The Takeover Thread - Recon Group - NOW WITH NEW POLL

[Neil Hawkes]

I would imagine that Roman's money is under the pavements of Zurich.   The Communists got 25% of the vote in the last Russian election and it would not take much for them to return to power and send the oligarchs running for cover wherever they can find it.   I heard on the radio that the Russian economy needs oil prices above $100 a barrel to balance its budget.   The current price is almost down to half of that.  Energy prices must affect the Qataris, given the way they piss away their money.

Qataris require 15 us dollars per barrel in order to cover all their planned expenditure in a year - everything above that level is pure profit. (The cost of getting oil onboard a tanker, which is when it is effectively sold, is around 6 US dollars).
These figures are from about 10 years ago when I lived there.

[joe_c]

Listening to to Talkshite, the Qataries are interested in buying  a EPL club, but prefer London....Randy, pick up the phone and do your best sales pitch.

It's not just Randy's problem.  What on earth are the movers and shakers in the Birmingham business and political communities doing?   Are they not able to attract high-end international investment into the UK's second largest city?  Apparently David Cameron made a big sales pitch for Manchester that led to the Man City takeover - can't he do the same for us?   Why is it that everywhere but Brum is getting the attention?

The idea of David Cameron pitching Aston Villa to the nearest, richest oil baron makes me want to vomit.

[Billy Walker]

Listening to to Talkshite, the Qataries are interested in buying  a EPL club, but prefer London....Randy, pick up the phone and do your best sales pitch.

It's not just Randy's problem.  What on earth are the movers and shakers in the Birmingham business and political communities doing?   Are they not able to attract high-end international investment into the UK's second largest city?  Apparently David Cameron made a big sales pitch for Manchester that led to the Man City takeover - can't he do the same for us?   Why is it that everywhere but Brum is getting the attention?

Cameron was leader of the opposition when City were bought. I don't see that he would've held much sway.

Yep, you're right.  I think I'm mixing up a few stories I've read - my old brain ain't what it used to be! The basic point though, I feel, is that if we  really want top class, ambitious, ownership to come to Villa Park, we can't just limit our hopes to Randy alone selling the club.   This is an issue of wider scope and should involve input from the likes of Sir Albert Bore and the various political and business leaders of Birmingham and - dare I say it - Westminster.  A successful Aston Villa would be a huge boost, I feel, for the wider business community of the  West Midlands and "brand Birmingham".  A strong Birmingham, competing with London and Manchester would be very good for the English/UK economy too.   

[Matt Collins]

I think there's very little chance of a mega rich takeover. There are four CL places. Chelsea and citeh have practically bought two of them in perpetuity. Man Utd can compete with those clubs on merchandising revenues and arsenal get £2m per match in gate revenues and are now debt free

You could spend twice as much as lerner and still the best you might get to is where Everton are now. That's also presumably why Everton haven't been sold. They can't really do any better than they're already doing so why qould anyone spend a few hundred million to do that?

Villa have never been further away from competing for top honours. We won the lot ten years after being in division three. We won't win the league in the next fifty years I suspect (not will Everton, newcastle or probably Spurs)

Is it inconceivable that 100,000 villa fans could put in an average of £1.5k each to buy out the club?

That's a lot of cash but then so is a family season ticket. And obviously you'd hope a fair few people would put in a lot more than that

[Chris Smith]

Listening to to Talkshite, the Qataries are interested in buying  a EPL club, but prefer London....Randy, pick up the phone and do your best sales pitch.

It's not just Randy's problem.  What on earth are the movers and shakers in the Birmingham business and political communities doing?   Are they not able to attract high-end international investment into the UK's second largest city?  Apparently David Cameron made a big sales pitch for Manchester that led to the Man City takeover - can't he do the same for us?   Why is it that everywhere but Brum is getting the attention?

Cameron was leader of the opposition when City were bought. I don't see that he would've held much sway.

