Takeover rumours

[eastie]

@patmurphybbc: To those @AVFCOfficial fans complaining about RL not selling up - don't blame me,I'm just the messenger.Reporters gather info where they can

@patmurphybbc: No point in asking me questions 2 put to Randy Lerner - hasn't given radio/TV interviews since buying @AVFCOfficial.Have 2 rely on soundings

[Toronto Villa]

poor Pat.

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

[saunders_heroes]

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.

[Fergal]

I can see no other logical reason for the hugely risky cost cutting that we've seen over the last few years other than RL preparing the club for sale

i
How about because we were spending more than we were earning?

Is that the case now?

Doubt it, how much do sky put in, then there is sponsor, ticket sales, corporate etc

Obviously I can't prove it but Randy must be making a fair bit of money these days.  Doesn't he also charge a management fee?

Yet again - the club's accounts are freely available. Have a look at them and see if you can find this "fair bit of money".

If we are still making a loss with our current wage bill and what we are prepared to pay for players then we must be in shit street. 
How do other clubs sustain a squad on premiership wages?

You were just asking about money that he's supposedly taking out. Nobody mentioned losses.

I think it's relevant to the discussion.  If we are making money where is it going?

Nobody knows if we're making money or not until the accounts are published. Every set from previous years has shown that he has either put more in or cancelled what he was due to take out. You can blame him for many things but to keep insinuating, against all evidence, that he's making money out of the Villa is extremely wide of the mark.

I can see no other logical reason for the hugely risky cost cutting that we've seen over the last few years other than RL preparing the club for sale

i
How about because we were spending more than we were earning?

Is that the case now?

Doubt it, how much do sky put in, then there is sponsor, ticket sales, corporate etc

Obviously I can't prove it but Randy must be making a fair bit of money these days.  Doesn't he also charge a management fee?

Yet again - the club's accounts are freely available. Have a look at them and see if you can find this "fair bit of money".

If we are still making a loss with our current wage bill and what we are prepared to pay for players then we must be in shit street. 
How do other clubs sustain a squad on premiership wages?

You were just asking about money that he's supposedly taking out. Nobody mentioned losses.

I think it's relevant to the discussion.  If we are making money where is it going?

Nobody knows if we're making money or not until the accounts are published. Every set from previous years has shown that he has either put more in or cancelled what he was due to take out. You can blame him for many things but to keep insinuating, against all evidence, that he's making money out of the Villa is extremely wide of the mark.

I can see no other logical reason for the hugely risky cost cutting that we've seen over the last few years other than RL preparing the club for sale

i
How about because we were spending more than we were earning?

Is that the case now?

Doubt it, how much do sky put in, then there is sponsor, ticket sales, corporate etc

Obviously I can't prove it but Randy must be making a fair bit of money these days.  Doesn't he also charge a management fee?

Yet again - the club's accounts are freely available. Have a look at them and see if you can find this "fair bit of money".

If we are still making a loss with our current wage bill and what we are prepared to pay for players then we must be in shit street. 
How do other clubs sustain a squad on premiership wages?

You were just asking about money that he's supposedly taking out. Nobody mentioned losses.

I think it's relevant to the discussion.  If we are making money where is it going?

Nobody knows if we're making money or not until the accounts are published. Every set from previous years has shown that he has either put more in or cancelled what he was due to take out. You can blame him for many things but to keep insinuating, against all evidence, that he's making money out of the Villa is extremely wide of the mark.

I am insinuating nothing, just speculating and guessing.   After all nobody is really IKN around here, so it's all guess work and supposition.

[Fergal]

So good I quoted it thrice

[SoccerHQ]

I hope Lerner is staying. He is trustworthy and there has been ample evidence that he 'gets' Aston Villa. If there are few out there that would spend 200 mill on mid table football club there will be even fewer that give a monkeys about what Villa stands for.

As an aside, if we're using the accounts from the McLeish year as a starting point, players who were then on the payroll but have since departed :-

Warnock, Collins, Dunne, Heskey, Bannan, Ireland, Delfouneso, Cuellar, Makoun, Beye

Pretty frightening when you consider what that group actually contributed on the field.

Petrov and Lichaj have also departed. I'd make getting on for 25 million in wages clawed back. I would be surprised if their replacements are being paid more than a third of that.

I don't think it's quite £25m per year saved from that lot.  Warnock, Collins, Dunne, Heskey, Ireland, Cuellar, and Beye probably averaged £40k a week.  That would be almost £15m.  Bannan and the Fonz won't have been on much as they're academy grads.  Jean Deux won't have been on much either as he came from the French league.

