Randy Lerner "State of Aston Villa" Statement

[Risso]

Don't hold your breath Brian.

[brian green]

I am not.   I see dead people.

[Neil Hawkes]

I clearly said "I don't think McLeish is an idiot".  However I think you need to read his comment from yesterday, when he clearly said that he would like to bring in a midfield enforcer, and that he wants to bring more players in but can't because of the conditions he's working under.  Not by any means, the words of a man who thinks that what he has is good enough.

Fair enough

[Neil Hawkes]

Okay Neil, fair enough.   You are entitled to your opinion as I am mine.   If I am wrong and Barry Bannan becomes the new Des Bremner and Stephen Ireland plays to his full potential and all the other assumptions the optimists are making are fulfilled I shall come on these pages and say I was wrong and apologise.   If we spend a season struggling and scrapping for points I would like to think you and all the others who see no clouds over Villa Park only clouds in the minds of long time fans like me will do the same.

I will indeed admit I was wrong, should it all go tits up. I am also a long term supporter (since 1973) and seen a lot worse than now. I just don't feel negative about this season and have an inkling things will be a lot better than anticipated.

[Neil Hawkes]

Don't hold your breath Brian.

I admit when I'm wrong and when mistakes are made..............but then again, you where probably referring to everything working out well at the Villa.

Either way, in the first instance you are wrong and in the second instance I hope you are wrong.

[brian green]

You are indeed a long term supporter Neil.   First game in 1973 makes this your 38th season.   1973 was my 28th season and war time games were very few and far between.

I take it personally when the doubts I have about Villa's future are dismissed as clouds in my head.

There is one very big black cloud hanging over Villa Park and that is the appointment of a doubly failed Small Heath manager and, having appointed someone a very large number of us would have preferred not to have as our manager and the effort made to appoint somebody with more talent and a better record, to deny that manager the funds needed to address very serious shortcomings in our squad makes that cloud more menacing every day.   That is not a brain malfunction by me, it is the reality of the situation.

The reason I said to Risso that I see dead people is that the line from the film refers to people the boy sees who are dead but don't know it. Denial.

[Neil Hawkes]

Brian, I doff my hat to you sir. That's one hell of an innings.

I can see where you're coming from, no disrespect was intended - but I still hope you're wrong (as do we all, yourself included I'm sure, hope for).

As someone else said, McLeish is the first manager to bring the unwashed a proper trophy, that must count for something.

I just don't feel this appointment is wrong, don't know why, but am quietly confidant..............well 'quietly' until I started posting!

[Villafirst]

Lerner has gone as far as he can I'm afraid. This cut-back is a joke - the club needs serious investment to move forward. We're falling backwards - fast. Has he looked at a partner to invest in the club I wonder? Clearly with the bank crisis and running The Cleveland Browns plus AVFC is stretching him too far. He's playing a risky game by relying on youth and just a few injuries. If you'd said to me 5 years ago that we would have to move a player out to free up wages for Hitz (he'll cost nothing on a free) then I'd have said you're mad!

[Greg N'Ash]

Lerner has gone as far as he can I'm afraid. This cut-back is a joke - the club needs serious investment to move forward. We're falling backwards - fast. Has he looked at a partner to invest in the club I wonder? Clearly with the bank crisis and running The Cleveland Browns plus AVFC is stretching him too far. He's playing a risky game by relying on youth and just a few injuries. If you'd said to me 5 years ago that we would have to move a player out to free up wages for Hitz (he'll cost nothing on a free) then I'd have said you're mad!

yep. Seems we've swapped one chairman who couldn't compete with the big guys to another one who's been outgunned. i said when Lerner arrived that a dictator rarely chooses the complete opposite of himself as his sucessor and so its proved. This is like Gregory era and the aftermath all over again...Once the intial windfall money was blown we're left to pick up the pieces. Trouble is we've missed the boat now, so we're stuck with him.

[brian green]

That is a very plausible case Greg but my only doubt is that if the owners of Liverpool and Manchester United continue to pour american money into those clubs why should Randy be  worse effected by the US banking and credit crisis.   Liverpool are throwing money around like a drunken sailor and much as I have serious misgivings about our future Liverpool's is just as uninspiring.

As for the Glazers the good ship Man Ure floats on an ocean of bank borrowing and I hate to think what will happen to the spanish and italian teams if Spain and Italy get sucked into the sovereign debt crisis.

So perhaps Randy is not chickening out, perhaps he is just being very cautious.   If the Republicans can find a credible candidate to put up against Obama next year and the Tea Party starts to dominate the US economy just about anything could happen to money and debt world wide.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

If you'd said to me 5 years ago that we would have to move a player out to free up wages for Hitz (he'll cost nothing on a free) then I'd have said you're mad!

It's exactly what you'd expect if Ellis was still in charge.

[Chris Smith]

When you cut away to the crux of the argument what people like Greg, Brian and Risso appear to be saying is that Lerner is rubbish because he won't throw unlimited amounts of his own money into the club.

Apologies if I've missed it but I haven't read an argument for how we fund the wage bill, which appears to be the major issue here. Indeed I'm fairly sure that when MON was Public Enemy Number One they thought that we were paying too much.

The recent letter that season ticket holders received set out their aim to improve revenue which (if successful) should see an improvement in the future. What are the alternatives?

[robbyfvillain]

When you cut away to the crux of the argument what people like Greg, Brian and Risso appear to be saying is that Lerner is rubbish because he won't throw unlimited amounts of his own money into the club.

Apologies if I've missed it but I haven't read an argument for how we fund the wage bill, which appears to be the major issue here. Indeed I'm fairly sure that when MON was Public Enemy Number One they thought that we were paying too much.

The recent letter that season ticket holders received set out their aim to improve revenue which (if successful) should see an improvement in the future. What are the alternatives?

The crux of the argument is that Lerner has wasted the money he has thrown.

The truth of the matter is that money rules the Premier League and to get to the higher eschelons you are going to have to spend an awful lot of money. This is either going to be self generated or come from a sugar daddy.

As Lerner was not in the Abramovich league when he arrived and was never going to throw the sort of money that Chelsea have done, therfore he had no alternative but to generate it from within.

The problem is he hasn't been able to do that but has spent as if he has.

We are now in the situation where we are loaded with debt and will be saddled with the repayments of this whilst now trying to self generate the income.

The self generating route was always going to be a long and slow route with no guarantee of success but at least we had no debt when Lerner joined.

Now however the odds are even further stacked against us.

I don't think Lerner should be beyond critisism just because he used his own sources of finance as opposed to a bank. Until he writes off the debt then he has simply borrowed against the Villas future earnings.

[WarszaVillan]

Could anyone post a copy of the letter here or point me to where it has already been done.

[Whiney MacWhineface]

I can't swear to this, but I think a lot of the money injected into the club by Randy after the take-over has been in exchange for new shares in the club and not for debt. That would mean that, as Randy ultimately owns all the shares in the club all he's doing is diluting his own stake.