Randy Lerner

[old man villa fan]

Until we know when Lerner thinks we have bottomed out financially, we are unable to state with any certainty how bad this could get. Or looking at it more optimistically, when we can start to grow the club again.

The fans want honest answers.

[aj2k77]

I can't see him selling up this summer, the chancer will want to see the club have one crack at getting him back in amongst the TV money before lowering his price to something realistic. No one is paying anything like £100m for a Championship club.

[Legion]

[Jon Crofts]

Nobody wanted to buy us when we were reasonable, what makes him think he'll be able to sell us now?

[SashasGrandad]

Still want this thread's title to add the words "OUT" or "WHAT A WANKER"

[Locko]

Still want this thread's title to add the words "OUT" or "WHAT A WANKER"

I'll take the latter thanks.

[garyfouroaks]

Some of the abuse levelled at Lerner has veered from the base to the unjustified. As owner the buck stops with him, but accusations of him having “ripped the heart out of the club” are hysterical hyperbole.

Under David O’Leary the club came as close as it ever has to relegation in the PL era. He was unpopular with the staff, press and players and was wholly disconnected to the club. Deadly Doug had done a decent holding job in the previous years, but was honest enough to admit that the next decade was not for him when it came to the energy and finance required to run the club. Change was needed on both counts.

O’Neil was Deadly’s appointment, but was a fine parting gift. Lerner, had cash, and some sort of affinity with football and the club, he was a reasonable choice as new owner. By any measure the pairing worked initially. MON was organised, full of energy and delivered 6th placed finishes, Randy provided the cash , lots of it, and didn’t ask too many questions, to start with he also bought well.

To outsiders the parting, after his 6th finishes and LC final was a shock. But underneath all was not well. MON had delivered on the pitch, but the wage bill had soared, resale values looked poor, and his touch in the transfer market had waned, not least with his purchases of the likes of Marlon Harewood. MON was burning cash almost winning things, and almost qualifying for the CL – but not doing it, so there was the cost, without the glory.

MON will argue that “it  was the price of fish”, the cost of what you have to do to compete. Lerner’s case that the club was being time-bombed with expensive mediocrity, with him having to foot the bill for the mistakes, had merit. But no Villa fan can argue with Lerner’s right, after a £300m spree ( transfer fees, agents and wage commitments) to hold MON to account in a way he had not previously.

The appointment of Houllier  as a replacement was a risk, but not a crazy one. Yes he had health issues, but he also had a formidable domestic track record and knew the international transfer market. He was also very well regarded within the game. It didn’t work out, but  it is hard to “blame” Lerner for that.

McLeish was the first time that you could lay a glove fairly and squarely on Lerner. Contrary to popular belief, Villa fan’s anger was not about his Bluenose history, it was his style of football. Having relished the anguish of the Blue side of the city at his painful to watch football, it came as a bit of a shock to realise that now it was our turn. It turned out worse than we could have imagined.

Within the game he had a decent reputation. He could have gone on the front foot, declaring his love of attacking football and his desire to show Villa fans a new side of him. Instead he retreated into his shell, reverted to type, and had little money to spend as he tried to sort out MON’s lacklustre, overpaid legacy which Houllier had hardly had time to touch. From the day of his appointment the day of his departure never seemed far away.

The appointment of his replacement, Lambert, had much going for it. Lambert had international credentials from his playing time in Dortmund, and had done a fine job in the lower leagues with Norwich achieving promotions on a limited budget playing decent football, he could be spoken of in the same breath as Martinez and Rodgers. But he never got to grips with the club. Although quite clearly a capable  manager, he couldn’t come to terms with the bigger stage. His mumbling half comprehensible speech seemingly making as little sense to the players as it did to the rest of us, like Mcleish he turned into his shell and waited for the inevitable sacking which probably took too long to arrive. In his defence, he did deliver his brief of retaining PL football while lowering the wage bill, but lacked the strength to make clear to the Board when expenditure represented an investment rather than a liability. But although sacking an obvious lame duck was the right thing to do, what followed was case study in what not to do.

The sacking came too late with the options severely restricted to the extent that most Villa fans were happy with the lightweight experience of Tim Sherwood. He had no experience of buying and selling or of relegation battles and did not take the training at Spurs. That did not augur well, but after the taciturn Lambert, Mcleish and Houllier, having a mouthy git was a bit of a change, and an FA Cup final and league safety looked like demonstrating a gamble that had paid off.

