Randy Lerner

[Malandro]

How was anybody able to make an assessment on the likes of Ayew and Veretout after a few games when they've hardly played until now?

Veretout could have been a sunflower farmer from the Charente, for all I knew

[Ads]

He didn't have the premier league experience of Westwood. The experience of floating in shit cross after shit cross, pointing at your man as he runs past you and not affecting the game in a positive way, whatsoever.

You just cannot come into this league and think you can replicate that without years of practice in stinking our midfield out.

[robbo1874]

I along with many others on here were fairly excited by our summer window business. We'd a fairly solid pre-season by contrast with recent pre-seasons and we won the first game. Since then it's gone from bad to worse, to absolute shit and we now appear to be absolutely fucked in the first week of December.

I keep lurching between thinking we'll be Ok and might turn it round, to thinking we'll be first through the trap door. You can have all the positive thinking / kidding yourself thoughts about staying up you like, but current evidence all points to being relegated by March.

How the fuck did it get this bad, this quick?

My overall view was always that Randy needed to sell up and fuck off, but that was in the context of us being able to kick on from being lower-mid table to pushing top 6 and building a champs league challenge like where we were when randy first took over.

I guess the withdrawal of investment and failure to properly replace our decent players who've moved on looks like it will really cost us greatly.

What a shambles.

[Ormy Droid]

Looking back now (hindsight being easy I know), it appears our summer's business shows the lack of direction and the muddled thinking that has characterised the club for far too long now.

On the one hand we were signing overseas potential as they represented better value, and then on the other we brought in the likes of Gestede and Lescott as a sop to a manager who clearly wasn't in tune with this new approach to recruitment. They should've sacked Sherwood in the summer and committed themselves fully to the direction we're now just about taking (too late probably).

Even before that our transfer policies have lurched from one failure to another. First there was the 'expensive, english, but proven premier league types', that played such a big part in sending the club into its present downward spiral in the first place. Next we had 'hungry, cheap, lower league types', and then when that didn't work out, we went out and got some more  'proven premier league types', but who were cheaper and basically past it.

I actually believe we're on the right track now, but have a horrible feeling that come relegation in the summer, we'll just lurch into some other direction, and have to start all over again, because we're run by American Idiots.

[Lastfootstamper]

Our problem is very little to do with the continental signings of the summer and it is time that Sherwood spin was knocked on the head.  Like DW I never expected anything from us pre Christmas as new players settled in. What has blown that theory out of the water is the abominably awful performances of the players the imports were added to.  The performances of Guzan, Richardson, Westwood, Agbonlahor and Clark with the added rubbish of Blackburn's Gestede and Stripeyfilth's Lescott are why we are where we are.

Have to agree Brian, the experienced players especially at the back have contributed massively to where we are.

I work, from time to time, with a bloke who's been doing the same job as me for twenty-odd years, longer than I have. Nice enough lad, but jeez, I reckon he goes home every evening and zaps himself with one of those memory-wiping thingys from out of off of Men In Black. Every day is like it's his first day on the job!
Our regular back 5 must have a fair few hundred PL appearances between them. I see similarities.

[dave.woodhall]

I work, from time to time, with a bloke who's been doing the same job as me for twenty-odd years, longer than I have. Nice enough lad, but jeez, I reckon he goes home every evening and zaps himself with one of those memory-wiping thingys from out of off of Men In Black. Every day is like it's his first day on the job!
Our regular back 5 must have a fair few hundred PL appearances between them. I see similarities.

That's exactly what I think Randy is like. He sets off down one path, goes to bed, then next morning decides on another. 

[Villa in Denmark]

Looking back now (hindsight being easy I know), it appears our summer's business shows the lack of direction and the muddled thinking that has characterised the club for far too long now.

On the one hand we were signing overseas potential as they represented better value, and then on the other we brought in the likes of Gestede and Lescott as a sop to a manager who clearly wasn't in tune with this new approach to recruitment. They should've sacked Sherwood in the summer and committed themselves fully to the direction we're now just about taking (too late probably).

Even before that our transfer policies have lurched from one failure to another. First there was the 'expensive, english, but proven premier league types', that played such a big part in sending the club into its present downward spiral in the first place. Next we had 'hungry, cheap, lower league types', and then when that didn't work out, we went out and got some more  'proven premier league types', but who were cheaper and basically past it.

I actually believe we're on the right track now, but have a horrible feeling that come relegation in the summer, we'll just lurch into some other direction, and have to start all over again, because we're run by American Idiots.

Sorry couldn't resist

[old man villa fan]

Football is no different from any other business, if cash is going out the door faster than it's coming in, you have to cut costs to stay in business. However, football is not like other businesses, you still have to invest in players to just stand still.

To allow money for the investment, the wage structure has to be at the right level and fundamentally, this is where our problems have stemmed from. Once you have identified what money you have to spend, you then need to identify the best way to spend it. Our approach to this last point has magnified the issue of the first point. One example is that we rarely use our full squad so would be better served financially by having, say, 5 youth players in the squad than past it players commanding far higher wages.

The Owner must take a lot of the blame for allowing the finances get out of control by not having experienced advice in controlling successive managers.  Each manager in their own way has been to blame in some way. I have thought about what each manager in turn has done well and there aren't many things. MON bought Young, Carew and Milner but the rest were nothing special. Houlier identified what we needed to stay up and convinced the owner to buy Bent. McLeish was a disaster from his first day but a nice bloke by all accounts. Lambert was given the poisoned chalice of making the real cuts but pulled a rabbit out of the hat with Benteke. Sherwood was identified as somebody that could come in quickly and keep us up and duly obliged. And that's about it.

