Randy Lerner - Discuss

[Jimbo]

Maybe unhappiness is the default setting for some? Or perhaps they've had to put up with enough disappointments in the past to strive for something better in the future? Either way, they have a right to their misery. And then there are the people who, if they had a fresh turd poked through their letterbox, would go through it looking for nice shiny bits of sweetcorn. It's their right to be blindly, insufferably and slightly pottily optimistic. Let them get on with it, I say.

[GJH]

I think Randy has give it a good shot, he gave O'neil money and looked where it got us - 6th 3 seasons running, two wembley appearances and a run in europe. I think any of us would take that over the next three years.

Big money = big name players = success. We gave it a go with the funds available and we failed. That was the five year plan.

Now there is a new plan - less money = mediocre players = mid table dreamers.

Under O'neil we were competitive, exciting and hard to beat. I will never forget the win at Old Trafford and the demolition of the blues- as a manager he was unbeaten in the midlands derbies, average gates of 38,000.

Daniel Levy has continued to do it with the spurs and look at them now. Spent millions on transfers and wages and its paying off.

Under Mcleish, worrying times ahead and we will be in a relegation battle. Bent will surely be gone in January and Petrov will be the new captain of Sunderland. Heskey,Herd,Albrighton,Bannan,Delph,Hutton are just not good enough.

Nzogbia and Ireland are just mercenaries and Jenas is just an injury prone waste of talent.

Bright Future? I don't think so.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Nice dodge.

Speaking of dodge, I'm still waiting for you to justify your "fucking moron" comment.

[ktvillan]

What happens at the Cleveland Browns has no bearing whatsoever on what happens at Villa Park.   It is a different sport run and operated in a totally different way.   The Browns and the Lerner family go way back.   There is not a cat in hell's chance Randy would ever sell the Browns.   I got the feeling that Randy hoped to build the same sort of bond with Villa but the venom of O'Neill's departure struck me as some sort of tipping point in his relationship with us.

It has no direct bearing, true, but it does provide some evidence as to the competence, or otherwise, of the man in charge when it comes to running sporting organisations.  To deflect all the blame on to Faulkner or  anyone else is to ignore the fact that Lerner, for all his good intentions, has form when it comes to overseeing mediocrity.  And ultimatley it was Lerner who appointed Faulkner, perhaps the equivalent of McLeish selecting Bannan at centre back, or putting the tea lady in goal.  I understand that people feel Lerner has credit to spare, but for me that doesn't exempt him from criticism when he is clearly at fault.

[Rick_avfc]

I think Lerner should really look at selling Villa.  he clearly doesn't have the funds to push us forward.  We are a joke at the moment and every other clubs supporters laugh at us.  I have a mate who's a blues fan and he has been saying to me that Villa need to get rid of Mcleish but I cannot see this happening at all as it was RL and the board who appointed him (more RL than the board).  I'm really worried about this season more so than last.  Atleast we had the likes of Ashley Young and Downing who could have done that bit of magic to get us a goal or an assist now we have NO ONE! 
Someone above mentioned a list of names that are not good enough which included Bannan and Herd but I feel they need more game time.  Herd will come good I think but its all about confidence.
I really dont know what the future holds.  I can see the "Mcleish out" chants starting very soon especially if we do not beat Bolton this weekend which I cant see happening as we dont know how to win away from home.

[DB]

What happens at the Cleveland Browns has no bearing whatsoever on what happens at Villa Park.   It is a different sport run and operated in a totally different way.   The Browns and the Lerner family go way back.   There is not a cat in hell's chance Randy would ever sell the Browns.   I got the feeling that Randy hoped to build the same sort of bond with Villa but the venom of O'Neill's departure struck me as some sort of tipping point in his relationship with us.

It has no direct bearing, true, but it does provide some evidence as to the competence, or otherwise, of the man in charge when it comes to running sporting organisations.  To deflect all the blame on to Faulkner or  anyone else is to ignore the fact that Lerner, for all his good intentions, has form when it comes to overseeing mediocrity.  And ultimatley it was Lerner who appointed Faulkner, perhaps the equivalent of McLeish selecting Bannan at centre back, or putting the tea lady in goal.  I understand that people feel Lerner has credit to spare, but for me that doesn't exempt him from criticism when he is clearly at fault.

