The Takeover Thread - Recon Group - NOW WITH NEW POLL

[Goldie.7]

Whoever that itk is from that other site knows their stuff.

[kippaxvilla2]

Does everybody have a sore head today after celebrating the amazing efforts of the players and management in achieving a goal less draw against Southampton at Villa Park? We're in dreamland.

Genuinely made me laugh out loud.

[villa `cross the mersey]

Something is defiantly on go behind the scenes. Just hope the new owners care about the club and not just the money.

Thats it though - it is all about the money .... maximising income etc - first thing to suffer will be ticket prices I would imagine.
Its just big business ..us fans will be further down the pecking order behind SKY, overseas TV rights, sponsors, etc

[MarkM]

From the BBC:: 

Villa up for sale this summer?

There have been rumours that Aston Villa owner Randy Lerner will soon sell the club. Well, the American has responded to these by releasing a statement. You can make your own mind us as to whether Lerner is off or not.

After some preamble about Paul Lambert and Saturday's match, Lerner said: "As regards my personal role at the club and the steady rumours of a sale, I will address these after the season. Paul Lambert, Paul Faulkner and I speak daily and remain committed to the immediate job of limiting distraction and confusion in order that Villa have the best chance possible of finishing on a strong note."

[pauliewalnuts]

Does everybody have a sore head today after celebrating the amazing efforts of the players and management in achieving a goal less draw against Southampton at Villa Park? We're in dreamland.

Genuinely made me laugh out loud.

I'm a fucking wreck today.

Me and my mates were out driving around town in a Fiat 500, bibbing the horn, with 12 people stood on the roof, waving a huge claret and blue flag until 3am this morning. What a night that was, a match that will live long in the memory.

[django]

Randy Lerner has lost loads of his own money tying to raise us up a level and it's backfired, he's then cut the money off trying to stop us haemorrhaging so much cash and seemingly has been looking for a buyer in the meantime. Can't criticise him for that, he's written off loans and absorbed the loss personally, he's also tried to leave us in a solvent position.

Lambert and McLeish are not free of criticism but it can be difficult to arrest a change of momentum, even if you are a decent manager (witness Man U currently) and if they have had to work under such strict financial restraints I'm not going to judge them too harshly either.

It's meant that we've wasted 3 years though and something badly needs to change this summer, sounds like it will.

[JamesMcG]

With the new financial fair play rules pending, don't expect any Middle East or Russian money coming in. Just pray we do not get a money launderer, pornographer, Italian fraudster or a bloke that probably doesn't exist

[richard moore]

Does everybody have a sore head today after celebrating the amazing efforts of the players and management in achieving a goal less draw against Southampton at Villa Park? We're in dreamland.

I think the whole season has been amazing. Utterly amazing. And don't forget he's had the nigh on impossible job of trying to get our players to pass to each other in a straight line

[shipscat]

Reading between the PR drafted lines;he's had an offer,conditional on ourselves keeping our premiership status.

The rumours are obviously unsettling elements of the club,management and squad and he'd like the opportunity to consider it.

Over to you Paul,can you get us over the line when we've hit the wall?Financially,everyone's at the club is onto a winner if it comes off,some of them will have their contracts enhanced,others will be kindly paid up.Us fans?....amongst all the media guff,the stories of the Venkys and Carson type,at least we'd be able to hold onto hope again.I'd settle for a dose of that at present

[Chris Smith]

Does everybody have a sore head today after celebrating the amazing efforts of the players and management in achieving a goal less draw against Southampton at Villa Park? We're in dreamland.

Genuinely made me laugh out loud.

I'm a fucking wreck today.

Me too, but that's just because I'm getting on a bit.

[pauliewalnuts]

Randy Lerner has lost loads of his own money tying to raise us up a level and it's backfired, he's then cut the money off trying to stop us haemorrhaging so much cash and seemingly has been looking for a buyer in the meantime. Can't criticise him for that, he's written off loans and absorbed the loss personally, he's also tried to leave us in a solvent position.

All of that is true, but:

1. He was the bloke writing the cheques and going mental with MON, so he should really have not let the situation get so insane in the first place. He knew the figures, we didn't. We raised it with the General, he told us trust them, they knew what they were doing with the cash. Clearly not true.