Yep, you're right.  I think I'm mixing up a few stories I've read - my old brain ain't what it used to be! The basic point though, I feel, is that if we  really want top class, ambitious, ownership to come to Villa Park, we can't just limit our hopes to Randy alone selling the club.   This is an issue of wider scope and should involve input from the likes of Sir Albert Bore and the various political and business leaders of Birmingham and - dare I say it - Westminster.  A successful Aston Villa would be a huge boost, I feel, for the wider business community of the  West Midlands and "brand Birmingham".  A strong Birmingham, competing with London and Manchester would be very good for the English/UK economy too.   

I can't see that as a realistic prospect. Although we are the biggest and best known we are only one of 6 league clubs in the proposed Greater Birmingham area and it would cause too much grief to single us out for special treatment.

[pauliewalnuts]

The idea that Abu Dhabi will get bored and abandon Manchester City is, in my opinion, hugely unlikely. What they spend there is the equivalent of the shrapnel in your trouser pocket after a good night out. They're not going anywhere.

I think some of us like to console ourselves with fanciful notions like this because what we hope will happen to Man City is exactly what happened to us. Our rich owner lost interest and wants out. The sad thing for us is we can't get rid of him.

The difference between Sheikh Mansour and Randy Lerner is that Randy bought us on impulse, while Mansour had a plan. We were just an accessory for a billionaire heir who doesn't seem to have any direction or sense of purpose, whereas Man City is all about legitimising and establishing Abu Dhabi on the world stage. One club was bought on a whim, the other was bought as part of a wider long-term strategy.

Sadly, I totally agree.

Mansour has been a perfect owner for them, in a way which extends beyond just throwing money at fancy players. Anyone see that youth academy Man City opened last week? That, plus all the other stuff he has done, is highly impressive and shows his commitment.

Randy was clearly never going to be able to compete financially with Man City's owners, but it is worth noting that within a relatively short time of taking over, as well as throwing huge sums of money at it, Mansour also appointed some seriously sharp people to run the club.

Basically, he appointed some of the people who had been running Barcelona, whereas Randy, eventually, settled on someone who had been running a call centre for a credit card company.

So, if a man with almost limitless riches can see the importance of good leaders and a long term vision, why wasn't Randy, with a much more pressing need to make his money work for him, able to do the same?

I have no malice for the likes of Paul Faulkner, General Krulak, or any of the several "here for a few months" CEOs we have had, they did what they could and the fact it went badly doesn't make them bad people, far from it.

I do, though, wonder whether the current ongoing decline might have been entirely avoided, had Randy shown one tenth of the vision of the Man City people.

Sadly, the oil isn't going to run dry, and Mansour isn't going to be running out of money in ours or anyone's lifetime, so we're just going to have to put up with the evidence that they got it very right, whereas we, when we had our (admittedly lower budget) shot at it, totally wasted the opportunity, tens and tens of millions of pounds, hundreds of millions, maybe, pissed away on overpriced, short term signings, all drained away into the hands of players and agents.

If that weren't enough, we then got the sudden, abrupt loss of interest, and the deterioration of what "leadership" we had into the likes of that farcical "Shummanite" statement in the summer.

What kind of leadership was that?

What a waste.

[Billy Walker]

Listening to to Talkshite, the Qataries are interested in buying  a EPL club, but prefer London....Randy, pick up the phone and do your best sales pitch.

It's not just Randy's problem.  What on earth are the movers and shakers in the Birmingham business and political communities doing?   Are they not able to attract high-end international investment into the UK's second largest city?  Apparently David Cameron made a big sales pitch for Manchester that led to the Man City takeover - can't he do the same for us?   Why is it that everywhere but Brum is getting the attention?

Cameron was leader of the opposition when City were bought. I don't see that he would've held much sway.

