The Takeover Thread - Recon Group - NOW WITH NEW POLL

[fredm]

I saw all these posts tonight on the lack of a takeover thread and thought, 'ooooh'.
Instead of which, it's just history.

Indeed.  A sad indictment of what Aston Villa is rapidly becoming, a history.

a bit melodramatic don't you think?

Sorry, but in the eyes of the vast majority of the football public that is all we are nowadays.

[Mister E]

I know and apologise for the fact that so many threads turn into my lamentation of missed opportunities from 1982-2006 but I will always maintain that with vision and under the charge of a man who didn't still think a million pounds was a major transfer fee by the time it was an annual wage we could have been right up there. I never had the feeling under Randy that we would ever be more than best of the rest.

And that is absolutely my view. We used to refer to Doug's tenure in the 1990's as the decade of missed opportunities and the era of mediocrity. Villa was well-placed to benefit from the establishment of the Premiership but Doug did not grasp the opportunity that presented.

Between him and Ansell, the chance to develop a modern, dynamic and successful club was hamstrung by their basic fear of failure and their own conservative self-interest in selling the shares and trousering the proceeds.

[kippaxvilla2]

Back to the takeover.  I just have a funny feeling that something will be said at the end of next week.  My only logic to this is it will be six weeks after the initial announcement and I said at the time, interested parties would be given 6 weeks to submit their proposals.  Other than that no logic whatsoever.

I was really an ITK on this............

[Clampy]

In hindsight, I wish Randy had kept his trap shut, until the club was sold. The silence, the speculation, and the thought of more Lambert, crap signings and a probable lack of money etc, is strangling.

I disagree, he did the right thing. He responded to speculation and was honest. Besides, if he had said nothing all we would have heard this pre-season is. 'why is Lambert still here' and 'why is no money being spent' etc.

[old man villa fan]

In hindsight, I wish Randy had kept his trap shut, until the club was sold. The silence, the speculation, and the thought of more Lambert, crap signings and a probable lack of money etc, is strangling.

I disagree, he did the right thing. He responded to speculation and was honest. Besides, if he had said nothing all we would have heard this pre-season is. 'why is Lambert still here' and 'why is no money being spent' etc.

Totally agree.

We know where we stand and why money isn't being spent on significantly improving the team.  We may not like it seeming to take so long but the reality is that Randy Lerner is trying to sell a £200m business with very little prospect of ever making a profit.  Football clubs are money sponges.  It is no wonder buyers are hard to find for the clubs that fall into the traditional 'below top 6 and above mid-table' category.

At times I think I would just like to see football and TV go tits up.  That is not going to happen any time soon so the only way to get back to a competitive PL is for the formation of a European super league that takes the top 4 or 5 out of English football.

[Logical]

I voted for deal to be done by January but that is blind optimism from me.

[Toronto Villa]

I saw all these posts tonight on the lack of a takeover thread and thought, 'ooooh'.
Instead of which, it's just history.

Indeed.  A sad indictment of what Aston Villa is rapidly becoming, a history.

a bit melodramatic don't you think?

Sorry, but in the eyes of the vast majority of the football public that is all we are nowadays.

The vast majority of the football public don't care. They are more interested in how their team is doing than ours.

[not3bad]

I saw all these posts tonight on the lack of a takeover thread and thought, 'ooooh'.
Instead of which, it's just history.

Indeed.  A sad indictment of what Aston Villa is rapidly becoming, a history.

a bit melodramatic don't you think?

Everything is History

Except the Future, which is Mystery.

And the present, which is tense.

[Steve67]

In hindsight, I wish Randy had kept his trap shut, until the club was sold. The silence, the speculation, and the thought of more Lambert, crap signings and a probable lack of money etc, is strangling.

I disagree, he did the right thing. He responded to speculation and was honest. Besides, if he had said nothing all we would have heard this pre-season is. 'why is Lambert still here' and 'why is no money being spent' etc.

