The Takeover Thread - Recon Group - NOW WITH NEW POLL

[Chris Jameson]

Will we all have to get the same haircut?

In Kim Jong Wrong-un we trust.

THE CHOSEN ONE.

[not3bad]

Will we all have to get the same haircut?

In Kim Jong Wrong-un we trust.

THE CHOSEN ONE.

Exclusive pic of new owner!!

[alan_clarke]

If I were Lambert I'd be looking at the West Brom job and then asking for my P45. I'm not as much against him as some on here but if I were him I'd know my days at VP are numbered...even if the new owners decided to give him a chance. First sign of a few loses he'll be sacked.

[BC54 VFC]

I see there's a flight arriving from Dubai tonight.

*taps nose*

That's interesting, Dubai is in the middle east where rich people live. Welcome to the site and keep us informed.

Indeed, welcome. I'm more inclined to believe first time posters.

I heard they've had to charter a special plane, like this one, because it's the only one big enough to have room to bring all the money they've got over with them.

Grateful thanks Pauliewalnuts, after over 100 pages and 5 days, for bringing this thread back on topic.

We'd only need a fleet of 720 Super Guppy Turbines to drop those 5,000m 1p coins on Michel Platini.

[usav]

That's the ugliest looking plane I've ever seen.   They can keep their stinking money.

[DB]

I'm still in 2 minds over Lambert. Part of me thinks he was on a hiding to nothing working under such limitations under Randolph....but another part of me thinks he should have done better. some games we looked like world beaters, other times we have been awful...more often than the former.

Whoever comes in, investment in the team is needed.

[N'ZMAV]

Is there anything going on? It's all very boring.

[AV82EC]

Will we all have to get the same haircut?

In Kim Jong Wrong-un we trust.

THE CHOSEN ONE.

Exclusive pic of new owner!!

I miss tales of the Crispy Duck and Slurpy Noodle and the antics of the Beijing Casuals.

[ciggiesnbeer]

Is there anything going on? It's all very boring.

Lerner likes this brand of Ginger Creams



Cant name my sauces, but its banged on ITK.

[pauliewalnuts]

In my local this afternoon there were a few Villa in there and not once was the takeover mentioned. Instead the topics ranged from de-tox diets via music festivals ain't what they used to be, to the hottest debate of all, who's the best British song writer of the 20th century.
It was a close run thing but Ray Davies just pipped Noel Coward.

Elton John

Jesus H Christ, how can you compare 'The Village Green Preservation Society' to 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road'.
There's a vast gulf between Ray Davies's poetic lyrics and the banal scrawlings of the said Mr. John. who by the way didn't write his own music. He had to rely on some geezer from Lincolnshire.

VGPS is one of my favourite albums, and Ray Davies is one of the finest pop music writers, too, but Elton John is also right up there.

re the music, Taupin did the lyrics, Elton did the tunes, so not quite as easy to dismiss.

*puts on ridiculous oversized glasses, 15ft high platform shoes, approaches piano*

[Pete3206]

Hugo Drax expected at Villa Park next week.

[LTA]

Randy Lerner invested no emotional interest in Aston Villa
RANDY LERNER has spent an estimated £300million on Aston Villa, but his emotional interest dried up years ago.
By: John Wragg
Published: Tue, May 13, 2014
   
   

It could be traced back to the day he and Martin O'Neill fell out. That was a divorce not only of two men who had formed a partnership to drive Villa into the top three of English football and onward into Europe, but it was when Lerner became disillusioned.

It's hard to say what Lerner is like. He has opened himself up to only a few people at Villa Park, even less, and badly chosen ones at that, in the media, but that love affair with Villa, at best flimsy, died.

O'Neill left after a huge falling out with Lerner just before the season kicked off in 2010, and since then Villa have limped along, Lerner's love for a club he discovered while a student at Cambridge University getting weaker by the season.

He finally put Villa up for sale yesterday. If he can get £200m, that would be cushty as another wheeler-dealer once said, and would leave him £100m out of pocket, a considerable investment that Lerner should be lauded for.

But it leaves Aston Villa up a creek without a paddle.

The club is better, smarter, for Lerner's six years, but where it matters most, on the pitch, what drives everything, revenue streams, interest, passion, Villa are no better off than when he arrived.

Former owner Doug Ellis stripped back in his final years to make Villa viable, ready to sell. The team was poor as a consequence and manager David O'Leary was blamed by the fans and was sacked.

Lerner has been cutting back for two years - now it seems we know why - the team is poor, manager Paul Lambert is under fierce criticism, and the club is ready to be sold. What's different?

Lambert said privately only last week that the parameters Lerner had asked him to work under for the last two years were even stricter than we had been led to believe. But he wouldn't give details and Lerner never speaks. It's been one of his big errors at Villa.

Yesterday Lerner wasn't even in the country to announce he was selling up. He took no questions, gave no insight, few answers, and continued to let Aston Villa be a void. The Glazers might just about get away with it at Manchester United, but Villa Park is a smaller community, it needs a conversation.

Ellis was brilliant at that. He was also good at taking the blows football ownership brings.

Lerner hasn't got the stomach for it. He said he'd been worn down by the constant disappointments.

"I owe it to Villa to move on, and look for fresh, invigorated leadership, if in my heart I feel I can no longer do the job," he said. "I have come to know well that fates are fickle in the business of English football. And I feel that I have pushed mine well past the limit.

"The last several seasons have been week in, week out battles and having now come through this last season unfortunately limping amidst very meaningful injuries and constant sale rumours, I feel that now is the time for me to look for new ownership and thus new leadership.

"I am appreciative of the support I have received, even in these last years of comparative struggle when criticism was due, and will look on with others - with fingers crossed - for stronger future performance appropriate to our size and heritage."

The Villa situation parallels his ownership of the Cleveland Browns, the American Football team Lerner inherited from his father, enthused about for a while, became 'disengaged' as one reporter put it, cut back and sold up.

Lerner has asked Bank of America Merrill Lynch to find a buyer for Villa but no one is on the horizon and it could take months. Long enough for Lerner to have the Villa tattoo on his ankle lasered off.

[Gregorys Boy]

Hugo Drax expected at Villa Park next week.

That's a Bond villain right?

[not3bad]

Hugo Drax expected at Villa Park next week.

That's a Bond villain right?

Yes, from 'the Moonraker With the Golden Octopussy'.

[cheltenhamlion]

That piece is unnecessarily harsh.

He came, he saw he spent a fortune. He just didn't have the wherewithal to get it right.

Thanks for trying. Thanks for the money. Thanks for giving us hope. Best of luck for the future.

Now sell it quickly to someone with a few quid to waste who might make a better fist of it.