Why are the Media so Anti-Villa?

[Villa'Zawg]

Everyone seems to be ignoring the fact that all of the reporters left the press meetings with Randy in the summer with phrases like "sell-to-buy", "sustainable business" and "balancing  the books" in their notepads.

Did they all simply misunderstand Randy?

Which press meetings with Randy?

I remember one piece in the Independent, and him talking to a couple of journos over a meal at the HH once, but that's about it.

The person I remember speaking most about sell to buy was Martin O'Neill.

I also don't remember reading anytihng anywhere about "balancing the books"

They're not attributing those sentiments to Martin O'Neill, they attribute them to Lerner. Perhaps it was the piece in the Independent and "a couple of journos over a meal", I'm not sure.

Collymore was talking this evening about being with national and local journos today (he mentioned Henry Winter) and he described them referring to their notes of meeting with Lerner and the phrases "sell-to-buy" and "balancing the books".

Why would they make it up?

[Villa'Zawg]

yeah.. it was bizarre really. And they drew a little picture to prove it. no offence mind :0)

The only stat I've seen that draws them together is that they are the 3 most prolific strikers.

On what basis are Bent, Rooney and Drogba the most inaccurate strikers in the Premier League?

[Greg N'Ash]

personally i think he changed his mind. if yer that rich you can. he was obviously pissed off with the wasters MON was buying and obvoiusly has a bit more faith in GH's targets. not the only one frankly

[Greg N'Ash]

yeah.. it was bizarre really. And they drew a little picture to prove it. no offence mind :0)

The only stat I've seen that draws them together is that they are the 3 most prolific strikers.

On what basis are Bent, Rooney and Drogba the most inaccurate strikers in the Premier League?

it was based on how many goals they'd scored this season. it was so petty - he probably is the 3rd most inaccurate premiership striker on his goal total. like i said it was just an exercise in taking the piss out of him/villa

[Stu]

They're not all against us. Found this article on the Guardian website. Good read:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2006/mar/05/features.sport7

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Of course it's a good read Stu, it's written by a Villa fan.

[KevinGage]

Everyone seems to be ignoring the fact that all of the reporters left the press meetings with Randy in the summer with phrases like "sell-to-buy", "sustainable business" and "balancing  the books" in their notepads.

Did they all simply misunderstand Randy?

Which press meetings with Randy?

I remember one piece in the Independent, and him talking to a couple of journos over a meal at the HH once, but that's about it.

The person I remember speaking most about sell to buy was Martin O'Neill.

I also don't remember reading anytihng anywhere about "balancing the books"

They're not attributing those sentiments to Martin O'Neill, they attribute them to Lerner. Perhaps it was the piece in the Independent and "a couple of journos over a meal", I'm not sure.

Collymore was talking this evening about being with national and local journos today (he mentioned Henry Winter) and he described them referring to their notes of meeting with Lerner and the phrases "sell-to-buy" and "balancing the books".

Why would they make it up?

I guess it depends on how much they want to twist this:

Daily Mail

Lerner added: 'I have given Martin the assurance that I wanted to take the team forward. 'There's money there to be spent on the team but I say that carefully within the context of knowing that the summer brings a very dynamic environment of players coming and going and rethinking existing contracts. I'm not saying simply: "Here's some new money - go and spend it".
'Our ambitions to get better remain and we are not in some sort of mode in which we are shutting the door on spending on players. But to say that alone would be misleading. I think there's a sell-to-buy policy in nearly every organisation on the planet. I think it's good business.'

Birmingham Mail

“There’s money there to be spent on the team,” he said.

“I say that carefully within the context of knowing the summer brings a very dynamic environment of players coming and going and rethinking existing contracts.

“So I’m careful not to simply say here’s a brand new amount of money, go and spend it. I’d prefer to say our ambitions to get better remain and that we are not in some sort of mode in which we are shutting the door on spending on players.

“But to say it simply as a lone statement without including it in the broader realities of what the summer brings would be misleading.

“I think there’s a sell-to-buy policy in nearly every organisation on the planet.

