The General C. Krulak Thread XV

[pauliewalnuts]

2.  The following FACTS are presented...taken straight from the financial statements of the Clubs involved.  It demonstrates that Randy has been more than willing to put money against players in this league.

Net spend over the past few years:

a.  ManCity: 230M
b.  Chelsea: 112M
c.  Villa: 102M
d.  L'pool:  95M
e.  Spurs:  66M
f.  Everton:  23M
g.  Arsenal:  Actually have made 14M thru selling

General

Just to flag something up here, the vast, vasty majority of people aren't complaining that Randy hasn't put money into the club - a blind man on a galloping horse would spot the fact he's invested an awful lot of money on players, and the almost universal consensus on here is that he's been flawless in that respect, and your figures above illustrate this.

Most people on here understand the wages issue, too, and there has been quite a lot of debate on it whilst you have been away, but again, it isn't negativity aimed at the chairman.

[KevinGage]

Aye Paulie.

It's the bloke spending RL's money that is cause for concern on occasion.

[eastie]

Mon has wasted many millions of the money spent and is now moaning there's no money unless he sells, that's how I view it, randy has been a great boss so far and it's glad to hear he's still as keen as ever, I was beginning to worry about that, thanks for clearing things up general.

[exigo]

No matter what happens with Milner, and NOTHING is decided there, I think it is important to know that he has acted in a thoroughly professional manner and has great respect for the fans and for the Club.

So, he's put in a transfer request then? Only to the unitiated he looks just like other modern day mercenaries who use agents and press to secure a pay rise and a 'loyalty' bonus on the way out.

[pablopicasso_10]

General Krulak here:

2.  The following FACTS are presented...taken straight from the financial statements of the Clubs involved.  It demonstrates that Randy has been more than willing to put money against players in this league.

Net spend over the past few years:

a.  ManCity: 230M
b.  Chelsea: 112M
c.  Villa: 102M
d.  L'pool:  95M
e.  Spurs:  66M
f.  Everton:  23M
g.  Arsenal:  Actually have made 14M thru selling

i dont think anyone is questioning randy lerner, however, i want the manager to stop whinging to the press about "sell to buy", because you now have to clean up the mess of his rubbish transfers... if he looked outside the british isles or stopped paying millions for garbage like heskey, sidwell, harewood, shorey, beye, knight, maloney,  etc, then we might not have to be in the situation we are in...

he can whinge about small squads, tiredness, etc, etc, all he likes, however, the squad is his.. he has built it, spending a lot of money in the process... so if it is not good enough / big enough, then that is his own failing... and the more he whinges about it, the more he raises his own failure...

and if you say it often enough, sooner or later, people will listen...

[Risso]

General Krulak here:

A couple of points:

1.  No matter what happens with Milner, and NOTHING is decided there, I think it is important to know that he has acted in a thoroughly professional manner and has great respect for the fans and for the Club.  He is a good man who keeps his head down and works hard.  I have a lot of respect for him.

2.  The following FACTS are presented...taken straight from the financial statements of the Clubs involved.  It demonstrates that Randy has been more than willing to put money against players in this league.

Net spend over the past few years:

a.  ManCity: 230M
b.  Chelsea: 112M
c.  Villa: 102M
d.  L'pool:  95M
e.  Spurs:  66M
f.  Everton:  23M
g.  Arsenal:  Actually have made 14M thru selling

I think that Randy Lerner has done everything required of him and more since buying the club.  Without having the oil cash of a Middle Eastern country to waste, he's supported the manager with money for the players he wants and has paid the wages too.  I just think that he's been "repaid" by the manager wasting a fortune, (particularly on wages) on lots of average players who have contributed very little.

I don't know what Randy thinks when he sees that Marlon Harewood's time at the club has cost him the best part of £10m of his own money, or Habib Beye signed and then hardly used at all, but it can hardly make him happy.  The question for me is how much longer is the manager going to be given to make uninspired, expensive signings.

[Macho Man Randy Savage]

Will be looking to utilise some of our youth players more if the wage bill is to be cut? A few look like they could be make it in the Premiership if given the chance.

[MadJohnnyC]

Welcome back General, your honesty is appreciated.

What id like to ask though, is how are Aston Villa perceived in the behind closed doors world of things amongst players, other clubs and agents etc? The reason i ask is that all we ever seem to be is a stepping stone for players. This will be my 17th consecutive season as a season ticket holder now, and i attend all but one or two away games each season too. But now for the first time i'm asking myself why. I, like many of our great fans, earn in a year about 2 days wages for James Milner, yet choose to spend it supporting him and others through thick and thin. Yet as soon as a "better" club comes calling they are off like a shot. How are we ever going to seriously compete if nobody is willing to give Randy and Martin time? Joe Cole has just signed for a club with reportedly much more financial difficulties than ourselves and who finished LOWER in the table than we did. Will we ever be able to attract these names? Or just the better players from poor teams and journeymen like Robbie Keane for example?

