy gets his football intelligence from. Where are the club wise heads, to argue with and debate? Whichever way you cut it the MON situation was ****** up, with no winners, only losers. Randy was not close enough to it.
The attractions of McLeish are now obvious, happy to work on a budget, able to hit the ground running, and VERY grateful to be in the PL at all.
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We won't hear from him until whichever of the following happens first: Bent is sold, McLeish is sacked, we get relegated or most likely of all next July in his address to season ticket holders.
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Actions do indeed speak louder than words. Anything he said would be analysed & torn apart anyway.
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Silence is golden only if you succeed at the job in hand, Randy Lerner, on the other hand, should come out and explain why he has made such a balls up of our club.
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Randy reminds me of the dog on shooting stars....."oh no what have I done now".
I put his disappearance down to embarrassment.
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Actions do indeed speak louder than words. Anything he said would be analysed & torn apart anyway.
Yes, they do.
The problem is, the actions have been half arsed and deeply concerning for quite a while now.
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Randy reminds me of the dog on shooting stars....."oh no what have I done now".
I put his disappearance down to embarrassment.
I've only heard him speak once, and that was on a 30 second long clip filmed on a training ground before he bought us.
It's like when the Japanese Emperor broadcast to his nation in 1945 telling them to surrender, most of the people refused to believe it was him as they'd never heard his voice before.
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Since the General has done a bunk, Lerner is now the centre of attention, as he should have been all along.
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I think his silence is deafening, i doubt that there is much he could say that will appease any one.
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Not sure you can run a club properly from another continent. I would have thought to get a "feel" for how things are going, a bit of day to day involvement would probably help. It all seems very hands off to me for something that can potentially make him a lot of money or be a drain on his resources. One thing about Ellis - and this is the last time i'm saying anything vaguely positive about him - you knew he was there sticking his nose in at every opportunity
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I can use out of the real world footy logic for this. When Randy purchased Englands centre forward in Jan he was great. Now we've sold half of Englands midfield and lost to albion (which is unforgivable) and blues are winning games in a lower league to us (which is unforgivable to everyone else except me it seems) he is is the worst chairman ever.
Hopefully after a win on Saturday he'll be great again.
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The issue is that it is all so listless. We have no idea what money is available, whether this is a period of consolidation before we go for it again, whether Randy has lost interest, what our short and medium term goals are.
We used to know what we were trying to achieve. Now nobody has a clue so we are all second guessing and that's when we turn on each other.
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I'll do it for him...
Dear Morons,
I intend on making the club run financially on its own, so then I can sell up & fuck off.
Anyone know any good tattoo removal places?
Randy.
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I thought it was a bad sign when AM had to face his first press conference without RL or Faulkner alongside him. It's not great that he hasn't seen us play under his new manager. I think the MON situation took a lot of his enthuiasm away. As for comparisons with Doug, he used to sign every cheque that went out of Villa Park. You may have heard him mention it once of twice.
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I am sorry but i find some of the Randy bashing a bit pathetic and petulant.
Yes he could be more communicative - he tried that with GK and it decending into moaning all the time
Yes he could have more of a presence - ironically this is something, not being in the limelight, we all loved about the guy when he came here
We have to accept that the football landscape has changed significantly and having a billionairre might not be enough. Are we really alone in this?
I can tell you now that although the pitch is where it matters of course, the changes internally of running the club are a hundred times better than when Ellis was here.
These are tough times and he knows that - but judging from the comments regarding "would we want Citeh's money" i am happy we have him
He got shafted by MON, got a bad dose of luck with GH's health issues and made to look a twat by Whelan
Whether good or bad choice with AMc time will tell but at the time he was at least someone who wanted the job and treated the club with some respect - i am sure due to Randy's love of heritage and history was of paramount importance. The likes of FSW / Hughes / et al i would always imagine came over as their appointments would have been doing the club a favour
Give the guy a break
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I thought it was a bad sign when AM had to face his first press conference without RL or Faulkner alongside him.
I thought this was poor. It was such a massive decision, if he had the balls he'd have been there backing his new man from the off.
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I thought it was a bad sign when AM had to face his first press conference without RL or Faulkner alongside him. It's not great that he hasn't seen us play under his new manager. I think the MON situation took a lot of his enthuiasm away. As for comparisons with Doug, he used to sign every cheque that went out of Villa Park. You may have heard him mention it once of twice.
