Randy Lerner

[Tony Erdington]

I think Randy, the sensitive soul should apply for a job with BCC, he'll have all the pc gang there to comfort him, from the horrors who support the club.

Randy grow a pair. put up or sell up!

[PeterWithesShin]

And who of the people queueing up to buy the club should he be selling to?

[ClaretAndBlueBlood]

I think Randy, the sensitive soul should apply for a job with BCC, he'll have all the pc gang there to comfort him, from the horrors who support the club.

Randy grow a pair. put up or sell up!

that's the problem, he is trying to sell up and that's why he just wants to invest enough to keep us in the division

[NeilH]

I think Randy, the sensitive soul should apply for a job with BCC, he'll have all the pc gang there to comfort him, from the horrors who support the club.

Randy grow a pair. put up or sell up!

Sell up to whom? Surely it is quite obvious that we as a football club are more tugboat than liner. I know we all have claret and blue glasses on, but our relevance drops exponentially for every mile from B6. Over here, we are seen as canon-fodder for the Big6 and by the time you reach the oil barons and oligarchs we are a British cultural oddity, namely that we sound nice, but you would not touch us with a bargepole.

[PaulWinch again]

And who of the people queueing up to buy the club should he be selling to?

This seems to be the bit that people are struggling with. Lerner has actively said he wants to sell, so why would he not sell? It's because there are no buyers.

[PaulWinch again]

I will say one thing though, I imagine we'd be a bit more of an attractive proposition to purchase if we were more stable and better on the pitch.

[saunders_heroes]

He clearly can't sell the club, that's fair enough, but at least run the club in a way that shows it and the fans respect. Running the club on a shoestring is the reason we've been so bloody embarrassing for the last 5 or so years.

[aj2k77]

If you can't sell your house you either do it up and put it back on the market or you lower the price.

[NeilH]

If you can't sell your house you either do it up and put it back on the market or you lower the price.

He's clearly investing enough to keep us ticking over and nothing more and given that he wants to sell, who can blame him.
Just don't think the house analogy works in this case, especially when you consider how much of his fortune he has wasted (foolishly I agree in many cases) on us.

[Tony Erdington]

Wow, like buses you come in threes, well if your that desperate to sell you put it in the shop window at a marketable price. if your that desperate.

but maybe its smoke and mirrors, and Aston Villa is actually an asset to him.

[villadelph]

2 posts above this (from villadelph and Salsa Party Animal) highlight my ongoing concern with how people view both football and specifically Villa in this country:

He had no concept of the annual investment it would take to improve and stabilize the club. He had no idea which combination of directors and managers would create a good on-field product.

He's done nothing but conduct underfunded, unsupervised failures in his tenure as a sports franchise owner.

This is nonsense, there is no annual investment required to improve and stabilise the club, at least not until you're challenging for the title. You then follow it up with a correct assertion that he couldn't put together a proper management structure before once again going back to moaning at the lack of investment.  As fans we all want to be competing to buy the very best players in the world but we don't have the right to demand that an owner either spend a fortune of his own money or fuck off and we shouldn't need that anyway. If a business needs constant outside investment to stay valid then it's a failure, for a sports club success is in the results not in the profits but even still losing money every year can in no way be considered desirable.

What?!

When your best player(s) hands in a transfer request EVERY year, reinvestment is necessary. It's football, constant investment is necessary. With the turnover we have and the instability that has strangled us for the last 5 years we are stuck in a revolving door. If you re-read what you wrote, by your definition we are a failure.

I'm not asking for much. I'm not asking for a huge net spend. All I'm asking is my owner to do is a little research on the men you are passing off responsibility to. For the love of god set up a decent infrastructure with qualified individuals leading the charge. Randy doesn't know good football. He knows nothing about the game or how to facilitate it. And for that matter how to run any sort of sporting club.

I'm ashamed for him. If he keeps his head in the sand it can't get chopped off.

[Dave]

2 posts above this (from villadelph and Salsa Party Animal) highlight my ongoing concern with how people view both football and specifically Villa in this country:

He had no concept of the annual investment it would take to improve and stabilize the club. He had no idea which combination of directors and managers would create a good on-field product.

He's done nothing but conduct underfunded, unsupervised failures in his tenure as a sports franchise owner.

This is nonsense, there is no annual investment required to improve and stabilise the club, at least not until you're challenging for the title. You then follow it up with a correct assertion that he couldn't put together a proper management structure before once again going back to moaning at the lack of investment.  As fans we all want to be competing to buy the very best players in the world but we don't have the right to demand that an owner either spend a fortune of his own money or fuck off and we shouldn't need that anyway. If a business needs constant outside investment to stay valid then it's a failure, for a sports club success is in the results not in the profits but even still losing money every year can in no way be considered desirable.

What?!

When your best player(s) hands in a transfer request EVERY year, reinvestment is necessary. It's football, constant investment is necessary. With the turnover we have and the instability that has strangled us for the last 5 years we are stuck in a revolving door. If you re-read what you wrote, by your definition we are a failure.

Without wanting to speak for Paul, this does nothing to refute his point.

When Bony left for Man City, Swansea didn't go out and spend £28m on a new striker. They had the processes in place to deal with the situation.

When Joe Allen left the board didn't have to fund an expensive replacement. When Ben Davies left they didn't need a new £10m left-back.

They've reinvested, but the money comes from sensible management of the club, not crying that the chairman isn't spending loads of his own money.

And I'm pretty certain that he's in no way claiming that we're NOT a failure.

[PeterWithesShin]

Wow, like buses you come in threes, well if your that desperate to sell you put it in the shop window at a marketable price. if your that desperate.

but maybe its smoke and mirrors, and Aston Villa is actually an asset to him.

Sorry, we'll try and make sure only one person points out the massive hole in your post next time.

And it is an asset to him, same as if you are selling your house it's still an asset. There's also a difference between looking to sell,and being desperate to sell.

And it's really easy for us when it's not our money to suggest he just writes off tens of millions.

[Clampy]

Wow, like buses you come in threes, well if your that desperate to sell you put it in the shop window at a marketable price. if your that desperate.

but maybe its smoke and mirrors, and Aston Villa is actually an asset to him.

Sorry, we'll try and make sure only one person points out the massive hole in your post next time.

And it is an asset to him, same as if you are selling your house it's still an asset. There's also a difference between looking to sell,and being desperate to sell.

And it's really easy for us when it's not our money to suggest he just writes off tens of millions.

You can't really make it any more clearer than that.

[aj2k77]

If you can't sell your house you either do it up and put it back on the market or you lower the price.

He's clearly investing enough to keep us ticking over and nothing more and given that he wants to sell, who can blame him.
Just don't think the house analogy works in this case, especially when you consider how much of his fortune he has wasted (foolishly I agree in many cases) on us.

He isn't doing enough to keep us ticking over or as an attractive proposition to sell because (a) we haven't been sold and (b) we are likely to get relegated this season. If we wants out he's going to have to do something about it because no one is interested in buying the most boring team in the Premier League, with a rookie manager and no real crown jewels for players at £150m.