I feel ive seen everything there is to see now and that 6th is as good as its ever going to get. Im sure others feel the same. Sorry about being negative. I'm normally the one fighting our corner. Up the Villa.

[Dave Cooper please]

General, given the current situation with Milner, the seeming lack of any real movement with regards to decent players coming in, the fairly dismal £55 home shirt and the probability of rain next month, shouldn't you have just answered my Birmingham Senior Cup question?

Welcome back by the way!

[Villa'Zawg]

General Krulak here:

A couple of points:

1.  No matter what happens with Milner, and NOTHING is decided there, I think it is important to know that he has acted in a thoroughly professional manner and has great respect for the fans and for the Club.  He is a good man who keeps his head down and works hard.  I have a lot of respect for him.

2.  The following FACTS are presented...taken straight from the financial statements of the Clubs involved.  It demonstrates that Randy has been more than willing to put money against players in this league.

Net spend over the past few years:

a.  ManCity: 230M
b.  Chelsea: 112M
c.  Villa: 102M
d.  L'pool:  95M
e.  Spurs:  66M
f.  Everton:  23M
g.  Arsenal:  Actually have made 14M thru selling

Welcome back General.

Can I just check that Randy realised when he bought the club that in order to compete for the CL as you said we would, we needed to spend more on our 16th place squad than those other teams who were already in or around those CL places at the time?

The paucity of the squad at the time and the recognised need for investment in the squad was a big factor in getting Villa for only £64m wasn't it?

Can I also make a suggestion as regards Milner. If Man City come back with another offer, you tell them he isn't for sale because we have a strategy of growing promising young players into great Villa players and we don't sell them as soon as they make the breakthrough to becoming international players. Particularly not when they are less than half-way through their first contract with the club.

[boboonthecorner]

General Krulak here:

A couple of points:

1.  No matter what happens with Milner, and NOTHING is decided there, I think it is important to know that he has acted in a thoroughly professional manner and has great respect for the fans and for the Club.  He is a good man who keeps his head down and works hard.  I have a lot of respect for him.

2.  The following FACTS are presented...taken straight from the financial statements of the Clubs involved.  It demonstrates that Randy has been more than willing to put money against players in this league.

Net spend over the past few years:

a.  ManCity: 230M
b.  Chelsea: 112M
c.  Villa: 102M
d.  L'pool:  95M
e.  Spurs:  66M
f.  Everton:  23M
g.  Arsenal:  Actually have made 14M thru selling

I don't think anybody is blaming or questioning Randys commitment to Villa General. It's just a pity that the manager chose to waste a lot of it.

If I was Randy I'd also  make sure that the manager got rid of some of the players he now doesn't rate after spending millions on them not so long ago.

[eastie]

General, could you tell me does mon negotiate the wages for players he signs or is that taken care of by the chief exec?

Having seen the amount of money wasted on so called squad players nobody could really blame randy for having major doubts about trusting mon to spend the milner cash, do you think someone should oversee transfers and mon should just coach the team as many continental teams do?

[Dazvillain]

GK, welcome back...is your health still stable enough to be over for the start of the Prem v West Ham ?

[eastie]

Thanks for producing those figures general, although as we have been the third highest spenders is it not to be questioned why we have still to finish higher than 6 th considering that outlay?

[cdbearsfan]

General, given the current situation with Milner, the seeming lack of any real movement with regards to decent players coming in, the fairly dismal £55 home shirt and the probability of rain next month, shouldn't you have just answered my Birmingham Senior Cup question?

Welcome back by the way!

Bad news Dave, here's a response I received today to an e-mail I sent to the Birmingham FA...

"cdvillafan,

BCFA Senior Cup
All Clubs have the ability to enter including Aston Villa – Competition Rules allow those senior professional clubs to opt out through payment of an exemption fee

Aston Villa have again taken that option

 Dave
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: stefan pennick On Behalf Of Info Birmingham
Sent: 20 July 2010 08:54
To: Dave Shelton
Subject: FW: Birmingham Senior Cup

Stefan Pennick

Birmingham County Football Association

County HQ, Ray Hall Lane , Birmingham B43 6JF

T:  0121 357 4278

F:  0121 358 1661

W:  www.birminghamfa.com"