For all his many faults , Lerner has looked after the club well, writing off millions in loans and from a CSR standpoint he's been pretty faultless.
Be careful what you wish for.
But why would that automatically rule out a Chinese owner in favour of a US / Canadian / European owner.
You can find chancers and arseholes where ever you look. Just because that lot got screwed over by the porn barons selling to a dodgy hairdresser and now convicted money launderer doesn't mean they all are.
I think the important bit is look at who is doing the selling.
That lot. Shysters who're in it for ego and the money, looking to offload ASAP after they couldn't get their free stadium to anyone that could get within 75% of their (over) valuation.
Us. A somewhat naive philanthropist whose biggest flaw when it comes to running a football club could well be his strongest asset (for us) when it comes to selling it.
Namely, as someone who has pretty much never had to sully his hands with the dirty business of business, he's been free to indulge his interests and has obviously developed some form of moral codex based on his (sometimes bizarre) statements.
Regardless of whether they're British, American, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, Columbian, Australian or Martian I'm confident that the decision process will be along the lines of
1. Who's meeting (or getting close enough to) the asking price.
from those who are left
2. Who looks like the best "future custodian" for the club.
Time will tell.