That was what the manager wanted, and Doug didn't sign every cheque.
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I thought it was a bad sign when AM had to face his first press conference without RL or Faulkner alongside him. It's not great that he hasn't seen us play under his new manager. I think the MON situation took a lot of his enthuiasm away. As for comparisons with Doug, he used to sign every cheque that went out of Villa Park. You may have heard him mention it once of twice.
That was what the manager wanted, and Doug didn't sign every cheque.
AM wanted to face the press on his own? Respect.
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I thought it was a bad sign when AM had to face his first press conference without RL or Faulkner alongside him.
I thought this was poor. It was such a massive decision, if he had the balls he'd have been there backing his new man from the off.
It meant nothing of the sort. It was perfectly in tune with the way he'd done business before (was he there sat next to MON?!). People will look for anything to prove their argument.
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I thought it was a bad sign when AM had to face his first press conference without RL or Faulkner alongside him.
I thought this was poor. It was such a massive decision, if he had the balls he'd have been there backing his new man from the off.
It meant nothing of the sort. It was perfectly in tune with the way he'd done business before (was he there sat next to MON?!). People will look for anything to prove their argument.
No, because Doug was in charge.
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Ah good point. My argument was that he was always in the background through good or bad times over the last few years. To read anything into his absence from one single press conference is taking it too far. My mistake over MON's initial unveiling doesn't alter the argument.
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More of an issue is that we are about to enter the fourth month of the season and he hasn't been seen yet. At a time where some, whether rightly or wrongly, are questioning his commitment then this is not helping.
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So if Randy suddenly turns up will it alter things? I suspect not. I think the signals from the club are pretty clear enough without Randy having to spell them out to us.
When he first took over the club and spent all his time over here, he was slated by Browns fans who accused him of abandoning them for his new plaything. Now we are doing the same thing.
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So if Randy suddenly turns up will it alter things? I suspect not. I think the signals from the club are pretty clear enough without Randy having to spell them out to us.
When he first took over the club and spent all his time over here, he was slated by Browns fans who accused him of abandoning them for his new plaything. Now we are doing the same thing.
Only problem is, the Browns as well as us aren't exactly setting the world alight at the moment. Perhaps he has a new plaything.
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Old man Bendall had sod all to say. I dont expect Randy to give us a European Cup anytime soon but usually the most vocal high profile owners are the least successful. Look at the likes of Ken Bates, Peter Risdale, Sullivan & Gold etc.
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Why does he need to say anything? We're not in the bottom three, our bottom line must be showing some signs of improvement with the net transfer dealings over the last few months and the reducing of the wage bill. I'd say the management are quietly satisfied with how things are going, so far.
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As others have said, I think it's pretty clear the direction we're heading in without Lerner having to spell it out. He has no plan, no spare cash and no enthusiasm for the job. His reluctance to speak is just another symptom of all that. I'd really not hear from him in any case, as it would probably just be more half truths and sound bites of the sort that General Krulak came out with before he disappeared.
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In times of difficulty and crises [not saying we are in a crises] people want to hear that things are going to be ok and that things are being taken care of.
In the absence of that, rumour and panic can set in.
This is what is happening now, I think we do need to have some stability and some evidence that a calm hand is on the tiller and guiding us through these difficult times.
I think that RL et al. could have spared some time over the last few months to make an appearence and that might have helped to calm some of the rumours and desquite that is going on at the moment.
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It'd be nice to see him at a game sometime soon, at the very least.
It's really hard not to conclude that he's just got bored of it all nowadays.
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As others have said, I think it's pretty clear the direction we're heading in without Lerner having to spell it out. He has no plan, no spare cash and no enthusiasm for the job. His reluctance to speak is just another symptom of all that. I'd really not hear from him in any case, as it would probably just be more half truths and sound bites of the sort that General Krulak came out with before he disappeared.
You're probably over egging it slightly there Risso, but I'd guess you're not a million miles off. If this IS the situation then he should delegate "the plan" bit to someone else. This is probably a bad example due to the odious nature of the individuals but we never hear anything from Abramovich as he'd told Kenyon what he wanted and by-and-large Kenyon went about trying to achieve those goals, using all the experience and contacts he had gained from Man U.
