Doubting Randy?

[austin]

There is an alternate view: after the largesse of the MON years, Randy did indeed plan on paring back the spending on playing staff.  He perhaps thought that a combination of  the young players coming through, and a manager supposedly with a finger on the pulse of the European scene yielding some relatively cheap buys, would suffice.

He then surveys the scene in January.  Piss-poor performances on the pitch and a club free-falling towards relegation.  He looks at the spreadsheets and sees what life in the Championship would do the value of his investment and the projected fall in income.

He then does the mother of all U-turns and tells Houllier to get spending. 

This is a pragmatic decision about protecting his investment, rather than a declaration of an undying love for the Villa.

I agree with the above more than any of the earlier posts

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

Can't see how anyone could've doubted someone who's done so much for the club in such a short space of time. Even if we don't spend loads in January, he's still been extremely beneficial for Aston Villa.

A chairman cannot consistently spend money on players and wages, it's just not possible, unless they own Man City.

[OzVilla]

Anyone that says that they didn't have a single doubt is either very naive or very stupid. We were inactive in two transfer windows last year, we sold our best player and lost a successful manager. Most of the criticism of the owners was over the top and misplaced but there was every reason to start to wonder if the global financial situation and the new money in the PL had caused Randy to reconsider how he wanted to go forward.

The Bent deal is a great signal of intent but I bet even those claiming that they didn't give a second thought to his position were surprised that we were in the market at that sort of level.

100% how i feel.  I notice there are some on here that now claim they've 'never doubted Randy', but the same posters have recently suggested the the GFC and Man Citeh have made RL realise that we couldn't compete - can't have it both ways.

I don't doubt Randy's love for the Villa, and i'm happy that he doesn't give GH or whoever Ridsdale style blank cheques to throw around.  It's our future thats at stake just as much as his.

[Chico Hamilton III]

I'm a cynic by nature and I doubt everyone.

Let's seal the Bent deal, let's see whether anyone will be sold to finance it, let's see whether we stay in the premier league ( fuck me, can't believe I'm typing that).

[peter w]

Other fans of other clubs that I come across - Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man U etc etc - always go on about us being skint and that's why O'Neill left. I always wondered at the pure puzzlement in their eyes when I said that money was there but O'Neill was told to sell, but wouldn't, before he could get his hands on it. I think now they'll believe it. Whether its the right amount for the right person is another question. What isn't in question though is what teh General has always said, Randy will back his manager.

[Merv]

Amidst all the euphoria, I am staggered at the amount of money Lerner is committing this month. I thought he would back Houllier but these sums are unbelievable. Where is this money coming from?

My guess would be that Lerner has made the Milner money (£18m) available, which has just about funded the Bent deal. On top of which, there was almost certainly some transfer budget set aside last summer, which wasn't used up at all, and then I'd imagine there is a second transfer budget for January. So, it might look as if we're on a crazy spending spree, when in fact we're not - we're self-funding in the main.

That, in some ways, is following a sell to buy policy but in the right way, not in the way the papers seemed to think. And I think it's a sensible way forward. GH has begun to trim the squad; Sidwell's wages probably cover Makoun's wages, the initial loan fee Fulham have paid us for Sidwell probably covers whatever we've had to pay Spurs for Walker's loan.

I think we'll see at least one or two more departures by the close of the window - Carew, Ireland, Warnock looks finished. If we're really lucky, Beye. I wouldn't mind betting that we'd be close to balancing the transfer books by the end of January, or we'll have a reasonably modest net spend.

[john e]

we missed the last window, so this is a bit of catchup,

we are doing what Randy always wanted to do, buy some big named players, but MON wanted well you know... Harwood and heskey

he just ran out of trust with MON and so did i as did a lot of other fans,
when other supporters say to me 'but you finished 6th last year' i say yeah, but you didnt have to watch it,
as bad as its been so far this season some of are performances last season especially at home nearly made me give up the will to live.
i was delighted when MON went.

then we had a long period picking a new manager, some felt this was because Randy didnt know what he was doing or was a weak man,
i just think he was thorough, and once the decision was made he was always going to stand by his man,
because he's strong not weak.

now we will see the team Houllier will build, after prem saftey is secured , i'm hopefull it will be more entertaining than the last couple of years,
but we wont know untill Houllier is given a bit of time to build and get rid of a bit of deadwood, so we'l see.

Randy for me is the best Chairman in the prem league, only made the one mistake [ the badge/crest] but we can forgive him for that

[Bosco81]

I think when Randy took over we thought we'd be getting deals like this more often, but with MON seemingly so reluctant to spend the really big money the doubts set in.

