Randy Lerner "State of Aston Villa" Statement

[Villa'Zawg]

The assertion that Randy Lerner's investment in the team has been in any way excessive or extravagant is complete and utter bollocks.

He invested an average of £20m a season for four seasons. He then stopped investing and has now reversed. To put that in perspective, £20m net spend is the same amount of money that McLeish spent at Blues during his final two seasons.

Net spend for the last five years:

# 2006 - 2011 Purchased Gross --- Sold --- Nett --- Per Season

1 Manchester City --- £455,670,000 --- £75,550,000 --- £380,120,000 --- £76,024,000
2 Chelsea --- £199,500,000 --- £101,800,000 --- £97,700,000 --- £19,540,000
3 Tottenham --- £230,300,000 --- £135,100,000 --- £95,200,000 --- £19,040,000
4 Aston Villa --- £145,350,000 --- £67,650,000 --- £77,700,000 --- £15,540,000
5 Sunderland --- £122,850,000 --- £65,725,000 --- £57,125,000 --- £11,425,000
6 Liverpool --- £253,240,000 --- £205,280,000 --- £47,960,000 --- £9,592,000
7 Stoke City --- £54,725,000 --- £10,920,000 --- £43,805,000 --- £8,761,000
8 West Ham --- £105,070,000 --- £68,225,000 --- £36,845,000 --- £7,369,000
9 Fulham --- £63,675,000 --- £28,875,000 --- £34,800,000 --- £6,960,000
10 Bolton --- £52,150,000 --- £26,750,000 --- £25,400,000 --- £5,080,000
11 Wolves --- £33,525,000 --- £8,225,000 --- £25,300,000 --- £5,060,000
12 West Bromwich Albion --- £46,585,000 --- £27,560,000 --- £19,025,000 --- £3,805,000
15 Everton --- £64,750,500 --- £48,250,000 --- £16,500,500 --- £3,300,100
14 Manchester United --- £164,300,000 --- £150,850,000 --- £13,450,000 --- £2,690,000
15 Birmingham City --- £64,875,000 --- £53,850,000 --- £11,025,000 --- £2,205,000
16 Blackpool --- £4,700,000 --- £250,000 --- £4,450,000 --- £890,000
17 Wigan --- £58,500,000 --- £60,200,000 --- -£1,700,000 --- -£340,000
18 Blackburn Rovers --- £41,752,000 --- £47,290,000 --- -£5,538,000 --- -£1,107,600
19 Arsenal --- £85,150,000 --- £113,000,000 --- -£27,850,000 --- -£5,570,000
20 Newcastle --- £63,100,000 --- £112,650,000 --- -£49,550,000 --- -£9,910,000

We went for broke and the chance has gone. Time to reign it in.

I'll take a look at these figures. Where are they from?

[Mellin]

http://www.transferleague.co.uk/league-tables/2006-2011.html

I've seen them posted elsewhere at the end of May, so they won't be including this summer.

[JUAN PABLO]

It would be good to see wages in those figures too .

[Villa'Zawg]

http://www.transferleague.co.uk/league-tables/2006-2011.html

I've seen them posted elsewhere at the end of May, so they won't be including this summer.

It's the best site for transfer data that I know of. I suspect that when Randy took over most of us understood we'd need to spend on transfer fees to catch up with the likes of Liverpool?

[Villa'Zawg]

It would be good to see wages in those figures too .

It would be really interesting to see wages paid over the course of the same 5 years as Mellin's figures for transfers.

[TheSandman]

It frustrates me but we should be rid of the overpaid crap this time next year. By which time we'll have had a couple of years of not spending big, which should enable us to have another crack at the top 4 again.

That's the way I see it anyway. We just can't afford to bring in players to replace the likes of Heskey, Dunne, Beye, Warnock and Ireland as they'll just be sitting in the stands picking up their astronimical wages.

And as there's no takers it's a stand off where we'll just have to wait until they're on frees/someone wants them.

I don't see that, sadly. I did (I had already written off this window) up until this statement came out but with the focus upon sustainability within the statement I feel that the time of Lerner splashing the cash has well and truly gone. If you think about the wage situation we have already waved goodbye to a large number of players who were earning a decent whack and have had a lot coming in in terms of fees.

