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Author Topic: Randy Lerner  (Read 566895 times)

Online andyh

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Re: Randy Lerner
« Reply #3555 on: April 21, 2016, 10:25:49 AM »
Agreed a great post Peter W.

Offline Billy Walker

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Re: Randy Lerner
« Reply #3556 on: April 21, 2016, 10:32:30 AM »
If you knew the entire story, and the actions of Bernstein and King, you might understand why thing went down the way they did. The offensive emails are the tip of the iceberg. I have long stated that I think RL has made some huge mistakes along the way and think he has more than his share of the blame in this horror story. How can he not? But there are two sides to every story and that is certainly the case in this latest episode; in this particular instance, I think Randy showed a great amount of restraint, believe it or not, prior to the firings resignations, and an equal share in the last day or so after these two showed their class by airing it all to the press. How some here on the boards can not read the tea leaves and see just what sort of men these two are for behaving in this disgraceful manner is beyond me. I suppose there is so much hatred of RL that they cannot see clearly, and I get that even if I think it is only partially fair, but if airing dirty laundry in the press does not say something to you about the egos of these two "men," I am not sure what to say.

This narrative that my father up and left when the going got tough is unfair as well - no surprise I would say that - the timing looked bad, but the reality is that he became the president of a college that was about to be shuttered and was close to $100 million in the hole. His remit was to stop the dam from bursting in a year and then get the college on firmer footing over the next two all while an accreditation group was standing at the executioner's block. He tirelessly traveled and spoke to all who would listen so as to raise money and get the college solvent. To say this took all of his time is not an understatement and this is why he left, plain and simple. It was certainly not because he was cowardly or felt shame in some way, which is a pathetic suggestion. Also, he has never been and will never be involved in football operations, so for those who think his presence on the board is somehow negatively affecting football decisions, this is not a role he fills, and rightly so.

I am not really going to say more about this, but I thought some of the comments towards him were unnecessary and I would simply say that the boardroom issues are more thorny than some have suggested, though others have been fairly close to the truth, but not nearly cynical enough about the actions of the two former board members.

Appreciate you posting Pelty.  My view is that the two men probably did what they did in order to put the focus on Randy and make him realise that it is time for him to to do the honourable thing as custodian of Aston Villa, that is, it is time to pass the Club on.  All the better if he passes the Club on to people with the aptitude, skills and ambition to get the Club where it should rightfully be - challenging at the very top of the game.

Randy's ten years at the Club have been a disaster in every sense.  We don't need to go into it, we all know it.  The Club is rotten to the core and the two men (figures who command an awful lot of respect in the worlds of football and finance) simply wished to fix it at best or highlight it at worst.  If Randy remains at the Club, calling the shots, making the appointments, holding the purse strings, Aston Villa will tank further.  Please get that message across to him: HE is destroying the Club. Indeed he has made it not just a UK laughing stock but an international laughing stock too.  I'm sure he is the nicest and most well-intentioned of gentleman but clearly the realm of sports ownership is not for him. 

Randy now has the chance to leave this Club with his head held high so long he communicates his intentions clearly to the fanbase and then sells us on to genuine people with the the expertise, plan and ambition to rebuild Aston Villa on every level. When King resigned I think his intention was to let the fanbase know this and his interview on Bloomberg yesterday clarified this further. By giving us this information King did the fanbase a great service because Randy has kept us all in the dark for far too long now. 

It is now up to Randy.  If he sells us on to charlatans like Haslam, in a fit of pique, I would not be in the least surprised BUT, going on King's interview yesterday, this is his chance to be remembered with a huge degree of fondness for, clearly, there are decent buyers waiting in the wings. Please pass on the message that, for the good of Aston Villa - and himself - it is time for him to go. 
« Last Edit: April 21, 2016, 10:47:00 AM by Billy Walker »

Offline passport1

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Re: Randy Lerner
« Reply #3557 on: April 21, 2016, 10:40:59 AM »
Yes well Pelty would say that wouldn't he was my response to reading his post. As ever the drip feed of delphic statements from the Lerner camp only serve to futher muddy the waters.

