Are we still Doug's club?

[pauliewalnuts]

Hang on, it was time for Sir Doug OBE to sell his club, and I was okay with whom he sold to so was Doug.

Lerner started off like a rocket and all was well, except for some fans who decided to blame Doug for everything while giving him no credit. He sold for £64m, which was low we where worth nearer £100m.

Since O`Neill did one, Lerner who still has no football knowledge on the board off loaded all the top six and good squad players.

We have gone back 10 years.  I would like lerner to get a football man on board and sell some shares to another investor to bring some needed investment in.

If we were worth 100m when Lerner bought us, Doug would have sold us for 100m.

Also, not all of us blamed Doug for everything and gave him no credit.

The rest, I'd agree with you on.

[nigel]

Are we still Doug's club?

Clearly not...even at his most senile, Doug would never have appointed McLeish.

No, he'd just sack a European and Super cup winning manager and appoint two 3rd rate managers to replace him.

[Fergal]

I thought Doug was the perfect Chairman and Randy was the worst thing that could have happened to us...

Are you taking the piss?

Yes of course I am.

[pestria]

I suppose you were hissing when Lerner took over and then when he was splashing cash all over the shop and ploughing money into the stadium and whatnot?

Owshty bowsh.

Where are all those fans who weren't happy at the time, because I can't recall any.

If you'd care to check my posts you'd find I've been critical of the Lerner regime since the day he compulsory purchased the shares.

I've always also thought that HDE in his day was part of something special at Villa but was way out of touch in the latter days of his tenure.  Similarly I've maintained that RAL essentially had a few easy wins with the training ground, holte pub, etc but never got to grips with the key problems of scouting networks and increasing revenue to sustain a push at the Champions league.

As I've said in the past RAL is like HDE but without he odd trophy.

No revisionism here!

[danlanza]

I suppose you were hissing when Lerner took over and then when he was splashing cash all over the shop and ploughing money into the stadium and whatnot?

Owshty bowsh.

Where are all those fans who weren't happy at the time, because I can't recall any.

If you'd care to check my posts you'd find I've been critical of the Lerner regime since the day he compulsory purchased the shares.

I've always also thought that HDE in his day was part of something special at Villa but was way out of touch in the latter days of his tenure.  Similarly I've maintained that RAL essentially had a few easy wins with the training ground, holte pub, etc but never got to grips with the key problems of scouting networks and increasing revenue to sustain a push at the Champions league.

As I've said in the past RAL is like HDE but without he odd trophy.

No revisionism here!

Top post this one.Where are we now?In the shite.Thank's to the Yanks.

[dave.woodhall]

I suppose you were hissing when Lerner took over and then when he was splashing cash all over the shop and ploughing money into the stadium and whatnot?

Owshty bowsh.

Where are all those fans who weren't happy at the time, because I can't recall any.

If you'd care to check my posts you'd find I've been critical of the Lerner regime since the day he compulsory purchased the shares.

I've always also thought that HDE in his day was part of something special at Villa but was way out of touch in the latter days of his tenure.  Similarly I've maintained that RAL essentially had a few easy wins with the training ground, holte pub, etc but never got to grips with the key problems of scouting networks and increasing revenue to sustain a push at the Champions league.

As I've said in the past RAL is like HDE but without he odd trophy.

No revisionism here!

Top post this one.Where are we now?In the shite.Thank's to the Yanks.

Where were we with Doug? Division three.

[Risso]

Hands up who thinks Ellis would have employed the manager who just relegated Small Heath for the second time.

Never.  He also wouldnt have burdned the club with £220m in debts for mostly shite players.

Hindsight eh.

Oh dear lord. Firstly, he didn't sign the players. Secondly, the club isn't burdened with anything.
Randy has put money in from his own assets.

The club is burdened with a huge amount of debt.  The reason we've had to sell our best players, and not replace them is that clearly, the financial situation is a big problem.

[Fergal]

I thought we were paying it back, in addition to 'management' fees

[Chris Harte]

I thought we were paying it back, in addition to 'management' fees

Surely you mean interest?

Stating the obvious, Doug was paid good $$$s for the club so clearly its not his.

As an aside, I just noticed you guys change your mods more often than I change my undercrackers.

[Terry Jones]

Well we all know he would not have employed Mc Moron.One thing we can be sure of is Deadly would have had a public beheading wonder what he did with his axe.

[Mazrim]

Hands up who thinks Ellis would have employed the manager who just relegated Small Heath for the second time.

Never.  He also wouldnt have burdned the club with £220m in debts for mostly shite players.

Hindsight eh.

Oh dear lord. Firstly, he didn't sign the players. Secondly, the club isn't burdened with anything.
Randy has put money in from his own assets.

The club is burdened with a huge amount of debt.  The reason we've had to sell our best players, and not replace them is that clearly, the financial situation is a big problem.

Yes, obviously, but the club itself not burdened. Randy took money from one asset to finance another. That's not burdened. There's no third party we owe money to, its not a PLC. Villa are owned and financed 100% by Randy Lerner and the Lerner Trust.
Its true that he wants Villa to finance itself as much as possible (which is prudent) but its also true that he could refinance it at any time.

[pauliewalnuts]

The club owes a huge amount of money to Randy.

That is still a debt, in the form of loans with a repayable date, and at an appropriate level of interest.

We're not in hock to Wonga.com or any other unscrupulous lender, you're right there, and he's not draining the club of money like Glazer is his, but it is still actual money that needs to be repaid at some point.

The fact the club is in a poor financial position is why we sold our best players and didn't replace them, is probably to a large degree why our manager is Alex McLeish, and is why we will be acquiring Bosmans this summer.

It is real money we owe, and it is having a tangible impact. It can't be ignored.

[Mister E]

I've always also thought that HDE in his day was part of something special at Villa

His "day" was a long, long time ago.
One thing that Dougie got very right was the appointment of people around him who could operate in the footballing world. But some of his managerial choices were dodgy to say the least.

In the main he was a conniving old git who took lots of money out of the club and put very little in.

[pestria]

I've always also thought that HDE in his day was part of something special at Villa

His "day" was a long, long time ago.
One thing that Dougie got very right was the appointment of people around him who could operate in the footballing world. But some of his managerial choices were dodgy to say the least.

In the main he was a conniving old git who took lots of money out of the club and put very little in.

Agreed.  His 'day' was indeed a long time ago and I recognised this by saying that at the end of his tenure he was way out of touch. 

The thrust of my argument was an aged Doug and an out of touch Lerner are equally flawed.

[pestria]

I suppose you were hissing when Lerner took over and then when he was splashing cash all over the shop and ploughing money into the stadium and whatnot?

Owshty bowsh.

Where are all those fans who weren't happy at the time, because I can't recall any.

If you'd care to check my posts you'd find I've been critical of the Lerner regime since the day he compulsory purchased the shares.

I've always also thought that HDE in his day was part of something special at Villa but was way out of touch in the latter days of his tenure.  Similarly I've maintained that RAL essentially had a few easy wins with the training ground, holte pub, etc but never got to grips with the key problems of scouting networks and increasing revenue to sustain a push at the Champions league.

As I've said in the past RAL is like HDE but without he odd trophy.

No revisionism here!

Top post this one.Where are we now?In the shite.Thank's to the Yanks.

Where were we with Doug? Division three.

I don't think it's revisionism to recognise that Doug was part of the rebirth of Villa in the late '60s. 

Maybe we did end up in Division 3 as part of that process, but we also ended up with arguably the most successful period of the club's history.

I think most people recognise Doug is the ultimate self publicist and we need to remain mindful of the fact that he spins history.  But we can't deny his contribution.