We have a silent owner and an over stretched (or out of his depth) Faulkner try to steer the proverbial ship without any apparent objective. If Randy/the Club declared that he wanted us to have "the best youth system that would make us competitive on the pitch and through occasional sales off the pitch too" then I think/hope most people would accept it as our expectations had been managed.
The problem for me, is even if that was our goal we are not set up to achieve it. Does AMc have the time to visit and understand the set up of clubs like Borrussia Dortmund, Udinese, Porto and a few other clubs that have consistently punched above their weight using young players. I'd hope not.
Is there any point sending Faulkner?
At the moment we seem a bit rudderless, with no apparent objectives.
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Pretty much what I was getting at Dante I must say. Randy turning up to a game doesn't fix the world but might stop some infighting, as would a clear vision, no matter how unpalatable it may be.
If we are in the dark you get the worst of both worlds.
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I am sorry but i find some of the Randy bashing a bit pathetic and petulant.
Yes he could be more communicative - he tried that with GK and it decending into moaning all the time
Yes he could have more of a presence - ironically this is something, not being in the limelight, we all loved about the guy when he came here
We have to accept that the football landscape has changed significantly and having a billionairre might not be enough. Are we really alone in this?
I can tell you now that although the pitch is where it matters of course, the changes internally of running the club are a hundred times better than when Ellis was here.
These are tough times and he knows that - but judging from the comments regarding "would we want Citeh's money" i am happy we have him
He got shafted by MON, got a bad dose of luck with GH's health issues and made to look a twat by Whelan
Whether good or bad choice with AMc time will tell but at the time he was at least someone who wanted the job and treated the club with some respect - i am sure due to Randy's love of heritage and history was of paramount importance. The likes of FSW / Hughes / et al i would always imagine came over as their appointments would have been doing the club a favour
Give the guy a break
Tend to agree with this.
He wasn't seen as useless, clueless, inept and all the rest of it when he was dishing out the reddies.
We can't know for certain how deep the problems at Bank of America have affected his personal finances but I'd imagine it's pretty severe. You could argue if that's the case then he's a pretty inept businessman anyway - but plenty of people have been caught out since 2008.
Maybe the reason we haven't heard anything is that RL himself is uncertain about the viability of keeping the Villa connection going. Would you really want to hear that?
In his defence, he chose us. He didn't mortgage us to the hilt as per Hicks and Gillete and the Glazers. And for the bulk of his time in charge we felt like we were moving forward. But he's obligated to the Browns -the connection runs much deeper. So if it comes to the crunch and it's one or t'other (a very real scenario in the current financial climate) I'd imagine it will be us that gets jettisoned.
On the other hand, soundbites and Ellis-isms were never his forté even during the good times, so you can at least say he's consistent in that regard.
Would those most vocal in their criticism of the guy really be placated if he came out and said he was as committed as ever anyway? Pretty certain the response would be along the lines of 'well he would say that, wouldn't he,' or 'it's just a front until he can sell.'
I do wish he hadn't opted for (or allowed himself to be talked into hiring) McLeish though. He still had the bulk of the support base with him even after the mess of the GH era. I think he's eroded a lot of goodwill with the appointment of the ginger one- but that's not exactly news, is it?
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I remarked to Dave when I got wind of the McLeish appointment that it was all good will finished in one fell swoop.
He will live and die on that decision. Alex will live or die on his performance.
The internal glitterati weren't sure on the call. It was Randy's shout, and his alone.
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Like H and KG I think Randy's been taking care of his interests, including the Villa, in a very unfriendly world.
AM must be realising how unfriendly!
And in another context, how unfriendly? Well, Angela Merkel's just been quoted as postulating another war if the European economic mess isn't sorted out beyond a quick fix for the Greeks.
Well, that's how I read it. Although, for the more hysterical on here I don't think she was threatening to annexe Athens.
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I once shagged a bird called Zante if that helps.
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In Zakynthos?
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No, just in the fanny.
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Another thread ruined. I think I need to ban myself.
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I won't even bother with turtle gags
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It'd be nice to see him at a game sometime soon, at the very least.
It's really hard not to conclude that he's just got bored of it all nowadays.
The current situation with Randy puts me in mind of Madonna when she was married to Guy Ritchie [stating the bleeding obvious, I have no inside knowledge of her relationship with Guy Ritchie]. My perception is despite feeling cultural differences didn't matter, eventually they did, and she gave up playing the game of being English/British.