[auntiesledd]

I work, from time to time, with a bloke who's been doing the same job as me for twenty-odd years, longer than I have. Nice enough lad, but jeez, I reckon he goes home every evening and zaps himself with one of those memory-wiping thingys from out of off of Men In Black. Every day is like it's his first day on the job!
Our regular back 5 must have a fair few hundred PL appearances between them. I see similarities.

That's exactly what I think Randy is like. He sets off down one path, goes to bed, then next morning decides on another. 

You seem to have some idea on what he does of a day, Dave. I'd be surprised if he can actually be arsed to get out of bed. I mean, does the bloke actually still exist??

ps I thought your 'Chance in a Million' piece was very measured - given the circumstances. Fair play & thanks for the sensible approach. I don't think I'd have got beyond a vulgar, single syllable word (of probable Middle Dutch origin), although it might well have had an 'ed' stuck on the end.

[dave.woodhall]

I work, from time to time, with a bloke who's been doing the same job as me for twenty-odd years, longer than I have. Nice enough lad, but jeez, I reckon he goes home every evening and zaps himself with one of those memory-wiping thingys from out of off of Men In Black. Every day is like it's his first day on the job!
Our regular back 5 must have a fair few hundred PL appearances between them. I see similarities.

That's exactly what I think Randy is like. He sets off down one path, goes to bed, then next morning decides on another. 

You seem to have some idea on what he does of a day, Dave. I'd be surprised if he can actually be arsed to get out of bed. I mean, does the bloke actually still exist??

ps I thought your 'Chance in a Million' piece was very measured - given the circumstances. Fair play & thanks for the sensible approach. I don't think I'd have got beyond a vulgar, single syllable word (of probable Middle Dutch origin), although it might well have had an 'ed' stuck on the end.

I haven't a clue what he does, but I know what I'd be doing if I had his money and it wouldn't be anywhere near Aston. One thing's for sure, though; we have to get used to the idea that any new owner will be closer to the Lerner approach than the Ellis one. You are never going to get an owner who will have us as their main priority and who will spend significant amounts of time on the club. The best you can realistically hope for is one who will put up as much money as Randy has, appoint the right people to the right jobs, then step back and enjoy his hobby whenever he wants.

[auntiesledd]

I work, from time to time, with a bloke who's been doing the same job as me for twenty-odd years, longer than I have. Nice enough lad, but jeez, I reckon he goes home every evening and zaps himself with one of those memory-wiping thingys from out of off of Men In Black. Every day is like it's his first day on the job!
Our regular back 5 must have a fair few hundred PL appearances between them. I see similarities.

That's exactly what I think Randy is like. He sets off down one path, goes to bed, then next morning decides on another. 

You seem to have some idea on what he does of a day, Dave. I'd be surprised if he can actually be arsed to get out of bed. I mean, does the bloke actually still exist??

ps I thought your 'Chance in a Million' piece was very measured - given the circumstances. Fair play & thanks for the sensible approach. I don't think I'd have got beyond a vulgar, single syllable word (of probable Middle Dutch origin), although it might well have had an 'ed' stuck on the end.

I haven't a clue what he does, but I know what I'd be doing if I had his money and it wouldn't be anywhere near Aston. One thing's for sure, though; we have to get used to the idea that any new owner will be closer to the Lerner approach than the Ellis one. You are never going to get an owner who will have us as their main priority and who will spend significant amounts of time on the club. The best you can realistically hope for is one who will put up as much money as Randy has, appoint the right people to the right jobs, then step back and enjoy his hobby whenever he wants.

Damn you man: you've just caused me to angrily stamp on my ol' rose-coloured spec's! I can't argue with you, of course. I can't bear to contemplate any possible buyer who has less interest & acumen than Uncle Randolph, but this dreadful state we find ourselves in could (obviously) actually get a lot worse before it gets better. All I can do is cross everything crossable & start praying to a God I don't actually believe in. That should work...   

[auntiesledd]

How was anybody able to make an assessment on the likes of Ayew and Veretout after a few games when they've hardly played until now?

Veretout could have been a sunflower farmer from the Charente, for all I knew

I'd imagine he wishes he was at the moment.

[Villa in Denmark]

How was anybody able to make an assessment on the likes of Ayew and Veretout after a few games when they've hardly played until now?

Veretout could have been a sunflower farmer from the Charente, for all I knew

I'd imagine he wishes he was at the moment.

I don't know about that, but we've definitely got too many shrinking violets in our team, especially at the back.

[in exile]

How was anybody able to make an assessment on the likes of Ayew and Veretout after a few games when they've hardly played until now?

Veretout could have been a sunflower farmer from the Charente, for all I knew

I'd imagine he wishes he was at the moment.

I don't know about that, but we've definitely got too many shrinking violets in our team, especially at the back.

Tell me about it. Clark should have rose to head the ball away for Watford's 3rd

[cdward]

The lack of investment is finally coming home to roost.
The signing of Bent was our last intent of ambition. Since then Randy has under invested and we have moved inevitably towards relegation. In reality we could have gone down in any of the last 3 seasons. 
McLeish got lucky when 2 products of our youth system Gardner and Weimann combined to bundle a goal in against Fulham. Then we had the bomb squad method of saving money, combined with shopping for lower league bargains like Jordan Bowery and Lowton. In fairness to Lambert he bought Benteke, and the next few seasons his goals saved us from relegation, and when he and they went, we decided to shop in the footbal equivalent of Lidl and buy cheap foreign players. 
We have progressively spent less and less on the most crucial part of the business, and now we have all but fulfilled our destiny to relegation. I never thought it would get this bad.
I heard about Bolton not being able to pay their squad for November, and had a look through the team, sitting in bottom place of the championship, i didn't recognise a single name. I fear that could be Villa next season.
Randy must invest big in January if we are to have any chance to stay up.