The Takeover Thread - Recon Group - NOW WITH NEW POLL

[paul_e]

I'm with Dante on his list, I even agree on the finance suggestion, right now we can only accommodate 2 new players and that will be 5 signings for the summer again, at some point we need to stop making massive squad changes every summer.  2 guys (defensive midfielder and skillful wide forward) for around £6-10m each and new deals for Vlaar and Delph are what we need this summer.

[Comrade Blitz]

Aside from RL, might there be someone else in the USA who is wealthy and has all of a sudden been enthused by by the World Cup?

Perhaps they'll see the "Big 5" on tour (Arse, ManUre, Citeh, 'The Mighty Reds YNWA', Spuds) and wonder about this plucky <little> Aston Villa team......

[Damo70]

I would say that he is going to the game not so much as to watch a football match but to have some face to face conversations with Paul Lambert, Roy Keane, players and any other employees.

[cheltenhamlion]

Yep. He will clue them in on the current takeover position and summer plans I would think.

[Dante Lavelli]

If he were to stay, what is Randy's immediate "To Do" list?

For me:

1.  Appoint a replacement for Faulkner.  No idea who.  Responsible for taking care of business.
2.  Appoint a Head of Football - Gareth Southgate?  Responsible for developing a scouting, player development and importantly a footballing philosophy (in conjunction with Lambert initially)
[Jobs 1 and 2 would allow Randy to take a back seat again]
3.  Give lambert $30m to spend.  Prioritising deals for Delph and Vlaar.
4.  Appoint coaches (are we back to our full quota?)

only $30m? - given the £60m annual starting point for Premiership clubs, that it is pretty low grade.
And, these actions need to happen pretty quickly.

Yes, but isn't our wage bills around £80m so a lot of that 'starting point' has already been allocated.

I think getting a structure in place which can promote long term sustained growth is more important than a 'warchest' because without some strategic thinking within the club we'll continue to throw money at problems which did not need to exist (McLeish anyone?).

[PeterWithesShin]

I too think it is unlikely that the performance of USA in the World Cup alone has renewed Randy's enthusiasm for the game and the club but what is clear is that football has finally started to take off in America (Seattle Sounders average 42,000 gates) and for all his inherited wealth Randy is a businessman.   He may well be considering that a better deal could be done a couple of years down the line when football has become a major sport on a par with baseball, basketball and grid iron football in the US.   Add to that the possible praise of his peers for spotting the potential of "soccer" so early and you just might have a scenario for our owner leaving the Shunammite woman and coming back to the good old gal in Trinity Road.

One club has good gates, all the others are around the 20K or lower mark. LA are are the second best supported at 23k and are the 65th best supported pro team in US sports. It's still not exactly taking off over there. Every NFL side gets higher attendances than Seattle, basketball teams have smaller capacities obviously, and MLB teams play 81 homes games a year and still pull higher averages than most MLS sides.

[Dante Lavelli]

If he were to stay, what is Randy's immediate "To Do" list?

For me:

1.  Appoint a replacement for Faulkner.  No idea who.  Responsible for taking care of business.
2.  Appoint a Head of Football - Gareth Southgate?  Responsible for developing a scouting, player development and importantly a footballing philosophy (in conjunction with Lambert initially)
[Jobs 1 and 2 would allow Randy to take a back seat again]
3.  Give lambert $30m to spend.  Prioritising deals for Delph and Vlaar.
4.  Appoint coaches (are we back to our full quota?)

only $30m? - given the £60m annual starting point for Premiership clubs, that it is pretty low grade.
And, these actions need to happen pretty quickly.

If he's going to invest he needs to replace Lambert. Otherwise it's just pearls to pigs.

I can see the appeal of that but my preference is to appoint the guys above Lambert first therefore giving them time to assess the whole club.  Lambert will only have 12 months left so there would be a natural break to find a new manager who would be in-tune with the club's new philosphy.

Ahhh, it's nice to daydream.

