The Takeover Thread - Recon Group - NOW WITH NEW POLL

[ez]

But progress has been made.

[Des Little]

But progress has been made.

In what way?

[Steve67]

But progress has been made.

Only with the quality of the playing surface and half time pies. In no other way has Paul Lambert progressed the team.

[brian green]

There is no interest in the club. That is blindingly obvious.
What has happened with regard to Lerner effectively walking away is exactly the same as what happened when MON walked away. A huge void exists where there should be a plan.  There is no plan in place for the future of the club. The whole thing has been passed to third parties to sort out by finding a buyer and letting them solve the problems. The rich kid has tired of his plaything.
I suspect that there was an interested buyer when Lerner decided he wanted out but it never came off and we fell into the void. Where we remain, battered by a perfect storm with a stoker and a cabin boy on the bridge.

[Richard E]

But progress has been made.

In what way?

Well, in a strictly literal sense we are several months closer to the day we are taken over than we were in May.

[ez]

I don't know. I was quoting from Randy's last update. He never said in what way.

[brian green]

Stuck in the M6 traffic last Monday night I took to musing on the blows which have been inflicted on the Villa in the last four and a bit years.   I attempted to determine which had been the worst blow.

Was it O'Neill's flounce?  No.

Was it our rolling over and never putting the club's side of the O'Neill flounce?  No.

Was it the appointment of a manager with a bad heart?  No.

Was it the rejection of the club by one manager after another in our search to replace GED?  No.

Was it the appointment of an ex Small Heath serial relegation specialist?  No.

Was it the appointment of Lambert?   Not even that.

I believe that the blow which holed us below the water line was that Randy Lerner announced that he wanted rid of the club before he had a buyer tied up.   I suspect that he did have one who failed to go through with the deal and it resulted in the situation in which we now find ourselves.

I can only speak for myself but I can take the defeats, I can take the awful football, I can take the incoherent dullard of a manager, I can even take the threat of relegation.   What I can't take and which is the deepest source of my Villa pain is that we are for sale and nobody wants us.

[Legion]

I can't take the defeats, the awful football, the manager or the continual threat of relegation. I hate looking at the results of teams who are below us hoping they have lost every game instead of hoping they have won against teams above us.

[brian green]

That will all pass Lee.   The wound we cannot staunch is that we have no owner.

[Legion]

Not whilst Lambert is manager. We do have an owner, he just does not want to own us.

[brian green]

What I mean is if Lambert was sacked tonight we would start to score goals and stop losing so many games.   I am prepared to stake my life on that.   However unless and until we get an owner, and in my book an owner who does not want to be an owner is not an owner, any surge resulting in Lambert's departure would start to peter out without the core structures of the club being soundly rebuilt.   We must try to do a Swansea or a Southampton, and that takes more than a manager, it takes the whole pyramid from the very top to the base to be in tune with a successful club ethos.

[Legion]

Fair point, well said.

[Ron Manager]

What we need is the 1969 version of Doug to take over the club and bring a vibrant urgency to everything. That kind of chairman doesn't exist anymore. The only owner that matters is one with money to waste. Preferably one with some idea how football works or perhaps I'm asking too much.

[brian green]

I would settle for vibrant energy over money to waste Ron.   Would be nice to have both though.

[Mister E]

What I mean is if Lambert was sacked tonight we would start to score goals and stop losing so many games.   I am prepared to stake my life on that.   However unless and until we get an owner, and in my book an owner who does not want to be an owner is not an owner, any surge resulting in Lambert's departure would start to peter out without the core structures of the club being soundly rebuilt.   We must try to do a Swansea or a Southampton, and that takes more than a manager, it takes the whole pyramid from the very top to the base to be in tune with a successful club ethos.

The thing that drives me to distraction is that this - the development of a credible and sustainable club ethos - ain't the dificult bit. Nor the expensive bit.
But it is the most elusive because it requires an intelligent, informed and networked owner who has the passion and determination to lay down the philosophy and rebuild the club to its principles.