But gravity always tells. Unsurprisingly Sherwood wanted to spend, spend, spend in the summer, unsurprisingly Lerner was wary of trusting his cash to an unproven man. So why appoint him? We ended up with the worst of all worlds, a manager who had not bought the players he wanted but had spent  the summer war chest on players the Board thought would be good investments. As the season started the stand- off was absurd, the manager was managing a group of players he did not believe in, with the inevitable dire consequences and sacking.

Remi Garde may be a good manager, but appointing a man with no Pl experience, no experience of fighting relegation battles, or of the English Championship was madness. But once again the cupboard was bare of alternatives with the obvious escape artists, Pullis and Allardyce taken by competitors. There was an argument for not spending on a doomed squad in January, but only if you can offer a manager who knows how to buy for the Championship in the summer, and we don’t have that.

As the man who owns the club, Lerner has to take responsibility for this sorry tale which combines bad luck with bad judgement. But his structural failing was not to appoint competent, experienced CEO’s and have enough football men around him to counsel wisely (“McLeish? Don’t do it”).

Now we face a dismal outlook. An ownership/ management team that have been sleepwalking to relegation are no match for the rough touch street urchins of the Championship. There is even talk a of League One before the rot is reversed. How we fare depends upon the appointment of a new manager, CEO, and total overhaul of the coaching and playing staff, yet at the moment there seems no-one capable of delivering that. I certainly see no prospect of an early sale, and don’t think that it would be in anyone’s interests. Lerner would take a huge hit on value, and we would be at the mercy of bargain hunters.

Dark times.

[Locko]

All the vitriol aimed in his direction is fully deserved. He's systematically asset stripped the playing staff, the beating heart of any club over the course of the last five years, and by doing so brought this once proud institution low. So I'd disagree with the phrase  hysterical hyperbole; other than that it's a fair potted history. The man is a bumbling incompetent and in hindsight, is without doubt Doug's worst decision. I detest him and I think I'm fairly safe in saying I'm not alone in that.

[dave shelley]

As much as I dislike Doug, I don't think he could have foreseen this scenario.  Maybe I'm naive.

[garyfouroaks]

He's systematically asset stripped the playing staff, the beating heart of any club over the course of the last five years

Asset stripped? The money hasn't gone into Lerner's coffers- it has been squandered.

Lerner was right to be concerned about the value MON was getting for the wages and fees he was paying in that final year. The problem has been the worst recruitment of any PL club when that money was reinvested. Lerner's mistake has been a failure to secure men of judgement around him.

[Chris Harte]

Asset stripped? The money hasn't gone into Lerner's coffers- it has been squandered.

Are you sure its all been squandered? CNZ's wages per season probably amount to about £3.5m a season. The current TV deal is worth around £60M to the bottom club, the net spend on transfers in recent years seems to be around £10m per season. Then there's all the merchandising that the board seem so proud of - that must be bringing in a pretty penny. Season tickets as well probably bring in £10m a season (20k x £500).

Where has it all gone?

[garyfouroaks]

Where has it all gone?

In mitigating annual losses which peaked at £52m, and in the last financial year fell to £3.9m.

[Villa in Denmark]

Asset stripped? The money hasn't gone into Lerner's coffers- it has been squandered.

Are you sure its all been squandered? CNZ's wages per season probably amount to about £3.5m a season. The current TV deal is worth around £60M to the bottom club, the net spend on transfers in recent years seems to be around £10m per season. Then there's all the merchandising that the board seem so proud of - that must be bringing in a pretty penny. Season tickets as well probably bring in £10m a season (20k x £500).

Where has it all gone?

The latest accounts are out soon so we'll find out, but given that he's written around £200M of debt off plus the purchase price, he's the worst asset stripper in history if that's his game.

Yes the playing squad is poor.
Yes the playing squad is infinitely weaker than even the one McLeish left behind.
Asset stripped?  No chance.

[Locko]

The squad has been stripped of any players of value/quality. I'm not saying Lerner has personally pocketed the cash, but the money has gone somewhere, haven't we used player sales to offset losses? Cosmetic surgery for the accounts?
 We are where we are due to lack of investment,a failure to pay the going rate on wages and transfers. Player sales have been used as a sticking plaster for our financial woes. Treating what the idiot has sown.

[clash city rocker]

We have been poorly managed from top to bottom. The only real 'assets' that the club is left with is some acres of land and the supporters.