Randy Lerner

[tomd2103]

And with £30 million in his pocket. He beat us all.

It still agitates me that one of the stands at Villa Park carries his name. 

[martin o`who??]

Lerners stewardship of the club gets some unfair criticsm, RL`s one major strategic blunder was appointing Alex Mcleish in the face of violent opposition, not giving MON the Milner cash was entirely understandable, and probably necessary for the good of the clubs finances, no-one expected MON to quit in the manner he did, which is where it all started to unravel, the Houlier appointment was ill-starred for obvious reasons, but where did the club take medical advice regarding his Heart condition?. Lerner has spent a significant, if diminishing amount of money on a club who`s average gates are not colossal by any means, He delivered Paul Lambert as the overwhelming fans choice after Mcleish was dismissed, where Lerner needs to improve is in his PR which is non existent at a time when the club needs visible leadership.

[Steve R]

What worries most me is this Mushroom person's location. B17.

I was born on Harborne.

It could explain a few things I suppose.

[pauliewalnuts]

Lerners stewardship of the club gets some unfair criticsm, RL`s one major strategic blunder was appointing Alex Mcleish in the face of violent opposition, not giving MON the Milner cash was entirely understandable, and probably necessary for the good of the clubs finances, no-one expected MON to quit in the manner he did, which is where it all started to unravel, the Houlier appointment was ill-starred for obvious reasons, but where did the club take medical advice regarding his Heart condition?. Lerner has spent a significant, if diminishing amount of money on a club who`s average gates are not colossal by any means, He delivered Paul Lambert as the overwhelming fans choice after Mcleish was dismissed, where Lerner needs to improve is in his PR which is non existent at a time when the club needs visible leadership.

Apponting McLeish was a strategic blunder, that much is true (and it's putting it a bit lightly), but I think you're missing the bit where he's really been a failure.

His failure to appoint people at the club with some football nous led to us relying on one manager's word that everything was fine for far too long. There was nobody with an overview keeping an eye on contracts which needed to be renewed, or players which needed to be moved on, other than the manager of the day.

That was his main failure at the Browns, too, poor appointments.

Look how many players we've signed since 2006 who have been on big money, barely featured, sat out the length of their contracts, and walked away for nothing.

Nigel Reo-Coker's total cost to the club, for example, isn't much short of £20m. Then take a look at what the likes of Cuellar, Heskey, and Beye have cost, given that they all walked away for nowt, too.

Don't get me wrong, Lerner didn't choose those players, but Lerner also didn't put anyone in at the club to make sure this sort of wastage didn't happen. When he finally did stick a Chief Executive in and give him this job, it turned out to be someone who had previously run a call centre for MBNA and who knew nothing about the game.

Being a good chairman isn't only about putting money in, it is about running the club well, and on that front, he's made a catalogue of costly errors that have left us where we are today.

Really poor.

[Toronto Villa]

regarding O'Neill, he was a very popular appointment and while it can be argued that he should have had a "football man" upstairs, would O'Neill have even have agreed to join us had that been the case?

On the Browns, Mike Holmgren as General Manager was seen as a very good appointment indeed at the time. A proper football (US) man so to speak to oversee the operations and bring in the right people to run the Browns. It didn't work. You can blame Lerner for a lot of things, but it's questionable if in these two instances he can be blamed entirely.

As for McLeish...yikes

[eastie]

regarding O'Neill, he was a very popular appointment and while it can be argued that he should have had a "football man" upstairs, would O'Neill have even have agreed to join us had that been the case?

On the Browns, Mike Holmgren as General Manager was seen as a very good appointment indeed at the time. A proper football (US) man so to speak to oversee the operations and bring in the right people to run the Browns. It didn't work. You can blame Lerner for a lot of things, but it's questionable if in these two instances he can be blamed entirely.

As for McLeish...yikes

No chance o Neill would have accepted a football man above him- he is old school and likes to be the top man , he wouldn't stand for a director of football type figure .

[pauliewalnuts]

regarding O'Neill, he was a very popular appointment and while it can be argued that he should have had a "football man" upstairs, would O'Neill have even have agreed to join us had that been the case?

On the Browns, Mike Holmgren as General Manager was seen as a very good appointment indeed at the time. A proper football (US) man so to speak to oversee the operations and bring in the right people to run the Browns. It didn't work. You can blame Lerner for a lot of things, but it's questionable if in these two instances he can be blamed entirely.