Totally agree.

We know where we stand and why money isn't being spent on significantly improving the team.  We may not like it seeming to take so long but the reality is that Randy Lerner is trying to sell a £200m business with very little prospect of ever making a profit.  Football clubs are money sponges.  It is no wonder buyers are hard to find for the clubs that fall into the traditional 'below top 6 and above mid-table' category.

At times I think I would just like to see football and TV go tits up.  That is not going to happen any time soon so the only way to get back to a competitive PL is for the formation of a European super league that takes the top 4 or 5 out of English football.

I guess you are both probably right. Transparency is important I guess. The only thing I would say though is that speculation would be rife, regardless of the potential sale. We have signed two freebies. Does this mean we have no money, or that Lerner doesn't trust Lambert with any more? Why does Lerner not see that he needs to keep the club in the top league to protect his investment? This is very frustrating and I think the fans are yet again being taken for granted. I hope I am very wrong on this.

[brian green]

I think that Randy Lerner is a man who acts impulsively. Such a disposition need not be detrimental to success. The ability to make decisions quickly will always give an advantage over a tyre kicker. However, there has to be harnessed to impulse a willingness to see a deal through.  I don't mean sign the contract, I mean have the balls to make your judgement work. In addition an impulsive businessman has to have wise and cool heads around him. The nuts and bolts have to be right. I have no idea if Randy bought Villa on impulse but I think he is selling because he does not have enough love for the game and wants out. It looks to me that very little planning or forethought has gone into Randy's exit strategy. On the second essential for the impulsive player, the need for good support from wise and savvy people, this is right at the heart of our current travails in my opinion. Randy has not had the people around him to bring out the best in him and when all is said and done Randy has got the little things right but missed the opportunities to make big improvements where they matter to the fans. On the field of play.

[Matt Collins]

Back to the takeover.  I just have a funny feeling that something will be said at the end of next week.  My only logic to this is it will be six weeks after the initial announcement and I said at the time, interested parties would be given 6 weeks to submit their proposals.  Other than that no logic whatsoever.

No offence but I'm not gonna take too much comfort from that!

On the points above re missed opportunities - completely agree. The ship had sailed by the time Lerner arrived. It was a shame he didn't realise it or we might not have virtually bankrupted ourselves

[pbavfckuwait]

The statements made by RL at the time of the take over and more than once enforced by his side kick the General, was that there was a plan, so did that plan allow for MON to spunk loads of money down the drain without being financially answerable to anyone in the club, because that's what happened.
RL may have done a lot of good things of the pitch, I think all agree with that and he has made us off the field probably a lot more commercially viable, but we are Aston Villa Football Club and the state of the squad we have now is very very weak, is it worse than when he took over, that is irrelevant as we have to take to the pitch now, not 8 years ago and compete with the teams that are making up the Prem league now. We are Aston Villa Football Club, not a hotel, restaurant or bar that has a football team attached to it, the football team is what it is all about and just because we had Doug before Randy, that also should not cloud what a poor on the field job Randy has been custodian over.

[ROBBO]

I cannot see anything other than a sale before the season starts.Lerner after the last three seasons would be aware that without better players we are odds on for relegation and what would that do for his asking price then. Not panicking at all as i believe we will have a new owner sooner than later.

[Steve67]

Brian and Matt, great posts. Totally agree. Perhaps we should have realised sooner that Randy is a really poor sports custodian given his tenure at the Browns too. I can't wait for this era to be over. I will take a slow and steady build over a Man City style revolution if this can be ended quickly. I think Villa fans have been cursed with poor ownership since 1969, other than a couple of years when Ellis was pushed out. It's about time we had an owner who puts the fans first, the true custodians of the club. Lerner out. Lambert out. Take the useless crap that he purchased with them.

[Legion]

Paul Lambert's Aston Villa summer spending limited to just £10million - INCLUDING wages