Regrettably (for them) on this occasion the vast majority of fans can see the wood for the trees. The game is up guys. Time to go.
« Last Edit: April 21, 2016, 10:43:20 AM by passport1 »

Offline Oscar Arce

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Re: Randy Lerner
« Reply #3558 on: April 21, 2016, 11:05:24 AM »
I appreciate the post, Pelty, and I applaud your standing by your father of course, but my father and his father before him gave me the gift of supporting Aston Villa for over 50 years, never missing a home match.
Mr Lerner, by his decisions, has reduced our club to a complete laughing stock, and completely finished me off, I cannot watch the club I love anymore.
We do not need soundbites or platitudes, we need positive action now.

Online Monty

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Re: Randy Lerner
« Reply #3559 on: April 21, 2016, 11:14:13 AM »
Pelty, Mervyn King was the Governor of the Bank of England and had to deal with the worst fiscal crisis in living memory, and by most accounts really didn't do badly at all (the political faults are largely for others), and is clearly a great fan of the club who cares deeply about its future. David Bernstein was instrumental in dragging Man City back from oblivion, and cared so much about the fans in that instance that he kept a photo of a young boy, a City fan, crying as they were relegated to the third tier, just as a reminder of what he owed them.

Frankly, where do you get off defending Randy and comparing him favourably to those two? What the hell has Randy ever done that would allow you to get all superior about Mervyn King? What in Randy's record makes you think he could even look David Bernstein in the eye when it comes to caring about the fans? The man has gutted the club, hobbled it, starved it to death, and now the biggest disaster in nearly three decades has befallen it - largely because of him - and he's got nothing to say. Nothing. Not even some pseudo-Biblical gibberish (what would he say to 'comfort' us this time? That the meek shall inherit the earth?).

Come back and start babbling on about honour and dignity when Randy's actually had the guts to say one word or do one thing to show the fans that he cares. In the meantime, perhaps save your aspersions for lesser men - and I can think of a certain football club owner you could start off with.

Offline Chris Jameson

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Re: Randy Lerner
« Reply #3560 on: April 21, 2016, 11:18:30 AM »
It’s not us who is failing to see clearly. It's not Randy who is showing a great deal of restraint. It's not Randy who is showing any signs of "class". It's not Randy who is humiliated, embarrassed, outraged, hurt, despondent, and has the emotional torment of seeing us turned into a laughing stock. That's us. The fans. The real fans. The fans who care about this club. The fans that will be here long after Lerner, and you, have gone. The fans, like King, who actually care about this club and restoring it to its rightful place. The fans who have been held in such contempt for years now. The fans who have little truck with nonsensical responses that are designed for us to side with the person who is killing our club against the 2 are trying to save it. The fans who want Lerner out. You may say that we don't know how or what Lerner and his associates really feel, well we watch every Saturday and that's enough. Go now. The lot of you.



TESTIFY!

Beautifully put Peter.

Offline Chris Jameson

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Re: Randy Lerner
« Reply #3561 on: April 21, 2016, 11:20:26 AM »
peter w 5 v 0 The 'men' in America fucking our club up.

Offline GarTomas

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Re: Randy Lerner
« Reply #3562 on: April 21, 2016, 11:21:32 AM »
who's your father?

His dad is General Krulak.

At the time I wasn't aware this was a literal answer; my post was obviously not a slight aimed at the individual concerned.

Online Monty

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Re: Randy Lerner
« Reply #3563 on: April 21, 2016, 11:31:03 AM »
It’s not us who is failing to see clearly. It's not Randy who is showing a great deal of restraint. It's not Randy who is showing any signs of "class". It's not Randy who is humiliated, embarrassed, outraged, hurt, despondent, and has the emotional torment of seeing us turned into a laughing stock. That's us. The fans. The real fans. The fans who care about this club. The fans that will be here long after Lerner, and you, have gone. The fans, like King, who actually care about this club and restoring it to its rightful place. The fans who have been held in such contempt for years now. The fans who have little truck with nonsensical responses that are designed for us to side with the person who is killing our club against the 2 are trying to save it. The fans who want Lerner out. You may say that we don't know how or what Lerner and his associates really feel, well we watch every Saturday and that's enough. Go now. The lot of you.



TESTIFY!

Beautifully put Peter.

Ooft, yes. Wish I hadn't bothered posting before I saw that. Peter has said it all.

