New chairman and Lerner ramblings

[VillaAlways]

Sorry I know it's early days but I fear this bloke is another clueless appointment. The fact that he said I would never have thought of running a football club or words to that effect immediately sent alarm bells ringing.

Surely we needed somebody with a modicum of experience in this field.

[ASHTONVILLA]

I want the appointment to work, but am exteremely unimpressed thus far. Every time he opens his gob he makes things worse. If he wanted a stupid rash rent a gob as chairman then Randy could have promoted Micah Richards.

[JD]

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35378292

Just what we need on the eve of a big derby game.

This is great. I've read two interviews with the new Chairman and basically he is saying the players aren't good enough. Whereas this may be true they are all we've got and now he's basically bagged them. How to influence and motivate the players and manager. Prick..   

Are those not just all quotes from last night's AVST meeting?

If the tone of the meeting from Hollis and Fox had been "well, things aren't as bad as all that", do you think the reaction to it would be better?

It's just that the new signings such as Ayew, Vertout, Gana etc are the ones who are actually trying to get us out of this hole, but it came across as if the new signings are sh*t. Just my opinion from reading what's been reported online and what I've read (although that could just be biased reporting).

[Clampy]

I want the appointment to work, but am exteremely unimpressed thus far. Every time he opens his gob he makes things worse. If he wanted a stupid rash rent a gob as chairman then Randy could have promoted Micah Richards.

For the appointment to work, we need to give it time, not a couple of weeks. I think we could have done without this AGM anyway. I know these dates are probably arranged in advanced and need to happen but this is the kind of thing we could do with at the moment.

[ASHTONVILLA]

For the appointment to work, we need to give it time, not a couple of weeks. I think we could have done without this AGM anyway. I know these dates are probably arranged in advanced and need to happen but this is the kind of thing we could do with at the moment.

Agree it is early days, but I can only judge on what he says at the moment, and most of what he is saying is borderline idiotic. Ultimately I will judge on his actions, which are yet to materialise.

I like Garde, but with buffoons like Fox to support him, and now a chairman that thinks spending money on players is not the way forwards then he will be working with two hands tied behind his back.

[VillaAlways]

Every Villa fan wants it to work of course, but on the surface it just seems like somebody that has appointed to a job where he has absolutely no experience in , and that naivety is already showing in his recent comments.

It strikes me like everything it's another appointment with very little thought.

[AV82EC]

I want the appointment to work, but am exteremely unimpressed thus far. Every time he opens his gob he makes things worse. If he wanted a stupid rash rent a gob as chairman then Randy could have promoted Micah Richards.

For the appointment to work, we need to give it time, not a couple of weeks. I think we could have done without this AGM anyway. I know these dates are probably arranged in advanced and need to happen but this is the kind of thing we could do with at the moment.

I'd disagree Clampy, I've learnt some things there that I didn't know before.

However as is suspected behind the scenes on the football side of the club it's an absolute shambles. Not having a scouting network!! academy is light years behind smaller clubs!! Looks like Almstad has discovered pretty much nothing in place for what he does!!

At least Fox held his hands up for the shambles this summer. Hopefully with some guidance from Hollis he can help turn it around.

And Lerner called this being a custodian, he should hang his head in shame for the dereliction of duty he's overseen. I'm actually quite staggered at the level of incompetence.

Maybe the first thing the club should do is start looking at our club motto and start realising what it means.

[Dave]

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35378292

Just what we need on the eve of a big derby game.

This is great. I've read two interviews with the new Chairman and basically he is saying the players aren't good enough. Whereas this may be true they are all we've got and now he's basically bagged them. How to influence and motivate the players and manager. Prick..   

Are those not just all quotes from last night's AVST meeting?

If the tone of the meeting from Hollis and Fox had been "well, things aren't as bad as all that", do you think the reaction to it would be better?

It's just that the new signings such as Ayew, Vertout, Gana etc are the ones who are actually trying to get us out of this hole, but it came across as if the new signings are sh*t. Just my opinion from reading what's been reported online and what I've read (although that could just be biased reporting).

That BBC article doesn't even hint of him saying that (nor, as far as I can tell does the full transcript from last night).

He doesn't mention the new signings at all, other than to say that changing managers all the time means that it's harder for them.

Whether he's thrown them under a bus in a previous interview or not I don't know, but he certainly doesn't in that BBC article.

[aj2k77]

Pretty much the jist of it is that we've done next to nothing over the last 10 years apart from throw money around, zero infrastructure until the summer. Lerner isn't fit to own a club and the people he's hired over this time haven't been fit to run the club. Talk of putting in strucvtures to catch up with Leicester and Watford..... these are clubs that have been in the top division for one season and they are supposedly more advanced than we are. It speaks volumes of what a shambles of an ownership Lerners reign has been.

[LeeB]

I have to say I'm less than impressed.

"Randy has actually put more than £200m in player signings, new money, coming into this over the last 10 years," said Hollis.

Well yes, but the problem is mate most of that was spent in the first three years, and the subsequent austerity led to buying slightly cheaper players that were never good enough.

The problem with the summer recruitment was that it didn't go far enough.

[aj2k77]

I look forwards to reading next seasons accounts too I we have supposedly spent £23m net in the summer. I don't want to label anyone as a liar but that smells like bullshit again to me.

[paul_e]

Some people seem to be missing context here, to paraphrase he seemed to say that you have to view it as wasted money because we're 10 points from safety, in that respect he's right, clearly the money we spent hasn't translated to points so it was a waste.  The reasons for that are more important than anything else and he suggests that the poor infrastructure at the club is the main one.

[NeilH]

I am really struggling with the negativity here. Strikes me that he is calling it exactly how it is, namely that we have been mismanaged for years and have spent extremely unwisely too. In my mind he’s making a simple statement that the club is in a dire situation and that a stint in the Championship is the result of all of this. Additionally it surely is no shocker that players are not falling over themselves to come to us in this window given the gap we have to close; if it is indeed a case that the club has clauses in place for major pay cuts to survive a stint in the Championship then the incentive will be even less.
Bottom line for me is that, like everyone here, I am livid as to the way we ended up where we are, but if it seems that we are mitigating the shock of relegation early and that will help us in bouncing back quickly.

[LeeB]

Some people seem to be missing context here, to paraphrase he seemed to say that you have to view it as wasted money because we're 10 points from safety, in that respect he's right, clearly the money we spent hasn't translated to points so it was a waste.  The reasons for that are more important than anything else and he suggests that the poor infrastructure at the club is the main one.

I think this is a false conclusion.

The money we spent was a 'waste' because we didn't spend enough,or make enough changes, and that again would be a structural issue for the club.

It was like buying all the components for a bike, except the wheels and handlebar. Instead we've been trying to fashion these items well after the race has started.

[aj2k77]

“He (Lerner) is a very persuasive man,” adding “I said I’m very flatttered to be approached and to be considered as someone who can take on this great job but I’m not a football guy.

“He (Lerner) said we’ve had football guys but I wanted someone who is a businessman.”

We've had football guys? Who and when was that then Randy?