Randy Lerner exclusive on the OS

[Risso]

Randy gets stick for not having a football man on the board. He takes advice from the best manager the game has seen and, surprise, surprise, he gets stick.

And the idea that Ferguson is doing it part of some cunning plan to fuck up other clubs is a conspiracy theory that even the recently dumped Gazza would laugh at.

How does receiving a letter from Ferguson AFTER the appointment count as taking advice?

"Sir Alex Ferguson wrote to me after the appointment".

[KevinGage]

Not sure I agree with the last bit KevinGage.  I don't think we need another nearly man or somebody to use us as a stepping stone back to the 'big time'.  We seem to have had our fill with them in years previous to these..  Personally think that what the club needs is a long-haul, big-picture manager.  Whether that is AM remains to be seen and he has a long way to go.   Somebody who is fucking chuffed to be here but with a steely determination for bigger and better things.  Easier said than done obviously. 

Fair enough Rigadon.  I had misgivings about Hughes myself.  I'm still in two minds about the bloke, TBH. Sometimes when he talks he conveys a smart, measured approach. Even at Citeh and with all their filthy lucre he came across as modest rather than arrogant. Almost Little-esque.   But the clauses in his deal at Fulham and -according to GK's son who used to post on here- asking for one at the Villa, might contradict that.  I'd have been happy enough with the appointment, but would have also had a nagging feeling that we could be facing another DOL scenario.

Once the usual suspects had been ruled out (not to mention flights of fantasy like Ancelotti)  my preference would have been for a Director of Football > Coach type set up, rather than the traditional manager route.

The Director of Football gives you the permanence and stability, the 'bigger picture' aspect to set in place a project.  Then someone like a Quique Sanchez Flores or a Laudrup could concentrate on the day to day stuff, training, picking the side and so on. If -for whatever reason- they left, it wouldn't be a case of virtually having to start again from scratch, as we've seen over the last 18 months.

Randy gets stick for not having a football man on the board. He takes advice from the best manager the game has seen and, surprise, surprise, he gets stick.

And the idea that Ferguson is doing it part of some cunning plan to fuck up other clubs is a conspiracy theory that even the recently dumped Gazza would laugh at.

I wouldn't go as far as to say it was part of some dastardly conspiracy by ol' beetroot features. Rather a case of he was asked and quite liked the idea of having a manager like McLeish at the Villa.  And not because of some longstanding affection for Big Eck.

Under O'Neill we were a difficult proposition for his side more often than not.

With McLeish at Villa, once you get past all the gushing praise and tributes, he knows he'll be up against a manager that hasn't really troubled him in the past.

[timeoutbigbar]

Champions League here we come.

[KevinGage]

Randy gets stick for not having a football man on the board. He takes advice from the best manager the game has seen and, surprise, surprise, he gets stick.

And the idea that Ferguson is doing it part of some cunning plan to fuck up other clubs is a conspiracy theory that even the recently dumped Gazza would laugh at.

How does receiving a letter from Ferguson AFTER the appointment count as taking advice?

"Sir Alex Ferguson wrote to me after the appointment".

The old memory could be playing tricks, but didn't GK say within hours of the appointment -and with this place in meltdown- that they'd asked Fergiescum?

The letter may have come after that, once the appointment was confirmed.

[Villanation]

Randy gets stick for not having a football man on the board. He takes advice from the best manager the game has seen and, surprise, surprise, he gets stick.

And the idea that Ferguson is doing it part of some cunning plan to fuck up other clubs is a conspiracy theory that even the recently dumped Gazza would laugh at.

How does receiving a letter from Ferguson AFTER the appointment count as taking advice?

"Sir Alex Ferguson wrote to me after the appointment".

Strange way of looking at it, almost as if he's bowled over at getting a letter from the great man and I must mention it.

Way to think about it is this, how would RL look at it if Sir Alex had written to him afterwards saying, "you big t*t, fancy employing a bloke like Eck"

What would he do with that so called advice after the horse has bolted

[TheSandman]

Randy gets stick for not having a football man on the board. He takes advice from the best manager the game has seen and, surprise, surprise, he gets stick.

And the idea that Ferguson is doing it part of some cunning plan to fuck up other clubs is a conspiracy theory that even the recently dumped Gazza would laugh at.

There's a difference between saying "We spoke to Alex Ferguson and he spoke highly about Alex McLeish which helped us see that our decision was the right one' than gushing like a love-sick teenage. 'Ooooh he wrote me a letter commending my decision and I was so touched by it that I locked it in my safe' which sounds like something the chairman of someone like Stockport County would say. If I received a letter from Sir Alex I might put it into safekeeping and gush to people about it. I'd expect the chairman of one of Man United's competitors (if I'm being kind to us) to be above that kind of thing.

[Chris Smith]

Randy gets stick for not having a football man on the board. He takes advice from the best manager the game has seen and, surprise, surprise, he gets stick.

And the idea that Ferguson is doing it part of some cunning plan to fuck up other clubs is a conspiracy theory that even the recently dumped Gazza would laugh at.

There's a difference between saying "We spoke to Alex Ferguson and he spoke highly about Alex McLeish which helped us see that our decision was the right one' than gushing like a love-sick teenage. 'Ooooh he wrote me a letter commending my decision and I was so touched by it that I locked it in my safe' which sounds like something the chairman of someone like Stockport County would say. If I received a letter from Sir Alex I might put it into safekeeping and gush to people about it. I'd expect the chairman of one of Man United's competitors (if I'm being kind to us) to be above that kind of thing.

