Takeover rumours

[olaftab]

So good I quoted it thrice

I think you should take a screenshot of that and sell it as modern art.

[Toronto Villa]

poor Pat.

And WTF does "don't blame me" mean? Has anyone actually blamed Pat Murphy for Randy not selling the club?

He's probably getting moaned at for not getting any info from Lerner. All we seem to get is bland corporate speak from Faulkner that tells us sweet f#ck all.

No other journalist puts on a "woe is me" act like Murphy. Ironically for him the more he does the less chance there will ever be an audience with Lerner. He's hardly private and respectful about the entire thing. And even if he did get an interview what do you suppose Lerner will actually say? The other day when Faulkner spoke it was dissected within seconds and those who were sceptical before remained so and arguably became even more cynical. If Lerner said "ok, we're done with the cuts and now we're going to go big" who realistically will take him at face value? In fact I would argue there would be more detractors looking to read between the lines and pick holes in every second word. He's in a no win situation and Murphy just needs to get past not getting an interview. He just comes across as a whiny old man.

It would be nice to get even the slightest hint from the club that these cutbacks and bargain basement trash we've been signing for the last 4 seasons will eventually come to an end, but what do we get - bland corporate speak that tell us absolutely nothing. In fact it continues to feed the resentment from the fans, as we're the ones who have to put up with the rubbish we see on the pitch. Just the slightest hint that there may well be light at the end of the tunnel. Is that really too much to ask?
As for Murphy, why shouldn't be allowed to be pissed off for not getting any information out of the club? It's his job, so why should he be happy about it?

Call it what you want, but even if Randy came out and gave a speech from the heart would you believe him? And what if he said in this tell all interview, "I love the club, I don't want to sell but we can only afford x amount a year" when all of us know that x amount in todays PL will get us 7th to 10th at best. How do you think that truth gets interpreted? What people want him to say is the cuts are over and we are going for everything every season when quite frankly it's just not realistic. I can see us maybe getting back into the top six if the purse strings are loosened and competiting with Newcastle or Everton, possibly Spurs, but the other 4 or 5 teams have resources and revenue streams that the outside investment and the CL has created that we simply cannot compete against. And I don't know that him speaking frankly does anything good, and might even do more harm unless he tells us what we all want to hear and actually backs it up. He's certainly not going back to the spend more than we have/make days, so this is just my impression he is going to take the route of continued stability and increased but responsible investment. That takes time and patience which are in scarce supply in football.

[Monty]

Very well put TV. Lerner has many flaws but I really believe his good intentions, and it's scurrilous and unfair to suggest otherwise.

[olaftab]

This is a very frustrating thread. Can we just close it please till something actually happens?

[Legion]

No.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I think RL wants to "do the right thing". It would be unseemly to follow the oligarchs in their ostentatious displays of power and wealth, or the financial manipulators of his countrymen at Manure and RedScouse. He spent the money with MoN when the playing field was less ridiculously skewed, but now he is trying a new approach.

There is no way that he is going to abandon this project when it has hardly started. In PL, he has found somebody who is wholly committed to the plan, and who seems unstinting in his belief that it can work.

There will be no change in ownership or managership any time soon. IMHO, of course.

Sadly, I agree with you. The only way I can see a change of manager is if we continue with our poor home form until the end of the season and there's a very low take up on 'early bird' season ticket renewals. Even then I not 100% convinced Lerner will look elsewhere. The costs are now manageable and everything is based on the hope Lambert can eventually get it right.

[claret and blue blood]

How can we summize anything other than he wants to sell us?
He jettisoned the Browns and still shows little or no intent to finance a badly needed injection
Of quality in the areas we all know need strengthening on the pitch
We never see or hear a thing from him,he's overseen the worst home form in living memory
and he does nothing to ease the pain of us long suffering supporters
The transfer deadline day was a big frustration we now have to hope we win this 11 strong relegation league that the bottom half of the Premier has become,and if we get injuries to Vlaar and Gabby which we now have we are far less likely to win games.