That said, you need to add Bent and Given to that list too - both of whom were probably on £40k-£60k a week.  I know they're both on loan officially but don't their contracts expire at the end of this season so we'll never see them again?

I think that by the end of this season the wages will be where Randy wants them to be.  I think this Summer will be really interesting as a result.

I'd bump the figure up to 50k a week from that lot personally. You've also missed out the likes of Sidwell, NRC and Luke Young who all left us that summer officially as did Carew I think. Also remember that summer we sold Young and Downing so that was probably close to 100k a week for those two off the wage bill.

We have shed a load of high earning players off, of course there's still some lingering but not a huge amount anymore.

[pauliewalnuts]

I am insinuating nothing, just speculating and guessing.   After all nobody is really IKN around here, so it's all guess work and supposition.

What's the point in speculating and guessing when there are actual financial facts which state that you're wrong?

I can think of lots of things to bemoan Randy for, but the one that he's taking money out / profiting from the club doesn't stand even the most cursory of examinations.

Yesterday I saw on twitter someone who was stupid enough to post "bought the club for 65m, sells for 200m, nice fat profit there".

How can you argue with people sufficiently stupid to think that's how it works? What about the tens of millions he has put in in the meantime? The losses he's financed year after year? The loans he's written off?

There's absolutely no point guessing, it is factually incorrect, wrong, not the truth. It's as simple as that.

Like I said, I think he's managed the money he has invested abysmally, and we are cutting back far too quickly now that he's personally lost interest, but to suggest he's made money from the club or is taking it out is incorrect - it isn't even a matter of opinion, it is a factual inaccuracy, but something which seems to get seized on by people sufficiently "black and white" to think "well, I don't like the way he runs the club, so every single thing which reflects badly on him must be correct".

It's not, it is totally, demonstratively, and factually not correct.

[dave.woodhall]

I am insinuating nothing, just speculating and guessing.   After all nobody is really IKN around here, so it's all guess work and supposition.

Oh, right.

With the wage bill having been slashed and the TV income up I think we must be very profitable at the moment.  Is Randy trousering the profit or saving it for the summer?  Or making what he can before he sells?

[
Because Randy is done with us and is only bothered about getting out with the most amount of cash he can.  It looks like we are a safe bet to stay up so why waste money on players?

Obviously I can't prove it but Randy must be making a fair bit of money these days.  Doesn't he also charge a management fee?

[Sexual Ealing]

I am insinuating nothing, just speculating and guessing.   After all nobody is really IKN around here, so it's all guess work and supposition.

What's the point in speculating and guessing when there are actual financial facts which state that you're wrong?

I can think of lots of things to bemoan Randy for, but the one that he's taking money out / profiting from the club doesn't stand even the most cursory of examinations.

Yesterday I saw on twitter someone who was stupid enough to post "bought the club for 65m, sells for 200m, nice fat profit there".

How can you argue with people sufficiently stupid to think that's how it works? What about the tens of millions he has put in in the meantime? The losses he's financed year after year? The loans he's written off?

There's absolutely no point guessing, it is factually incorrect, wrong, not the truth. It's as simple as that.

Like I said, I think he's managed the money he has invested abysmally, and we are cutting back far too quickly now that he's personally lost interest, but to suggest he's made money from the club or is taking it out is incorrect - it isn't even a matter of opinion, it is a factual inaccuracy, but something which seems to get seized on by people sufficiently "black and white" to think "well, I don't like the way he runs the club, so every single thing which reflects badly on him must be correct".

It's not, it is totally, demonstratively, and factually not correct.

Yeah, well you can prove anything with facts, can't you.

[john e]

IKN ?   

[Legion]

In Kefalonia Now.

[Malandro]

I knob nuns

[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.

[N'ZMAV]

Whether Lerner is selling or not he had to go through the cost-cutting exercise after the spend under O'Neill and Houllier. It's not rocket science.

[Fergal]

I am insinuating nothing, just speculating and guessing.   After all nobody is really IKN around here, so it's all guess work and supposition.

Oh, right.

With the wage bill having been slashed and the TV income up I think we must be very profitable at the moment.  Is Randy trousering the profit or saving it for the summer?  Or making what he can before he sells?

[
Because Randy is done with us and is only bothered about getting out with the most amount of cash he can.  It looks like we are a safe bet to stay up so why waste money on players?

Obviously I can't prove it but Randy must be making a fair bit of money these days.  Doesn't he also charge a management fee?

Yep speculation all of it,  and a few questions.  So what?