Randy Lerner - Discuss

[Jimmy Smash]

1. There was never a five year plan.

2. RAL is Reform Acquisitions Limited.

Ok. Sorry about the middle name mix up. A web search of "General Krulak 5 year plan" however reveals a host of Krulak related chat about 5 year plans being on target, a great deal from the General's mouth itself. I'm not wishing to start a fight... And am fully prepared to concede that the General has been impersonated. It's our closest source however, as RDL is rarely quoted (as we all know).

[Jimmy Smash]

1. There was never a five year plan.

2. RAL is Reform Acquisitions Limited.

Ok. Sorry about the middle name mix up. A web search of "General Krulak 5 year plan" though reveals a host of Krulak related chat about 5 year plans being on target, a great deal from the General's mouth itself. I'm not wishing to start a fight... And am fully prepared to concede that the General has been impersonated. It's our closest source however, as RDL is rarely quoted (as we all know).

[Ad@m]

1. There was never a five year plan.

There may never have been a five year plan but the General certainly talked of one.

[dave.woodhall]

The general said a lot of things.

[Lizz]

The general said a lot of things.

As do most people.

[Jimmy Smash]

I think that the 5 year plan chatter in the beginning, the fact that the general has talked a lot about a 5 year plan, and the fact that both RL and the general have fecked off after 5 years is pretty incriminating.

[Risso]

1. There was never a five year plan.

There may never have been a five year plan but the General certainly talked of one.

As did Fitzgerald.

[Legion]

Fitzgerald is the one who made the throw-away remark that initiated the 5 year plan myth.

[Jimmy Smash]

None of the general's comments sounded very throw away.

[TopDeck113]

Throw-away it might have been, but what did they really do to scotch the myth?  Nothing.  Or at least, nothing until the realisation dawned that five years down the line we weren't going to be regular Champions League participants.

[Risso]

Fitzgerald is the one who made the throw-away remark that initiated the 5 year plan myth.

"FitzGerald said: 'Actions speak louder than words but the board is committed to developing the club and providing the platform for Aston Villa to compete at the highest level of the Premier League and in Europe.

'In a year's time, we would like to see an infrastructure being built to support a club competing for top honours, competing in the top half of the Premier League and for a European place.

'In five years time, we aim to compete in the Champions League.

'My brief from the board is clear - to fill the stadium week in and week out, create an infrastructure to support a top club.'

FitzGerald aims for Villa to spread their commercial net far and wide once they have established strong links on a local basis.

He said: 'We are very aware the local population of 5.3million is a vast potential supporter base and we will focus the core of our commercial ambitions here.

'And, although the global growth of our fan base is not presently the club's most urgent priority, it is nevertheless of strategic importance to the long term.

'We will potentially look to the United States as we deem it a fast growing soccer market. Our US connections make it more achievable.

'There are also a lot of opportunities around Asia, particularly for the bigger clubs. The Premier League is incredibly popular.

'But international expansion at this moment will require strong partners that we do not currently have for it to work effectively - and a winning team.'

FitzGerald added: 'There is much to learn from other clubs. The English clubs are at the forefront of developments so, initially, we need to make sure we look and learn from clubs in the Premier League.

'But my key focus will be to bring a fresh commercial approach to the club and, in particular, reconnecting to the Birmingham business community.

'I also want to cultivate a `can do' culture and attract world-class partners to work with.'"

[Jimmy Smash]

Sounds like a plan!

[Walmley_Villa]

"FitzGerald said:
'But international expansion at this moment will require strong partners that we do not currently have for it to work effectively - and a winning team.'

FitzGerald added: 'There is much to learn from other clubs. The English clubs are at the forefront of developments so, initially, we need to make sure we look and learn from clubs in the Premier League.

'But my key focus will be to bring a fresh commercial approach to the club and, in particular, reconnecting to the Birmingham business community.

'I also want to cultivate a `can do' culture and attract world-class partners to work with.'"
[/quote]

I think this is key because apart from Nike the club has failed to attract the 'partners'. This is where a global Airline or similar is key to spread the commercial net worldwide. The lack of local Global players is an issue for us with Kraft and Tata being the only ones I can think of?

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Who did or did not say what about a 5 year plan is not what matters now.

The question is whether the club has progressed in the 5 1/2 years since Randy bought the club. Yes we did have some good times on the field and lots of impressive things were done regards facilities, but today we are no nearer to closing the gap than when Doug was running the show. In fact, the very same discontent and sense of malaise amongst fans which existed in Doug Ellis's latter years has resurfaced.
 
Randy Lerner is a fine person and I have no doubt his intentions for the club have always been and will remain genuine. However, how many of us feel that the last 18 months are a temporary halt to progress until we are able to relaunch another assault into the top six and at least give hope to challenge the elite ? Very few I would think.

The best we can hope for is maintaining Premier status (a position we have maintained since it started)  and avoiding mass financial crisis. Something always achieved reasonably comfortably by Doug Ellis I would add. So in other words we have really made no real progress in this era.   

We are in the second most populous city of a footballing country that regularly supplies teams at the business end of the Champions League, yet we have not even come remotely close to qualifying for that competiton.
 
That smacks of under-achievment in my book, plan or no plan.

[garyellis]

I so wish I could disagree with any of this but it sums up how I feel at this moment in time.