Right, so it's his honesty you have a problem with. He's using it as a way of supporting his own opinion of AM, by saying a man who knows more about football than any of us ever will endorsed his opinion. I just think that collectively we are in one of those moods where we pick apart everything that is said and done and use it as a way of knocking the club. 

[Chris Smith]

Randy gets stick for not having a football man on the board. He takes advice from the best manager the game has seen and, surprise, surprise, he gets stick.

And the idea that Ferguson is doing it part of some cunning plan to fuck up other clubs is a conspiracy theory that even the recently dumped Gazza would laugh at.

How does receiving a letter from Ferguson AFTER the appointment count as taking advice?

"Sir Alex Ferguson wrote to me after the appointment".

The old memory could be playing tricks, but didn't GK say within hours of the appointment -and with this place in meltdown- that they'd asked Fergiescum?

The letter may have come after that, once the appointment was confirmed.

Yes, he did.

[Risso]

Randy gets stick for not having a football man on the board. He takes advice from the best manager the game has seen and, surprise, surprise, he gets stick.

And the idea that Ferguson is doing it part of some cunning plan to fuck up other clubs is a conspiracy theory that even the recently dumped Gazza would laugh at.

How does receiving a letter from Ferguson AFTER the appointment count as taking advice?

"Sir Alex Ferguson wrote to me after the appointment".

The old memory could be playing tricks, but didn't GK say within hours of the appointment -and with this place in meltdown- that they'd asked Fergiescum?

The letter may have come after that, once the appointment was confirmed.

Yes, he did.

Not on here he didn't.  His final ever post was BEFORE McLeish was appointed.  A final post that included the following line incidentally:

"We will get the very best man for the job in our opinion and the opinion of those who assist us in the process.  Once we get our man, we will support him 110%.  Randy has never failed to support his Manager and he won't start now."

No wonder he never posted again.

[Shrek]

I do remember reading a GK post saying they'd taken advice and had been recommended AM by Fergie.

But I don't think that was on here.

[hawkeye]

Randy gets stick for not having a football man on the board. He takes advice from the best manager the game has seen and, surprise, surprise, he gets stick.

And the idea that Ferguson is doing it part of some cunning plan to fuck up other clubs is a conspiracy theory that even the recently dumped Gazza would laugh at.

How does receiving a letter from Ferguson AFTER the appointment count as taking advice?

"Sir Alex Ferguson wrote to me after the appointment".

The old memory could be playing tricks, but didn't GK say within hours of the appointment -and with this place in meltdown- that they'd asked Fergiescum?

The letter may have come after that, once the appointment was confirmed.

Yes, he did.

Not on here he didn't.  His final ever post was BEFORE McLeish was appointed.  A final post that included the following line incidentally:

"We will get the very best man for the job in our opinion and the opinion of those who assist us in the process.  Once we get our man, we will support him 110%.  Randy has never failed to support his Manager and he won't start now."

No wonder he never posted again.

No wonder he was conveniently silenced

[Jimbo]

Ferguson's involvement in this debacle just adds insult to injury. McLeish will never, ever be considered for the role of Man Utd manager. But for little, go-nowhere Aston Villa? The team that habitually rolls over and throws points at Ferguson? Yes, he's the right man. There are a number of clubs in England that wouldn't dream of taking advice from Ferguson - including Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham and Everton - whether it's out of pride or because they are in competition with Man Utd. Looks like we belong to the other rabble.

[Hookeysmith]

Its interesting to note that 4 big contenders for the villa job before AM was

Martinez - more likely to take Wigan down this year than any other
Hughes - still out of work
Benitez - still out of work
Jol - doing a piss poor job at Fulham

Maybe Eck was the best we could have hoped for and Randy will be proved right in time

[Lee]

Randy gets stick for not having a football man on the board. He takes advice from the best manager the game has seen and, surprise, surprise, he gets stick.

And the idea that Ferguson is doing it part of some cunning plan to fuck up other clubs is a conspiracy theory that even the recently dumped Gazza would laugh at.

Not trying to nit-pick but the deed was done after the alleged appointment but:

"Sir Alex Ferguson wrote to me after the appointment, a proper letter, talking about his feelings about Alex. It was something you don't easily forget and it's now in a safe deposit box. Given what Sir Alex Ferguson means to the game of football, I don't think you could get many things that you would be more proud of, or reflect better on Alex McLeish."

If Siralex was on Villa's Board, then I would be 100% with you. I too don't think that there is any conspiracy behind him and Villa, but I'm sure that his intentions with his letter are more to big up an old prodigy of his rather than saying "fuck me Villa, you have a steal there"

[pauliewalnuts]

The thing about taking advice from Lord Ferguson of All Our Hearts wasn't on here, it was in the statement the club put on the OS after he'd been appointed and the ensuing protests.

Of course there's no conspiracy, Ferguson doesn't give a shite about Villa, as Villa are no threat to him. He's bigging up his former player, as he probably does with Bruce and others who have gone into management.

I don't really care too much if Ferguson wrote to Randy, that's up to him and between the two of them, but it does stick in the craw somewhat to see our chairman go so starstruck at it.