[eamonn]

The recent example of finally courting an impressive sponsorship deal and bagging it gives me hope that a concerted effort is going to be made to maximise our income, away from selling players as much as possible.
I think there could be something in the theory that once we wait for O'Neill's remaining deadbeats to stop draining us - most will be gone by this time next year, we can rise again.

But watching McLeish in all seriousness say in his press conference today that we would aiming to ''emulate or better'' last season's league position, my heart did sink a bit. I've no doubt that he's as much of a bad loser as has been reported lately but I don't want him having a slightly more elevated sense of expectation from his players than wit that lot down the road. Regardless of all the turmoil this summer we should be battling our arses off for a top six place.

[Simba]

Maybe  it's becasue I have been in business many years, but I respect what RL is doing at the moment. He is simply cutting the gross wage bill as we know. Someone reported 88% of turnover! That is simply unsustainable. Any Chairman would attack that.

My hope is that we see us reduce this by letting go of the expensive dead wood, bringing through selected kids while purchasing players of quality who are a beneficial addition to the squad ( Bent, N'Zog).

The strategy must be to have a higher quality, higher value (on the books) but less costly squad. Oxymoronic I know but the kids will be the key to this. The danger is obviously concern about 'strength in depth'.

Better that than an overpaid, unmotivated group of journyemen.

[bertlambshank]

Randy let MON get out of control.And it's only now he trying to do something about it.
I am getting a little sick of people defending Randy when it's his mess in the first place.

[Chris Smith]

Randy let MON get out of control.And it's only now he trying to do something about it.
I am getting a little sick of people defending Randy when it's his mess in the first place.

I'm not sure that's entirely fair. The January window in MON's final season was when we first saw a change, so he's been trying to something about it for 18 months.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Randy let MON get out of control.And it's only now he trying to do something about it.
I am getting a little sick of people defending Randy when it's his mess in the first place.

I'm not sure that's entirely fair. The January window in MON's final season was when we first saw a change, so he's been trying to something about it for 18 months.

That's not quite right Chris, apparently we overspent budget the previous summer with the additional signing of Warnock.

Pretty pointless exercise discussing whether or not Randy has invested enough when we only look at the transfer fees and ignore the wage bill. Still, if it makes a few happy..

[Chris Smith]

Randy let MON get out of control.And it's only now he trying to do something about it.
I am getting a little sick of people defending Randy when it's his mess in the first place.

I'm not sure that's entirely fair. The January window in MON's final season was when we first saw a change, so he's been trying to something about it for 18 months.

That's not quite right Chris, apparently we overspent budget the previous summer with the additional signing of Warnock.

Pretty pointless exercise discussing whether or not Randy has invested enough when we only look at the transfer fees and ignore the wage bill. Still, if it makes a few happy..

Isn't that the same thing, we overspent in the summer so started doing something about it in January?

Agree with the second bit though.

The problem with all of this s that it takes time. As others have pointed out we'll have a few players at the end of their contracts next year which should give him room for manoeuvre. If that is coupled with the increased revenue they talk about then things might look a lot healthier ths time next year.

[Whiney MacWhineface]

The problem with all of this s that it takes time. As others have pointed out we'll have a few players at the end of their contracts next year which should give him room for manoeuvre. If that is coupled with the increased revenue they talk about then things might look a lot healthier ths time next year.

Agreed, and this potentially makes a lot of sense - a period of stability wouldn't go amiss even if it costs us a place in the Deloitte's Top 20 (wink) though by this time next year we may have a considerable number of players to replace in the squad with the contract expirations and the ageing of players such as Dunne.

And please, let's not have the guff about "the kids". Our record over the last 10 years in bringing genuine top talent through isn't that fantastic. Decent lower premier players, yes, but top 6 players, no.

The good thing is that we won't have many top players leave next summer...

[lukey27]

I didn't think the letter was cynical but it told us pretty much what we already knew.

We're certainly not alone, with the 25 man squad system, it seems the priority of a lot of clubs is to move the deadwood on and then bring in replacements. Spurs are finding it hard to move on the likes of Bentley, Hutton, Kranjcar, Jenas etc for the same reason.

At least we're under no illusions but it will be interesting what Mcleish can get out  of what is a hugely depleted squad from last year.

[Matt C]

Read it when I got home last night. No great surprises and fair enough in some respects but what I do hate to see/read is this apparent celebration of mediocrity - that's not what Aston Villa is all about.

Modern football is rubbish.