Thanks a lot Randy!

[Fergal]

HMT Aston Villa sank during the war.

Very good...

[brian green]

As I see it the simple truth is that if you want to own a premiership football club you have to have very deep pockets and you have to keep putting your hand in them.   There is no so-far-and-no- further to owning a premiership club.

There is a casino in Shanghai where the minimum bet is one million US dollars.   There are men and women out there with stupendous amounts of money at their disposal.  The premiership is not for the faint hearted.   There are massive amounts of money washing around in football but you have to put up the ante if you want some of it.

I like Randy Lerner, I always have.   I loved the new hope he brought to the club and respect him for it but I think he has bottled it.

I fully understand and accept that he has poured a lot of money into the club and has continued to fund the club personally but he bought the club for a song and there is not the slightest doubt that he would make a thumping profit if he sold it.   I don't want him to sell it but what I do want is some sort of stable middle ground between the excesses of the MON years and the current obsession with thrift.

[nigel]

As I see it the simple truth is that if you want to own a premiership football club you have to have very deep pockets and you have to keep putting your hand in them.   There is no so-far-and-no- further to owning a premiership club.

There is a casino in Shanghai where the minimum bet is one million US dollars.   There are men and women out there with stupendous amounts of money at their disposal.  The premiership is not for the faint hearted.   There are massive amounts of money washing around in football but you have to put up the ante if you want some of it.

I like Randy Lerner, I always have.   I loved the new hope he brought to the club and respect him for it but I think he has bottled it.

I fully understand and accept that he has poured a lot of money into the club and has continued to fund the club personally but he bought the club for a song and there is not the slightest doubt that he would make a thumping profit if he sold it.   I don't want him to sell it but what I do want is some sort of stable middle ground between the excesses of the MON years and the current obsession with thrift.

That's pretty much my thinking, too, Brian

[Pete3206]

My source informs me that this will definitely happen, sometime in the next 90 years. Probably.

[johnny from donny]

How can we summize anything other than he wants to sell us?
He jettisoned the Browns and still shows little or no intent to finance a badly needed injection
Of quality in the areas we all know need strengthening on the pitch
We never see or hear a thing from him,he's overseen the worst home form in living memory
and he does nothing to ease the pain of us long suffering supporters
The transfer deadline day was a big frustration we now have to hope we win this 11 strong relegation league that the bottom half of the Premier has become,and if we get injuries to Vlaar and Gabby which we now have we are far less likely to win games.

Thanks a lot Randy!

Got to be honest, I can remember worse  home form than this, as I'm sure many others on here can.
To be fair, I would much rather have an owner/chairman who keeps himself out of the press and lets his employees do their jobs than a rentagob like Gold or Sullivan or an ego on the rampage wanting to change the name of the club or the colours of the home shirt.
Lerner has not got a bottomless pit of cash to throw at the club, I believe Lambert, Faulkner and Lerner do have a plan based on a sensible business model and steadily improving the team.

[lovejoy]

Whilst Randy is not everyone's cup of tea you only have to look at Leeds and Cardiff to realise there are much worse owners out there. Better the devil you know.

[eastie]

They may well have a plan but without considerable investment on the team it will only take us so far , the rich are getting richer and grabbing the better players - we may well have a plan that will see us achieve perhaps a top 8 finish but I think to compete at the top end  of the table would take huge cash investment once again.

When randy took over he gave it his best shot , probably his finances have been hit in recent years with the recession and his divorce too and I can understand him not being able to compete with the rich cats of the premier league.

[saunders_heroes]

Whilst Randy is not everyone's cup of tea you only have to look at Leeds and Cardiff to realise there are much worse owners out there. Better the devil you know.

No thanks, I'd rather take a chance with someone else rather stick with a man that has sold nearly every decent player at the club and replaced them with inferior ones.