[john e]

Nothing to do with the takeover

But Steve Stride had lunch with Graham Taylor today, he posted a photo of the two of them on twitter,
he then says that Streve Froggat rang in and payed their bill

Which was nice

[ciggiesnbeer]

I too think it is unlikely that the performance of USA in the World Cup alone has renewed Randy's enthusiasm for the game and the club but what is clear is that football has finally started to take off in America (Seattle Sounders average 42,000 gates) and for all his inherited wealth Randy is a businessman.   He may well be considering that a better deal could be done a couple of years down the line when football has become a major sport on a par with baseball, basketball and grid iron football in the US.   Add to that the possible praise of his peers for spotting the potential of "soccer" so early and you just might have a scenario for our owner leaving the Shunammite woman and coming back to the good old gal in Trinity Road.

One club has good gates, all the others are around the 20K or lower mark. LA are are the second best supported at 23k and are the 65th best supported pro team in US sports. It's still not exactly taking off over there. Every NFL side gets higher attendances than Seattle, basketball teams have smaller capacities obviously, and MLB teams play 81 homes games a year and still pull higher averages than most MLS sides.

I would say although not taking off MLS has been growing steadily. My local team (Earthquakes) has just built a brand new stadium because the old one is too small(and old), it has been enjoying steady sustainable growth. For sure soccer over here seems to be on the upswing. Our local school just build a new sports field. It is all soccer & track. No baseball or american football (and the bay area has a great baseball team). Some of it is to do with the high mexican population but a lot of that growth is from new young soccer fans who have just found their sport. NFL attendance has been flat since 2008, NBA has been in decline. Pretty good times for the game over here.

[brian green]

I made no claim that all the clubs had anything like the gates Seattle Sounders pull in.   The list I saw in Ladbrokes watching the racing had a number of clubs in the mid twenty thousand average and the lowest was Toronto with twenty two thousand because I intended to raise it with TV.   Compared with the days when Phil Woosnam and Derek Dougan were trying to evangelize the game, it is remarkable growth.  In my humble opinion.

[john e]

For what it's worth I think the game in the US will grow steadily over the next couple of decades and become a major force in there sporting affections, and rival even the big 3 sports over there

Why because it's the greatest game in the world, it's the beautiful game, everyone knows that,
 Americans are just a bit late coming to the party, as at other times in their history

[PeterWithesShin]

There is no doubt it is slowly improving over there, but it's nowhere close to taking over the main US sports.

Average attendances don't seem to be moving much according to this. In fact they are currently 2K down across the league on last season. A few clubs are hindered by drawing near capacity though.

http://mlsattendance.blogspot.co.uk/

[peter w]

I doubt it will rival the big 3 for a while yet due to their sport's psyche being entrenched in the need for there to be a winner in  match. Plus, they're used to big scores rather than 0-0. Whilst World Cup's are one thing a mid-table or bottom  of the table clash (with no relegation) will soon be a turn off.

[PeterWithesShin]

For what it's worth I think the game in the US will grow steadily over the next couple of decades and become a major force in there sporting affections, and rival even the big 3 sports over there

Why because it's the greatest game in the world, it's the beautiful game, everyone knows that,
 Americans are just a bit late coming to the party, as at other times in their history

What it will do is slowly but steadily grow in popularity just as it did anywhere it first started. Not sure it is capable of overtaking MLB and NFL though. NHL and NBA has a chance attendance wise because of the type of sports they are they don't have massive stadiums. The big clue though isn't attendances but wages. MLS wages are dwarfed by the other sports. Until it starts picking up big TV deals it is always going to be minor compared to the others.

[London Villan]

The first time I went to the US in 1987 we struggled to find the result of the Charity Shield, took us about a week... the contrast with today was whilst in the mountains in California in a little bar in a tiny town they were showing (sadly) the Man City game... it was a Wednesday lunchtime and a couple of people were watching it... we were trying not too... that's how much it has come on.

It will probably never compete in the US with NFL or MLB, but it will start generating enough cash for more and more US media companies and average punters to take an interest in it.