As for McLeish...yikes

It doesnt need to be a total football man upstairs, it could have been a wise headed CEO keeping an eye on the wider picture. Instead, nobody did.

It wasn't just MON era, either.

What kind of consistency saw us try to get Martinez, only to then turn to McLeish? And this after the progress we'd made (finally) in the Houllier season.

Then there's the fact that, having let MON oust two CEOs in Cunnah and FitzGerald, when he finally did appoint one, he appointed someone with next to no relevant experience.

If you leave aside the brake on spending, and look at what we've spent over six or seven years, and look at what we've got left of it now, then some really rubbish management has been going on at the top level.

[Mister E]

Regardless of the financial issue, Lerener is certainly getting an easy time of it compared to when Ellis was at the helm and being harangued by all and sundry.

Probably because Ellis was here and visible whereas randy is 1000s of miles away.

Or because Ellis spent years at the helm of the Villa holding the club back and lining his own pockets.

Or because Ellis was such a big Villa fan he joined the board at the Blues.

Or because the most successful event in our club's history coincided with the time he wasn't involved.  And as soon as he got back involved relegation quickly followed.

Randy's got a long way to go before he's anything like as bad as Ellis was.

Interesting you state the bad things  but none of the good things there. Doug did good as well as bad in his reign , we won a couple of trophies and came close to the title on more than one occasion  as well as the lows you mentioned.

No, you were right. Adam.

[Mister E]

I think RL has been guilty of complacency and naivety. It can't be argued that he's put money up; it's true that the RL / MON ticket was  - in 2006 - a dream ticket; there's no question that he's given people the chance to deliver.
The problem is - as Paule says - one of hiring people in his management team who really know the English football scene. Like when we had Steve Stride, whose experience HDE undoubtedly benefitted from.

[villajk]

Lerner is over here at the moment.

[Legion]

See latest Caption Competition.

[villajk]

Ah!

[martin o`who??]

Lerners stewardship of the club gets some unfair criticsm, RL`s one major strategic blunder was appointing Alex Mcleish in the face of violent opposition, not giving MON the Milner cash was entirely understandable, and probably necessary for the good of the clubs finances, no-one expected MON to quit in the manner he did, which is where it all started to unravel, the Houlier appointment was ill-starred for obvious reasons, but where did the club take medical advice regarding his Heart condition?. Lerner has spent a significant, if diminishing amount of money on a club who`s average gates are not colossal by any means, He delivered Paul Lambert as the overwhelming fans choice after Mcleish was dismissed, where Lerner needs to improve is in his PR which is non existent at a time when the club needs visible leadership.

Apponting McLeish was a strategic blunder, that much is true (and it's putting it a bit lightly), but I think you're missing the bit where he's really been a failure.

His failure to appoint people at the club with some football nous led to us relying on one manager's word that everything was fine for far too long. There was nobody with an overview keeping an eye on contracts which needed to be renewed, or players which needed to be moved on, other than the manager of the day.

That was his main failure at the Browns, too, poor appointments.

Look how many players we've signed since 2006 who have been on big money, barely featured, sat out the length of their contracts, and walked away for nothing.

Nigel Reo-Coker's total cost to the club, for example, isn't much short of £20m. Then take a look at what the likes of Cuellar, Heskey, and Beye have cost, given that they all walked away for nowt, too.

Don't get me wrong, Lerner didn't choose those players, but Lerner also didn't put anyone in at the club to make sure this sort of wastage didn't happen. When he finally did stick a Chief Executive in and give him this job, it turned out to be someone who had previously run a call centre for MBNA and who knew nothing about the game.

Being a good chairman isn't only about putting money in, it is about running the club well, and on that front, he's made a catalogue of costly errors that have left us where we are today.

Really poor.

Appointing a person to effectivley vet potential signings is not ideal, these "Director of football" types almost inevitably lead to friction within clubs, just look at Spurs and Liverpool, theres nothing wrong with a chairman having faith in his managers choices, although, given. that began to backfire badly under MON, the opposite of all this is an Abramovitch type who seems to pressure managers into signing players he likes - often with disasterous results.

[Steve R]

Lerner is over here at the moment.

Maybe he read about Curtis Woodhouse.

Be very afraid, Risso.

[MonsXI]

lets hope he boards the titantic 2 for his return journey