Randy Lerner: a good owner? The case for the prosecution

[Summers]

Sorry to upset people but we are an upper mid table club who can push for the top 6.

[The Situation]

Sorry to upset people but we are an upper mid table club who can push for the top 6.

How are we an upper mid table club if we're the 5th best team since the premier league began?

I have us at top 7 minimum and we should pushing for 4th spot.

[Summers]

Because we luckily finished 9th last season and just had a huge decline of a season. We're losing talented players and need a new manager, several new players and some stability. You think we automatically should be fighting for the CL places next year? Ridiculous. Fifth best is in the top 6, you understand? The predicted standings for a club change quickly. Manchester City are 11th in the all time league, but they're a club who will be pushing for the title NOW.

We are one of the most successful and biggest clubs in the country. That doesn't mean we're going to be fighting for the league. Live in the now.

[Outcast2006]

Randy Lerner is a good owner for an upper mid table club who can push for the top 6.  He is not a good onwer for a club with champions league aspirations

There are some short memories on here but even if this is true, what would you do about it?.

Nothing I can do about it.  I'm fairly happy with how we have progressed in the last 4 years (apart from last year) and hope that we can continue to push for regular top 6 positions and good cup runs now and then as that is,  I believe ,  the limit of where we are as a club under Randy Lerner,  IMO he / the club / the first manager we had under Lerner  all performed to about their limit and I was satisfied.

Not sure I can do much more about that.

If Randy wants to achieve more with us then he will have to get additional investment in to the club,  large amounts of money which will attract the quality management and players required to take the club to the next level.

If Randy wants the club to achieve more and he can't do what was suggested above then maybe he should look for another owner for us who does have the resources to move the club to another level.

Many people on these sites have said that MON could not take us to the next level and we had reached our limit with him.  I am afraid he was our best hope of achieving better things due to his ability to get more out of less.  The person we have really reached our limit with is Randy.

[not3bad]

Many people on these sites have said that MON could not take us to the next level and we had reached our limit with him.  I am afraid he was our best hope of achieving better things due to his ability to get more out of less.  The person we have really reached our limit with is Randy.

Nobody except MON could have achieved what was achieved, given the resources?  That's bullshit my friend.

EDIT: Of course if MON was so great the queue for his services must be right round the block by now.  Who's come in for him again?

[Outcast2006]

Many people on these sites have said that MON could not take us to the next level and we had reached our limit with him.  I am afraid he was our best hope of achieving better things due to his ability to get more out of less.  The person we have really reached our limit with is Randy.

Nobody except MON could have achieved what was achieved, given the resources?  That's bullshit my friend.

EDIT: Of course if MON was so great the queue for his services must be right round the block by now.  Who's come in for him again?

Yet that is the only part of my post you try and debate with and ignore the substantive part.  Which is basically another current issue with most of the fan base,  denial.

As to MON and people queueing round the block for him,  he only recently completed a deal to sort out his departure from his last post so wasn't really available until the start of the summer.  ABour the same time we started looking for a new manager and people keep telling me the time between then and now is not really that long at all.

[not3bad]

Yet that is the only part of my post you try and debate with and ignore the substantive part.  Which is basically another current issue with most of the fan base,  denial.

Up to that point in your post I was accepting you had your viewpoint.  Then you said something I strongly disagreed with so I debated the point.  Villa overall were the 6th biggest spenders when MON was in charge.  The finished 6th, no more and no less than could've been expected.  How is that 'getting more from less'?  And how long has it been since the tribunal ended?  One month?  The Chelsea job has come up, hasn't it?  Reckon MON has a chance?

[Billy Walker]

Sorry to upset people but we are an upper mid table club who can push for the top 6.

With the present owner yes, it seems that way (I hope I'm wrong).  But we could -and should - be aiming for much higher.

[Simba]

Oh dear. IMHO the man, and his management team have done and are doing, a great job. Plaudits from Wheelan and others before due to the AV professional, quiet way of doing things. I respect that. Everything else is media laugh in time. A lot of great PR and a bit of PR brick dropping occasionally but that mostly due to the media slant and the most virulent press on the planet.

Very unfair time to lay into them when that Press is, well, being themselves. Let's see what happens. Personally, very proud of the way we handle ourselves as a Club.

And why don't we compare our Chairman with other Clubs if you must.


Haven't got to go further than down the road to the SHAmbles.

[eastie]

Not3 bad, I thought it had been proven in official transfer figures that during mons tenure we were the 3rd highest spending club and not the 6 th?

I believe from official figures which were published only Chelsea and man city had a higher net spend during that time with spurs slightly trailing us?

[not3bad]

I have heard various theories and stats during the tortuous debates over how much Aston Villa have spent compared to other clubs during the past few years.  I'm no expert on the subject but if what you say is true then the theory that MON got 'more from less' is even more shown up as a myth.

[TopDeck113]

Woken to the news that Blues are going to report us for tapping up their manager.

Now I'm sure that they're looking, first and foremost, at the main chance and the opportunity to secure a few million to help shore up their financial plight - McLeish after all was probably walking a tightrope.  However, for all Lerner's desire to do the right thing, the fact that Blues have somehow managed to seize the initiative and made us look like the, err, villains, is incredulous.  If we were going to be accused of making an illegal approach, at least let it be for someone worthwhile.

In a couple weeks we've been turned into a laughing stock.  That's what you get when the people at the top of an organisation haven't a clue as to the business they're working in.  Dignity and probity are not characteristics normally associated with people who run football clubs; duplicity and manoeuvrings behind the scenes with agents are.  Whilst the person wouldn't appeal to me personally, this whole episode shows that we desperately need someone versed in the dark arts of the football world.

[Phil from the upper holte]

He needs to be more ruthless, I heard he didn't approach jol because of respect for the fulham chairman. Now look where we are!

[eastie]

It's a brave call and I hope it works out- randy has been good for our club and people should see how mcleish does before lambasting randy over it.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

That's what I don't understand, Fulham now have Jol, if we have such great relations with Fulham, why not ask them permission to speak to Hughes, preferably today.