“I think that it’s good business to try to sell to buy.

“I think. on the other. hand if opportunities arise in which the net number of sell-to-buy doesn’t equal what’s required to take advantage of an opportunity then you may spend the money and I wouldn’t exclude us from that group that may do that.”

Moxley chose to leave off the part about conducting transfers even if the amount coming in was less than the amount going out, Matt Kendrick still chose to lead with a Sell to Buy headline despite the content of the piece contradicting that.  Whatcha gonna do.

The part where RL actually talks about sell to buy sounds like he'd been asked a direct question and gave a general response about good business practice, standard business practice even (I don't think there are many organisations that would survive for any length of time by spending more than they take in).  I didn't take it at the time to mean that the drawbridge was going up and we were done competing. Others made that leap, a bit too willingly if I may say so.

[Stu]

Of course it's a good read Stu, it's written by a Villa fan.

I know it is, but the point is we do get coverage. I was trying to cheer people up a bit, this thread was becoming a whinge-fest

[Toronto Villa]

I don't neccessarily think the media are anti-Villa. It's just that all of a sudden their perceptions of the club have been blown clean out of the water. What's left is the feeling that little, desperate Aston Villa have committed financial suicide in their efforts to stay in the PL. And how dare they not give MON that money if it was available all along.

Every pre-conceived thought and notion about the club is now being re-evaluated and it's rather uncomfortable.

[Nev]

Much like the TV channels, success for Aston Villa is not in the best interests of the national printed media. Their audience is the run of the mill casual, glory hunting supporter who wants to read all about Torres or Rooney, day after day after fuckin' day.

If you want news on Villa via a newspaper would you buy a tabloid? I would imagine most would plump for the Mail or E+S, but if you live in Banbury it's a bit tricky trying to get hold of the Liverpool Echo or Manchester Evening News.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

The money WAS there for O'Neill, the board were unhappy on who he wanted to spend it on.
They were also not pleased about the wages he wanted to give said players.

[Olneythelonely]

Everyone seems to be ignoring the fact that all of the reporters left the press meetings with Randy in the summer with phrases like "sell-to-buy", "sustainable business" and "balancing  the books" in their notepads.

Did they all simply misunderstand Randy?

Which press meetings with Randy?

I remember one piece in the Independent, and him talking to a couple of journos over a meal at the HH once, but that's about it.

The person I remember speaking most about sell to buy was Martin O'Neill.

I also don't remember reading anytihng anywhere about "balancing the books"

They're not attributing those sentiments to Martin O'Neill, they attribute them to Lerner. Perhaps it was the piece in the Independent and "a couple of journos over a meal", I'm not sure.

Collymore was talking this evening about being with national and local journos today (he mentioned Henry Winter) and he described them referring to their notes of meeting with Lerner and the phrases "sell-to-buy" and "balancing the books".

Why would they make it up?

Sorry, are you asking why a journalist would make something up to get a better story?

[The Situation]

Atleast Alan Brazil and Ronnie Irani seem to understand that O'Neill was buying too many average players on such high wages.

[Brend'Watkins]

Nearly all the journalists bought into the "sell to buy" policy when it was anything but that.  That they have been proved totally incorrect is a tad embarrassing for some of them so now we get the "why did they not give MON the funds" from the likes of Holt etc.  It's not that they simply just don't get it.  They don't appear to want to get it.

 

[fbriai]

I think that many of them also have a sense of frustration at the fact that Lerner is so determined to keep his own council. Pat Murphy, who I like and who has, of course, reported on the Villa for years, often points to this as a source of rancour within the media. I suppose this was previously off-set by MON's ability to interact with them, whereas maybe Houllier just isn't concerned with it. Certainly he seems more likely to simply say what he's thinking - for better or worse, as we know - and doesn't seem to worry whether it puts their noses out of joint or not. Saying that, I've noted that he is being a bit more careful of late. Note how yesterday he referred to 'our ambition', 'our efforts', 'our club'.

Other than that, I'm sure laziness comes into it, too. It's just easier to recycle the story doing the rounds than be fully informed, I guess.