Yes, there are still basic skills you need to run any organisation - getting the right people in, making the
right tough decisions. Randy is getting stick from both places at the mo, and it's him where the buck stops.

[Risso]

Nice dodge.

Speaking of dodge, I'm still waiting for you to justify your "fucking moron" comment.

From the match thread?  Read to me like he was talking about Ferguson.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

One thing Randy must realise is that when he sacks McLeish, and he will sack McLeish, he'll be looking at more or less £20m paid out in compensation to former managers in just over a year, assuming McLeish goes at the end of the season. That's a hell of a lot of money, in fact it's 22% of our total turnover, based on Deloitte's latest report.

Obviously not all of it is his fault but a lot of it is and until he finds a solution to his management recruitment, we're unlikely to see any real activity in the transfer market, unless you count players leaving, obviously.

[Mazrim]

The moral of that story is let somebody else choose the manager.

In other news (for what it's worth) a good mate knows a guy who is fairly well connected and insists that some arab lot are very interested in Villa. Yes, I know what Randy said and so on and I have no idea how legitimate it is but I thought I'd pass it on anyway.
I dare not hope myself but there you go. If there is something to it, great.

[JUAN PABLO]

The moral of that story is let somebody else choose the manager.

In other news (for what it's worth) a good mate knows a guy who is fairly well connected and insists that some arab lot are very interested in Villa. Yes, I know what Randy said and so on and I have no idea how legitimate it is but I thought I'd pass it on anyway.
I dare not hope myself but there you go. If there is something to it, great.

Maz,       stop trying to cheer me up ..  Do christmases ( is that how you spell that ) come early ?

[Mazrim]

Juan, like I say it's nothing but gossip so dont get your hopes up. I'm not.
It's an avenue I'd considered closed for the forseeable but you never know.

[JUAN PABLO]

an arab and Guardiola is not alot to ask ..

[Iago]

Nice dodge.

Speaking of dodge, I'm still waiting for you to justify your "fucking moron" comment.

What are you talking about? I made no reference to you or anybody on this forum with that comment.

[MarkM]

We had last season what some might describe as a transitional season, followed by this season which some are calling a transitional season.

Thats two transitional seasons in a row, now assuming that we dont go down and I think that we may be close to it at the end of the season but I don't think we will, I will bet that RL will give AM another season.

However after a couple of months of next season looking exactly like this one RL will then probably sack him and we will go round the managerial merry go round again. Followed by another bloody transitional season making it three in a row.

The sign of a good leader is realising that they have made a mistake and taking action to correct it, RL needs to deal with the situation at VP now, and not wait until he is pushed into doing it

If we survive this season, and AM keeps his job then relagation next season is ensured, and I don't see another GT coming to our rescue

[Fuse]

I have been a season ticket holder for over 20 years, been going since 1979 and love the club. I didn't go on Sat, I didn't go against Norwich. Why? Because I just cannot be bothered anymore.

I have never in all the years of following Villa, ever thought we were not competing, that we didn;t have a chance fo being successful in one way or another, but this year we have set our stall out not to compete but to stay afloat in the PL.

The negativity is from top to bottom, from the horrendous letter to ST holders in the summer, to the inept and passionless displays from the team - it stinks of it and for those of us who know football we can see the writing is on the wall as either this year or next we will go down.

I watched the game on ESPN and what struck me from their coverage was the disbelief of the commentators and Stubbs, Keegan and Barnes that an Aston Villa team could be so poor. Barnes even said that McLeish might get away with football like this at Blues but never at a club like Aston Villa.

You see we are seen as one of the biggest clubs in the country, we are expected to compete for the top 6, it is in our DNA to be seen as a valid contender, not to be a Bolton or a Wigan et al. Yet our board have set this as our aim and given a manager a job that is impossible. It would be impossible if we were talking about a Villa legend in charge let alone a bloke who had fans on his back because he came from small heath.

I feel sorry for McLeish but I am sure he will get by on whatever severance pay he gets.

As for Lerner? He has to go and ASAP. We are in as much need for a new owenr now as we were in 2006 when he came. Otherwise we will be playing Blues again very shortly.