Yep, you're right.  I think I'm mixing up a few stories I've read - my old brain ain't what it used to be! The basic point though, I feel, is that if we  really want top class, ambitious, ownership to come to Villa Park, we can't just limit our hopes to Randy alone selling the club.   This is an issue of wider scope and should involve input from the likes of Sir Albert Bore and the various political and business leaders of Birmingham and - dare I say it - Westminster.  A successful Aston Villa would be a huge boost, I feel, for the wider business community of the  West Midlands and "brand Birmingham".  A strong Birmingham, competing with London and Manchester would be very good for the English/UK economy too.   

I can't see that as a realistic prospect. Although we are the biggest and best known we are only one of 6 league clubs in the proposed Greater Birmingham area and it would cause too much grief to single us out for special treatment.

It would cause grief, but that is where we are.  It all boils down to whether Birmingham, as a city, would be daft enough to cut its nose to spite its face?   Football is vital to the branding of the city and if a "Greater Birmingham" seriously wants to challenge the likes of London, its political leaders should be doing all they can to compete for large-scale investment.  I hope Randy and the likes of Sir Albert are working together to secure the right kind of buyer for Villa and the city of Birmingham.

[pauliewalnuts]

What do you think Sir Albert Bore would be able to do to find the right kind of buyer for Villa that Randy, the bloke who actually owns it, can't?

Apart from the partisan nature of singling out one football club in the city, the city council have enough on their plate sacking thousands of people to meet austerity targets to get involved with a business which is owned by a foreign billionaire.

[joe_c]

What do you think Sir Albert Bore would be able to do to find the right kind of buyer for Villa that Randy, the bloke who actually owns it, can't?

Apart from the partisan nature of singling out one football club in the city, the city council have enough on their plate sacking thousands of people to meet austerity targets to get involved with a business which is owned by a foreign billionaire.

Basically, this:

[Legion]

Lambert's tactics board?

[usav]

Lambert's tactics board?

We don't have one, it went as part of the cost-cutting measures.

[IAmTheOneIanOlney]

You could spend twice as much as lerner and still the best you might get to is where Everton are now. That's also presumably why Everton haven't been sold. They can't really do any better than they're already doing so why qould anyone spend a few hundred million to do that?

Which is the saddest thing of all about Premier League football. People might point to Atletico in Spain and say they did it, but to get the manager, staff and players to compete for a whole season at the top in England is now nigh-on impossible without daft money. At least in the lower leagues, there's always hope that you can get better and go upwards. Then once you reach the Premier League, hope is replaced by horrible pragmatism and compromised values.

[Matt Collins]

Yep. It's more doable in Germany (Dortmund) or Spain (athletico) because there are fewer mega rich clubs and because the quality of kids is so much better. You can build a genuinely very good team much more cheaply.

[Billy Walker]

What do you think Sir Albert Bore would be able to do to find the right kind of buyer for Villa that Randy, the bloke who actually owns it, can't?

Apart from the partisan nature of singling out one football club in the city, the city council have enough on their plate sacking thousands of people to meet austerity targets to get involved with a business which is owned by a foreign billionaire.

Singling out clubs is a very unfair business, definitely, but it has  happened in both Greater Manchester and London - Man City and West Ham getting nice shiny new stadia for peanuts being prime examples. (I know West Ham had to go through a bidding process to get their stadium, but the sense of bitterness and lack of fairness at the end of the whole process was similar to that of a partisan decision). The rationale behind such tough decisions, I think, is that they encourage regeneration and investment on a wider scale. Though partisan and a headache, short-term, such decisions seem to make long-term sense.  It has all panned out nicely for Man City, just how it pans out for the 'Ammers remains to be seen. 

What could Sir Albert Bore do?  Well, I'm using him as an example of a political leader with sway in Birmingham (Andy Street would be another similar figure).   I just think he would be privy to the types of people and businesses that are looking to locate to Birmingham; he would, I reckon, know the scope and scale of future commercial developments and infrastructural projects. His knowledge and overall sense of the direction Birmingham wants to head in, culturally and economically, could be a huge aid in pairing Lerner up with potentially interested parties.

[Jimbo]

I wouldn't trust A Bore to find us a team of matchday refuse collectors, let alone a new owner.