The Takeover Thread - Recon Group - NOW WITH NEW POLL

[brian green]

When Groucho Marx told Zeppo that his contract would have to include a Sanity Clause, his brother replied that there ain't no Santa Claus.  That regrettably has been my take on an owner-in-waiting ever since the sale of the club clearly stalled within weeks of it being announced.   I am of the same mind as RussellC that sufficient improvements have been put in place to give us a basis for avoiding yearly relegation traumas and that will have to suffice.
To me the worst aspect of the whole plan by Randy Lerner to dispose of the club has been the huge amounts of time and effort and distraction to a great many people who could have had their time used more productively than in abortive attempts to find a new owner.   To say nothing of the anxiety and discomfiture of us, the terrace fodder.

[Clampy]

As disappointing as the news is, I'm adopting a 'better the devil' attitude. After-all,  WBA are in the process of being taken over and are still being linked to the likes of Michail Antonio and Wayne Hennessy. If Randy stays, learns from his mistakes of recent seasons and adopts a sensible approach to spending, I honestly think we've now got the right team in placed (Tim, Tom & Paddy) to make a relative success of things, without the need for a sugar-daddy owner.

I'd agree with that. I think most of us would just accept a season where we don't flirt with relegation and if Randy is here to oversee that whilst continuing to try and sell the club, then that's fair enough for me.

[Jimbo]

If it's true, it's hardly surprising that a sale would be problematic. Everything's been problematic. The last five years has been characterised by stupidity, disinterest, disengagement, vacillation and failure, so there's no real reason to expect otherwise now. Not only is Randy Lerner not too bothered about owning us, it would seem he's not too bothered about selling us either.

[ciggiesnbeer]

I would love a season without relegation worries. But unfortunately we have become Sunderland. Always in the mix to go down. Maybe Sherwood with a little extra money can break the cycle, but I think its going to take something more drastic.

[curiousorange]

Can somebody explain how paying £49 million for one player is sticking to the rules of financial fair play? If Manchester City can take the piss in plain sight, why are Villa scrabbling around trying to stick to the rules?

[pauliewalnuts]

I will stick my neck out and predict that new owners are already in place but we will only find out when all transfers have been completed.So many little clues around from a business sense but we will only be told when it suits them. I don't believe a word that is said coming from Villa Park at the moment.

Why not? Whatever else they might have done, when have the people who run the club ever given cause to doubt their word?

I can think of one instance of them doing that on something big.

When General Krulak used to tell us they were here for the long run, and would be through thick and thin. Only to disappear (overnight in his case) and pretty sharpish, in terms of interest and commitment, at the first sight of rough taking over from smooth.

That was one thing which genuinely disappointed me, the pretty rapid withdrawal. It wasn't just money, either, it was an emotional shutdown.

Randy gets a lot of stick, some of it deserved, some of it not. That deserved stick is usually down to incompetence rather than misleading us, but the whole "in it for the long run" thing sticks in the craw for me a bit.

I said the people running the club, not him.

I meant the people running the club. The withdrawal wasn't just about General Krulak, it was sudden, extreme and across the board.

[dave.woodhall]

Most of them have left for one reason or another.

[pauliewalnuts]

Do you think he has invested as much as he could over last few years?? As you say, his mistakes in the past, his poor judgment that has us down the bottom of the table, while Everton are doing a lot better (using your comparison). I hope Fox does turn it around, but at the end of the day Randy wants to sell - my original point is we need new owners to take us forward. As for Spurs, it is a lot easier to make money in London that here, combined that with the Levy factor.

I would argue that being a good owner is not just about throwing money into the pot.

Far from it. Once you've thrown the money into the pot, it also becomes about managing the value of your asset as best you can. The squad is a vital part of the club, and if you look at just that, it has been managed abysmally since they came here.

I'm not talking about buying poor players, either, every club does that from time to time. I'm talking about things like the number of players bought for big money who were allowed to run down contracts and walk for three, things like the bomb squad - which to me looked like a truly half arsed, clueless attempt to sell some players, getting the balance between young promising players and proven quality so hopelessly wrong. Part of the chairman's job is to ensure the structure and people are in place to see that things like that don't happen.

We've only just started to sell players, for example, rather than give them away. When we sold Weimann it actually felt odd to be receiving a fee for a player, we'd done so little of it. Someone said on here, and I don't know for sure if it is accurate, that Weimann was the biggest fee we've received since the Downing / Young departures, other than for James Collins.

We've had some under performing managers the last few years, but the managers alone are not the reason we've finished around 15th / 16th / 17th mark the last few years.

I don't know who, if anyone, will buy us, but even if FFP didn't exist to control how much money we can spend, I'd rather have new owners with nous and commitment but less money than people who will just throw money into it.

[levico]

Well, we said it all along - TBAR were deluded and we on H&V knew nothing would happen. Don't we feel smug??

[Percy McCarthy]

Well, we said it all along - TBAR were deluded and we on H&V knew nothing would happen. Don't we feel smug??

If I'd been predicting certain relegation every season since the Barwick Street meeting I'd take my smugness where I can too.

[joe_c]

Can somebody explain how paying £49 million for one player is sticking to the rules of financial fair play? If Manchester City can take the piss in plain sight, why are Villa scrabbling around trying to stick to the rules?

I can guarantee that if one club were to get nailed for a transgression of the rules, however minor, it would be us.

[old man villa fan]

Can somebody explain how paying £49 million for one player is sticking to the rules of financial fair play? If Manchester City can take the piss in plain sight, why are Villa scrabbling around trying to stick to the rules?

I can guarantee that if one club were to get nailed for a transgression of the rules, however minor, it would be us.

Yes, don't you just know it. Did Blackpool ever get fined for their supporters running on the pitch and causing the match to be abandoned.

[levico]

Well, we said it all along - TBAR were deluded and we on H&V knew nothing would happen. Don't we feel smug??

If I'd been predicting certain relegation every season since the Barwick Street meeting I'd take my smugness where I can too.

Ironically I didn't predict it last season and we came the closest yet. I'm not going to predict it for 2015/16 either but I suspect it will be close again.

[ADVILLAFAN]

Well, we said it all along - TBAR were deluded and we on H&V knew nothing would happen. Don't we feel smug??

If I'd been predicting certain relegation every season since the Barwick Street meeting I'd take my smugness where I can too.

Ironically I didn't predict it last season and we came the closest yet. I'm not going to predict it for 2015/16 either but I suspect it will be close again.

I'm going to stick my neck on the line and say that we'll definitely finish in the bottom 15.

[Brend'Watkins]

Well, we said it all along - TBAR were deluded and we on H&V knew nothing would happen. Don't we feel smug??

If I'd been predicting certain relegation every season since the Barwick Street meeting I'd take my smugness where I can too.

Ironically I didn't predict it last season and we came the closest yet. I'm not going to predict it for 2015/16 either but I suspect it will be close again.

Shut up man....we're going to win the league with our new all energy up and at 'em style of play.