Hopefully come April we'll be on the first page of ceefax, smoking a cigar, thinking back to those crazy days in January when we thought we might go down.

[Concrete John]

I must admit to being one how didn't necessarily doubt Randy, but at least asked a question or two in the summer. 

He's just answered them.

[darren woolley]

Randy is a brilliant owner i'm glad we have got him, he is doing the right things i allways had faith in RL and allways will he as seen we need a striker to score goals and he as gone out and got one of the best in the business which is fair play to him, and he is also getting rid of the deadwood at Villa Park so i take my hat off to him.

[cheltenhamlion]

I did try telling you that there was cash available. Perhaps some who questioned it might believe me now.

Well done Randy. This window is one where football will sit up and take notice of what we have done.

[pauliewalnuts]

Amidst all the euphoria, I am staggered at the amount of money Lerner is committing this month. I thought he would back Houllier but these sums are unbelievable. Where is this money coming from?

My guess would be that Lerner has made the Milner money (£18m) available, which has just about funded the Bent deal. On top of which, there was almost certainly some transfer budget set aside last summer, which wasn't used up at all, and then I'd imagine there is a second transfer budget for January. So, it might look as if we're on a crazy spending spree, when in fact we're not - we're self-funding in the main.

That, in some ways, is following a sell to buy policy but in the right way, not in the way the papers seemed to think. And I think it's a sensible way forward. GH has begun to trim the squad; Sidwell's wages probably cover Makoun's wages, the initial loan fee Fulham have paid us for Sidwell probably covers whatever we've had to pay Spurs for Walker's loan.

I think we'll see at least one or two more departures by the close of the window - Carew, Ireland, Warnock looks finished. If we're really lucky, Beye. I wouldn't mind betting that we'd be close to balancing the transfer books by the end of January, or we'll have a reasonably modest net spend.

We are absolutely nothing like self funding. Take a look at our financial figures.

We've just spent 7m on Makoun and 18-24m on Darren Bent. That's a spending spree by anyone's definition.

I can't believe anyone thinks that is anything but a gigantic investment in the club by the chairman.

[Toronto Villa]

Aside from Man City, and old school Chelsea this investment is big in anyones books. To think otherwise would be ludicrous. I still believe the goal of the club is bring salaries into line with revenues, but going down would have blown just about everything up. Backing Houllier in this manner obviously has its strings. Just as it did with MON. I'm just very confident that Houllier will carry through on the plan as opposed to storming out.

And while we are congratulating Randy, can I also say fair fucking play to Paul Faulkner. He gets overlooked but he's been brilliant in getting these deals pushed through with the minimum of fuss. You see the relationship he has with Randy from the Chelsea game. These deals should elevate him in our eyes too.

[badluckeric(gates)]

I never doubted him, I always thought the fact he had that tatoo was proof enough for me that he means us to do well.
He has/will make mistakes but just about as good an owner as you can get.
Look around and thank god we dont have some owners I could mention.

[nick harper]

Amidst all the euphoria, I am staggered at the amount of money Lerner is committing this month. I thought he would back Houllier but these sums are unbelievable. Where is this money coming from?

My guess would be that Lerner has made the Milner money (£18m) available, which has just about funded the Bent deal. On top of which, there was almost certainly some transfer budget set aside last summer, which wasn't used up at all, and then I'd imagine there is a second transfer budget for January. So, it might look as if we're on a crazy spending spree, when in fact we're not - we're self-funding in the main.

That, in some ways, is following a sell to buy policy but in the right way, not in the way the papers seemed to think. And I think it's a sensible way forward. GH has begun to trim the squad; Sidwell's wages probably cover Makoun's wages, the initial loan fee Fulham have paid us for Sidwell probably covers whatever we've had to pay Spurs for Walker's loan.

I think we'll see at least one or two more departures by the close of the window - Carew, Ireland, Warnock looks finished. If we're really lucky, Beye. I wouldn't mind betting that we'd be close to balancing the transfer books by the end of January, or we'll have a reasonably modest net spend.

We are absolutely nothing like self funding. Take a look at our financial figures.

We've just spent 7m on Makoun and 18-24m on Darren Bent. That's a spending spree by anyone's definition.

I can't believe anyone thinks that is anything but a gigantic investment in the club by the chairman.

Bottom line is it will still be money owed by Villa to Lerner. We seem to have gone from taking action to bring our wages to earnings ratio to a more manageable percentage to taking a gamble on investing whatever is required to ensure we remain in the League this season.

There could already be plans in place in the Summer that sees the likes of Young and Downing leave to offset this window. However, as I said in my earlier post, should the unthinkable happen, and we go down (and we have a lot to do despite everyone assuming Bent will be the saviour), as a club we will have serious financial problems to address.