Hmmm ...
The Times
Randy Lerner was close to offloading AstonVilla three months ago
Rory Smith
Published at 12:01AM, May 16 2014
Randy Lerner, the Aston Villa owner, first put the club on the market last summer, The Times has learnt, and was close to completing a deal with one suitor as recently as three months ago.
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Randy Lerner, the Aston Villa owner, first put the club on the market last summer, The Times has learnt, and was close to completing a deal with one suitor as recently as three months ago.
The 52-year-old revealed in a statement on Villa’s website on Monday that he had engaged Bank of America Merrill Lynch to try and find a buyer for the club after deciding that it was time to “move on and look for new ownership and thus new leadership.”
In reality, though, Lerner has been trying to find an exit from Villa for some time. It has been an open secret for several years that he would not be averse to the idea of a sale, but it was last summer that he first took the proactive step of engaging intermediaries to try to assess whether there were any serious contenders to buy the club.
One suitable party was identified and productive talks held over several weeks during the course of this season, only for the deal to collapse as it neared completion. By the time Lerner made his statement to the Villa website, confirming his intention to sell, no further party had expressed an interest in buying the club. As well as Bank of America — the company to whom Lerner sold MBNA, the bank established by his father, for $35 billion (about £20.8 billion) in 2006 — Lerner has also engaged Keith Harris, of the investment bank Seymour Pierce, to identify potential candidates. Harris’s firm finessed Lerner’s initial acquisition of Villa from Doug Ellis.
Lerner eventually paid £62.6 million to complete that deal, but it is believed that he now wants around £200 million for the club as recompense for the funds he has pumped in, most notably during Martin O’Neill’s time at Villa Park.
That represents a premium price for a club who have flirted with relegation in recent seasons, sold many of their best players in a bid to cut the wage bill and whose owner will now be seen — in light of his statement — as a distressed seller.
Paul Lambert, the Villa manager, flew to New York to meet Lerner this week to express his concern that the search for a buyer could affect his ability to prepare for next season.
Lambert is aware that Villa’s squad needs strengthening considerably — he has identified Lewis Holtby, the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder, and Joleon Lescott, of Manchester City, as potential recruits — if they are to avoid yet another campaign of what Lerner described as “week-in, week-out battles” next season.
Lerner is thought to be prepared to provide some funds to bridge the gap between his tenure and that of his successors, should any come forward to take the club off his hands, but he is highly unlikely to invest heavily in an institution he hopes to dispense with in the near future. That, of course, simply serves to complicate his attempt to leave: any hint of stasis would serve to weaken the club’s position in any negotiations that do arise.
That is unlikely to have escaped Lerner’s notice, and in that context his public declaration that the club are for sale — as well as his decision to engage Bank of America and Harris — can be read as an attempt to drum up business.