2. When it came time to slow down the spending, he did it way too suddenly, so much so that we have now had three years (the most generous analysis) of desperately fighting not to get relegated. You can't go from the players of the standard we signed from 2006-10 to the Tonevs, Bennetts and Lunas of this world so quickly and not expect to struggle. Highly dangerous.

I appreciate him in lots of ways, he spent a lot of money, he wrote off debts, he got stung by various people, but ultimately, it's not just about writing cheques, it is about running the club properly, as best you can, ensuring it competes as best as it can, and that it retains value in the assets it has.

We have spent hundreds of millions of pounds over eight years to end up *exactly* where we were when he rocked up, except arguably with a worse squad.

Thans for writing the cheques, but jesus, maybe you should have either run it a bit better yourself, or appointed really clued up people to do it for you, then you wouldn't have wasted quite so much money.

[damon loves JT]

Does everybody have a sore head today after celebrating the amazing efforts of the players and management in achieving a goal less draw against Southampton at Villa Park? We're in dreamland.

Genuinely made me laugh out loud.

I'm a fucking wreck today.

Me and my mates were out driving around town in a Fiat 500, bibbing the horn, with 12 people stood on the roof, waving a huge claret and blue flag until 3am this morning. What a night that was, a match that will live long in the memory.

It's going to take all week to get the claret and blue confetti swept up

[django]

Randy Lerner has lost loads of his own money tying to raise us up a level and it's backfired, he's then cut the money off trying to stop us haemorrhaging so much cash and seemingly has been looking for a buyer in the meantime. Can't criticise him for that, he's written off loans and absorbed the loss personally, he's also tried to leave us in a solvent position.

All of that is true, but:

1. He was the bloke writing the cheques and going mental with MON, so he should really have not let the situation get so insane in the first place. He knew the figures, we didn't. We raised it with the General, he told us trust them, they knew what they were doing with the cash. Clearly not true.

2. When it came time to slow down the spending, he did it way too suddenly, so much so that we have now had three years (the most generous analysis) of desperately fighting not to get relegated. You can't go from the players of the standard we signed from 2006-10 to the Tonevs, Bennetts and Lunas of this world so quickly and not expect to struggle. Highly dangerous.

I appreciate him in lots of ways, he spent a lot of money, he wrote off debts, he got stung by various people, but ultimately, it's not just about writing cheques, it is about running the club properly, as best you can, ensuring it competes as best as it can, and that it retains value in the assets it has.

We have spent hundreds of millions of pounds over eight years to end up *exactly* where we were when he rocked up, except arguably with a worse squad.

Thans for writing the cheques, but jesus, maybe you should have either run it a bit better yourself, or appointed really clued up people to do it for you, then you wouldn't have wasted quite so much money.

Yep, he's a well intentioned bloke who is not very good at running professional sports clubs. I doubt he'll try it again. I certainly wouldn't advise it.

[walsall villain]

From the BBC::

Villa up for sale this summer?

There have been rumours that Aston Villa owner Randy Lerner will soon sell the club. Well, the American has responded to these by releasing a statement. You can make your own mind us as to whether Lerner is off or not.

After some preamble about Paul Lambert and Saturday's match, Lerner said: "As regards my personal role at the club and the steady rumours of a sale, I will address these after the season. Paul Lambert, Paul Faulkner and I speak daily and remain committed to the immediate job of limiting distraction and confusion in order that Villa have the best chance possible of finishing on a strong note."

So I am selling in the summer but can't if we go down.

[kippaxvilla2]

Does everybody have a sore head today after celebrating the amazing efforts of the players and management in achieving a goal less draw against Southampton at Villa Park? We're in dreamland.

Genuinely made me laugh out loud.

I'm a fucking wreck today.

Me and my mates were out driving around town in a Fiat 500, bibbing the horn, with 12 people stood on the roof, waving a huge claret and blue flag until 3am this morning. What a night that was, a match that will live long in the memory.

It's going to take all week to get the claret and blue confetti swept up

When I opened the first bottle of verve last night, I clinked glasses with my mates and said, 'here is to a fantastic performance today by the lads and not to the takeover talk that is so obviously and completely wrongly consuming lots of people's every waking moment.'