No smoke without fire: Lerner will sell, if the right offer is made

[Iago]

What's our stature? A club that has won the league once in our lifetimes and averages around 33k for home games. We've got a fantastic history but haven't been Dining at the top table for a long time. We have no god given right, we have to work for it.

I know we have no right to be at the top, but we have the right to TRY. If you read my post again you will understand better.

[Chris Smith]

What's our stature? A club that has won the league once in our lifetimes and averages around 33k for home games. We've got a fantastic history but haven't been Dining at the top table for a long time. We have no god given right, we have to work for it.

I know we have no right to be at the top, but we have the right to TRY. If you read my post again you will understand better.

Don't be so fucking patronising.

I understood it perfectly well, even the tasteless insult of Doug, but it's meaningless. We all know that the only way to implement the sort of quick fix you seem to want is through spending. The approach Lerner appears to be taking takes time and patience.

[Iago]

What's our stature? A club that has won the league once in our lifetimes and averages around 33k for home games. We've got a fantastic history but haven't been Dining at the top table for a long time. We have no god given right, we have to work for it.

I know we have no right to be at the top, but we have the right to TRY. If you read my post again you will understand better.

Don't be so fucking patronising.

I understood it perfectly well, even the tasteless insult of Doug, but it's meaningless. We all know that the only way to implement the sort of quick fix you seem to want is through spending. The approach Lerner appears to be taking takes time and patience.

Yet did I say it was a quick fix? I am willing to be patient, but waiting is no guarantee for any success.

Do you believe AM can progress our playing style in the next few years and bring us success? I do not, unless it is spending a lot of money of course.

I am sure Doug can cope with my insult. BTW I was not trying to patronise you. I genuinely think you are mistaken about my point of view, and simply giving me the generic money answer is ridiculous.

[Mister E]

giving me the generic money answer is ridiculous.

Not ridiculous; largely true in the current environment.
Which other club is genuinely competing for trophies (along with which comes attendances, merchandising sales, status, kids in the home counties wanting our shirts, etc) other than those with dosh? - sure, the FAC may spin off some surprising and welcome finalists, but the regular pursuit of honours remains with those with lucre. And of course the real filthy readies come from regular participation in the Chumps Lge - England's participants being virtually a closed shop at the present time.

Desperately sad, but a fact.

We do have to compete - but it will be a long-term project; hopefully emanating from a well-constructed business / club strategy, delivered by the best people RL can put in the top jobs and including a total commitment to youth academy leadership and excellence in playing standards, win or lose.

[Iago]

We do have to compete - but it will be a long-term project; hopefully emanating from a well-constructed business / club strategy, delivered by the best people RL can put in the top jobs and including a total commitment to youth academy leadership and excellence in playing standards, win or lose.

I accept and share that belief. But I do not trust the board to carry us forward.

[Mister E]

We do have to compete - but it will be a long-term project; hopefully emanating from a well-constructed business / club strategy, delivered by the best people RL can put in the top jobs and including a total commitment to youth academy leadership and excellence in playing standards, win or lose.

I accept and share that belief. But I do not trust the board to carry us forward.

Ah,, well that's a different matter; but there is some evidence that they have invested in the heritage and club values. Maybe not enough but they do not appear either rapacious or ambivalent.

[Risso]

What's our stature? A club that has won the league once in our lifetimes and averages around 33k for home games. We've got a fantastic history but haven't been Dining at the top table for a long time. We have no god given right, we have to work for it.

I know we have no right to be at the top, but we have the right to TRY. If you read my post again you will understand better.

Don't be so fucking patronising.

I understood it perfectly well, even the tasteless insult of Doug, but it's meaningless. We all know that the only way to implement the sort of quick fix you seem to want is through spending. The approach Lerner appears to be taking takes time and patience.

As I've said before, it's not "an approach" it's the actions of a hopeless businessman who has spent too much money and hasn't got a plan b.

[Ad@m]

What's our stature? A club that has won the league once in our lifetimes and averages around 33k for home games. We've got a fantastic history but haven't been Dining at the top table for a long time. We have no god given right, we have to work for it.

I know we have no right to be at the top, but we have the right to TRY. If you read my post again you will understand better.

Don't be so fucking patronising.

I understood it perfectly well, even the tasteless insult of Doug, but it's meaningless. We all know that the only way to implement the sort of quick fix you seem to want is through spending. The approach Lerner appears to be taking takes time and patience.

As I've said before, it's not "an approach" it's the actions of a hopeless businessman who has spent too much money and hasn't got a plan b.