Offline Chris Harte

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Re: Randy Lerner
« Reply #3564 on: April 21, 2016, 11:49:34 AM »
I think everyone is more than aware that there are two sides to the story. I am also in full agreement that it does look a bit odd shall I say that letters have been leaked and then King goes on Bloomberg (?) publicly calling for the sale to go through quickly whilst both men have now firmly pointed the finger at Lerner.

I don't think they have acted professionally at all.

But...

name one journalist over here that has not highlighted Randy Lerner as being the problem at Villa. There is a big big problem behind the scenes that has manifested itself into a shambolic club with no sense of direction of one hopeless appointment after another. It appears from stories on the web, and from posters here from the US, that Lerner's tenure of the Cleveland Browns was very similar.

At last it seemed that Lerner was going to take a back step and the appointed Chairman and the newly formed football board would have free reign in putting the thing that we care about the most, the football side, right. We expect that stuff that we don't see to be managed correctly, efficiently, and with due care.

It appeared that the appointments of Bernstein, King, Little, and Bevington was an amazing coup for the club and saw us finally grasping what was needed. These people are leaders in their own areas of expertise and have more business acumen dripping from them in terms of how to either build the foundations of a football club, how to make it successful, how to broadly move it to a level where it is flourishing and producing on relative terms, and how to link the club with different areas of the finance or business sector to encourage more partnerships for the club's benefit.

And Pelty seems fit to denigrate their stature as "These two men" without seemingly realising that "these two men" were doing one thing and one thing alone. The very best for Aston Villa. Is Lerner doing that? No, he is protecting his wealth (and you could argue rightly so). Is Krulak doing that? No, he is protecting Lerner and doing his bidding.

No, we don't know what has gone on and how Bernstein & King have behaved. But considering what Lerner has done to us short of grabbing Lerner by the throat whilst pulling a knife on him whilst the other beats up his wife and kids, there is going to be very very little support here for Lerner if two beastly men have identified him as being the problem.

Pelty, your argument is like the owner of the Big Top being annoyed at the acrobat who is complaining that he won't supply a net to stop him falling to his death . The cancer here is not Bernstein & King. It's Lerner. if anyone is behaving in a disgraceful manner it's not the people who genuinely care for Aston villa, it's those that don't. Neither you, Krulak, nor Lerner do. We were tricked when you rode into town hooting and a-hollering shooting from the hip with your yee-ha's but it turned out to be smoke and mirrors.

It’s not us who is failing to see clearly. It's not Randy who is showing a great deal of restraint. It's not Randy who is showing any signs of "class". It's not Randy who is humiliated, embarrassed, outraged, hurt, despondent, and has the emotional torment of seeing us turned into a laughing stock. That's us. The fans. The real fans. The fans who care about this club. The fans that will be here long after Lerner, and you, have gone. The fans, like King, who actually care about this club and restoring it to its rightful place. The fans who have been held in such contempt for years now. The fans who have little truck with nonsensical responses that are designed for us to side with the person who is killing our club against the 2 are trying to save it. The fans who want Lerner out. You may say that we don't know how or what Lerner and his associates really feel, well we watch every Saturday and that's enough. Go now. The lot of you.



**Applause**

**Standing Ovation**

Offline Chris Jameson

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Re: Randy Lerner
« Reply #3565 on: April 21, 2016, 11:55:05 AM »
You may say that we don't know how or what Lerner and his associates really feel, well we watch every Saturday and that's enough. Go now. The lot of you.



My money is on pelty telling you to go support somebody else if you don't like it.

Offline old man villa fan

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Re: Randy Lerner
« Reply #3566 on: April 21, 2016, 12:03:21 PM »
I have seen mentioned in a few posts that it was King that leaked the news about the sale of the club. I thought that the official club statement put it out there first "extended negotiations.....". The copy of King's resignation letter came later.

Offline Legion

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Re: Randy Lerner
« Reply #3567 on: April 21, 2016, 12:05:08 PM »
Well said, Peter.

Online LeeB

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Re: Randy Lerner
« Reply #3568 on: April 21, 2016, 12:08:29 PM »
A fantastic post from peter w, the thorn in the generals side from way back.

Righteous brother.

Offline Chris Smith

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Re: Randy Lerner
« Reply #3569 on: April 21, 2016, 12:11:43 PM »
One of those rare moments when we can all agree on something, well said Peter.

 


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