The Lerner years

[PeterWithe]

I read and agreed with something here about Lerner, for years we needed a very rich owner but the moment we got one it wasn’t enough anymore. Other clubs got the wealth of whole countries.

One club did.

One club did directly but there was plenty of money sloshing around the PL which was state owned but had been criminally redirected into private hands, Chelsea being the obvious example a few years earlier.

Xia was a conman that did time. Lerner was a billionaire, well intentioned but not a smart football club owner.

Agreed.

[nigel]

I thinly liken the Lerner years as an owner to the Bruce years as a manager.
We were in deep sh!t when they came in and, basically, saved us.
In both cases we were probably in a better position when they left, but we were glad to see the back of them.

We were definitely not in a better place when Lerner left compared to where we were when he bought us.  He left us in the Championship and sold us to an absolute chancer.  Some "custodian".

We had some decent years when Lerner was spending, and we were once again relevant, with some decent players; but his failing was that he knew nothing about football or the business, and didn't get anyone of sufficient quality of knowhow to administer the club, and he himself failed to provide any long-term vision or strategy - or even the basic idea of how to run a professional football club.

MON was basically just Steve Bruce with a bigger budget.  There was no long-term planning or strategy; and he generally pissed Randy's cash up the wall with too many middle of the road signings (and admittedly a few excellent ones).  No youth development, no squad rotation - same selection every week, and then left us in the lurch.

I get what you’re saying, and can’t argue, but he wasn’t the only one to fall for a Chinese Chancer, he was well and truly hoodwinked, even the due diligence failed to spot it.
I just feel that had Ellis stayed longer he may very well have run us down to the 3rd division, he was putting nothing into the club.
When Bruce came in we were heading that way. We were a complete shambles. He managed to pull the rip cord and stopped the free fall. I agree the football wasn’t great, but at the time that was probably the least of our worries.

[ChicagoLion]

He was desperate to sell. The sale memorandum was being hawked around for months. He put a ridiculously valuation on the club and there were no takers. He ended up selling in the bottom basement market to a conman or the front for a bunch of them.

[Stu]

It was great for 3/4 years and I have fond memories of many away days in London and the Villa fans I met down there. I remember about 25 London Villa off here turned up at a pub in Marylebone to watch an away against Liverpool, great night. Villa felt dynamic and forward thinking again after a few years of staleness, it was an exciting time to be a Villa fan.

Doug’s unpopularity and the reasons why are spoken about in the article and I’m always amazed at younger supporters seeing him as some old fatherly figure Villa legend rather than a penny pinching mediocrity who failed to grasp the future for Villa when the Prem was founded and ran the place like a corner shop. Then I remember that he sold the club nearly 20 years ago and younger fans probably have no idea how intensely Doug was disliked by a lot of the fanbase. And I feel old.

[Villa in Denmark]

I feel the same Stu. Then I remember how there was still a sizeable rump of the support that still thought well of Ellis' running of the club throughout the 90's and into the 00's, presumably for his part on the late 60's.

Oh and you're giving me 10 years I think so if you feel old where does that put me?

[LeeB]

Was it '101 reasons to hate your chairman' in the fanzine? Something like that, anyway that was what opened my eyes to Doug, I'd have been about 12 or 13 at the time.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Great read. Interesting that Lerner was only 44 when he became a billionaire from his fathers inheritance.
At the time i remember being full of optimism as Ellis was no longer going to be holding us back.
I wonder what would have been if Randy Lerner hadn't got a divorce.

I don't think - at least I was told by someone close to the scene- that the financial implications of the divorce affected him much. What did for him was the effect on his son and his new, Anglophobic, woman.

I'd almost forgotten about her not wanting to spend romantic weekends with Randy in Birmingham.

What more than anything for me was the collapse of Bank of America in 2008. MBNA had been sold to them for $35bn but the deal was more about a share swap rather than pure cash. There was cash involved but the majority of the Lerner family's billions were tied up in Bank of America shares.

When Randy bought us in 2006 Bank of America shares were trading at their highest ever value, a few years later with the global financial crash they were trading at a tiny fraction of that value, plus as everybody was cutting up their credit cards, revenue massively dropped. It was pretty much the perfect storm. On paper at least, apart from some cash he had in the bank, he'd pretty much been wiped out (by billionaire standards).

It's no surprise the family wanted him to drop his vanity project, realistically football clubs aren't the best investments and we had to live within our means. Only problem was MON didn't want to trade players even though there were plenty he rarely used. Probably too much work for him plus it would also demonstrate how much money he had overpaid and wasted.

Realistically, I don't think we stood a chance even if his new lady wanted a season ticket in the Holte and a few pints in the Bartons after. The money had gone. Great read though and a wonderful reminder that as bad as Ellis was, and he held us back at every opportunity, before Lerner bought us, there were potential new owners even worse than the Corner shop man and his penny pinching. I can still see the interview of Michael Neville being interviewed outside his maisonette.

[Stu]

I feel the same Stu. Then I remember how there was still a sizeable rump of the support that still thought well of Ellis' running of the club throughout the 90's and into the 00's, presumably for his part on the late 60's.

Oh and you're giving me 10 years I think so if you feel old where does that put me?

I’m 44 next month, you can’t be in your mid-fifties!

[Lucky Eddie]

Did anyone on here write the "Young Doug' comic strip that used to be printed in the fanzine?

[Villa in Denmark]

I feel the same Stu. Then I remember how there was still a sizeable rump of the support that still thought well of Ellis' running of the club throughout the 90's and into the 00's, presumably for his part on the late 60's.

Oh and you're giving me 10 years I think so if you feel old where does that put me?

I’m 44 next month, you can’t be in your mid-fifties!

53. Mind says 33. Body says 63.

[dave.woodhall]

Did anyone on here write the "Young Doug' comic strip that used to be printed in the fanzine?

You think any of us are that clever?

[trinityoap]

You're too modest Dave.

[PaulWinch again]

A great read Dave and really took me back.

[pauliewalnuts]

Lerner's problem was that he put the money in but had zero idea how to get the best out of his investment.

I know I've posted this before, but even Man City, who have as close to an endless source of money as is possible, made sure they appointed the best football administrators in Europe when they struck it rich.

Lerner gave the roles to his dad's best mate, and a bloke who used to run call centres for him but, hey, he was British, so he must understand football.

And then he let MON run the football side of it absolutely unbothered by anyone with any sort of managerial nous.

It was a strange time, that. We were great away from home when we could utilise O'Neill's one tactic, ie counter attacking at speed, but utterly average at home where teams weren't stupid enough to fall for it.

Then the fact MON only bought two players from outside the British leagues, and even then, one of them was kind of plonked on his lap by Gerard Houllier. Absolutely half-arsed transfer policy that was already ten years out od date at the time.

What I can't forgive Lerner for is his absolute who-gives-a-fuck attitude once he'd shacked up with his new Mrs. I thought Gen Krulak got a lot of unfair stick, but he told us time and time again that they were going to be here through thick and thin, no matter how things turned out, and literally the minute things started getting ropey, he disappeared as well.

As a final kick in the teeth, Lerner sold us to an absolute fucking chancer who any half decent businessman would have seen through straight away.

[VillaTim]

Reflecting back on the Lerner years , it was his mid life crisis played out in Aston. Mid 40's check, divorce check. Most of us would buy a sports car and start going up Broad Street on friday nights again. Lerner bought a football club and spunked £250m of inheritance up the wall. The Holte Pub looks good though and parts of the trinity backstage areas.