I think that's harsh.

For five years we were telling everyone who would listen how we had the best Chairman in the land on account of him running an open chequebook whilst staying out of the limelight.

If anything, he's already on Plan B.  Plan A was to spend a couple of hundred million on getting us in to the Champions League - that didn't work so now he's on to Plan B; building up from the bottom on a much more sustainable cost base.

I don't think you can begrudge him making this change - how many other people are out there willing to pump £200m in to the club?

[The Laughing Policeman]

Yet another sad indictment of the 21st Century world.
Success has to happen now or it's not worth having.
It takes time to build a long term successful team either in business or sport.
All you people living in the ' I want it now and at any cost' world are sadly deluded. Would you be happy to see our owner throw silly money at the transfer market for the sake of a couple of years being bracketed in the so called 'Sky Big Four' at the risk that it couldn't be sustained and our club would be back in the position that we were in the late 1960's early 70's?
I don't recall any Villa fans doing cart wheels down New St. when Mr. Saunders was appointed. Yet the man was given the time and space to develop the squad that he wanted, and that's what's needed now. Patience from the fans and the board will pay off in the not too distant future.
A few on here would do well to follow Randy's advice and read the Leeds United manual on how to ruin a football club.
Keep The Faith. 
 

[Risso]

If making huge losses, selling our best players and appointing the likes of Houllier and McLeish is "building" something then I don't want to see the finished product.

[TheSandman]

The problem is I don't think in this day and age we can build up organically as we seem to want. It's a sad indictment of the modern game that these days you need to make £200million losses and spend millions on wages to get success.

I also don't really see the appointment of McLeish as consistent with this aim. He's not a manager who has built success organically at clubs or brought through too many young players. He's a manager who can work to a shoestring buying reasonable, solid performers from the bargain basement.

Don't get me wrong. I want us to build something. I'm just not sure we're going the right way about it at this point in time. The great failing of the Martin O'Neill era was that we failed to actually succeed in this. Towards the end of O'Neill's reign we started to look at the short term rather than the long term. Now we seem to be returning to this but with a lot less money.

[Ad@m]

And going back to the OP, 99.99% of people across all walks of life woluld sell if the right offer is made.

I mean, I love my house and have absolutely no intention to move, but if someone knocked on the door now and offered me a million quid for it I'd be on the phone to the removal men first thing in the morning.

This all seems to be a bit of a non-story.

[The Laughing Policeman]

Risso, would you be happy to see us keep hold of our so called 'best' players even though they obviously didn't want to play for us? Could you trust those players to give 100% to the club?
As far as I'm concerned our 'best' players are those that want to play for AVFC come what may.
As for massive debt. Our debts are minuscule compared to a lot of PL clubs.... especially compared to those clubs that some on here want us to emulate. Despite all the assurances from the PL and elsewhere, I believe that there are one or two Leeds Uniteds lurking in the background.
As for Alex McLeish, like I said in my post (and in other threads) Mr. Saunders was given time, and I believe that if AM is given the same sort of latitude he will come up with the goods.

[Risso]

Risso, would you be happy to see us keep hold of our so called 'best' players even though they obviously didn't want to play for us? Could you trust those players to give 100% to the club?
As far as I'm concerned our 'best' players are those that want to play for AVFC come what may.
As for massive debt. Our debts are minuscule compared to a lot of PL clubs.... especially compared to those clubs that some on here want us to emulate. Despite all the assurances from the PL and elsewhere, I believe that there are one or two Leeds Uniteds lurking in the background.
As for Alex McLeish, like I said in my post (and in other threads) Mr. Saunders was given time, and I believe that if AM is given the same sort of latitude he will come up with the goods.

Our debt is huge compared to our turnover.  Who is it that you think is going to do a Leeds?

[dave.woodhall]

Risso, would you be happy to see us keep hold of our so called 'best' players even though they obviously didn't want to play for us? Could you trust those players to give 100% to the club?
As far as I'm concerned our 'best' players are those that want to play for AVFC come what may.
As for massive debt. Our debts are minuscule compared to a lot of PL clubs.... especially compared to those clubs that some on here want us to emulate. Despite all the assurances from the PL and elsewhere, I believe that there are one or two Leeds Uniteds lurking in the background.
As for Alex McLeish, like I said in my post (and in other threads) Mr. Saunders was given time, and I believe that if AM is given the same sort of latitude he will come up with the goods.

Our debt is huge compared to our turnover.  Who is it that you think is going to do a Leeds?

Rangers if their court case goes against them.