Well today’s statement from Lerner is for me a clear signal he is off. It is a deeply personal statement with no PR BS. Added to this are the clear facts of the debt to equity swap which was first revealed exclusively on here and I said at the time he was selling.
So I have been seeing with some amusement the fantasy about Larry Ellison, the 5th richest person a possible and frankly thought it was BS. Well it is known he likes his sports and been involved in a wide range of sports from Tennis to boating. It has been rumoured that he has tried to buy NBA and NFL teams as well.
Now through the wonders of Google I see no link with football (or Soccer) at for Ellison but I found one piece from 2005.
I believe Randy would only sell to someone he knows and trust and I can not find any direct ones, then I remembered something and THIS PIECE shows it.
Now you will have to bear with me on this, this piece is about someone trying to set up a NFL team in LA, a Carmen Policy, so what ?
Well he used to work for Al Lerner at the Browns when they were set up and Randy would know him, you ask so what ?
Well Policy knows Larry Ellison (who like Lerner is Jewish) and he also knows Casey Wasserman (also Jewish). you may now be thinking, Wasserman, I recognise that name. Yes because Wasserman Group as revealed on the forerunner blog was employed by Lerner to sort out the playing side and agents at Villa.
Policy is a key person in Randy’s Dad life and thus Randy’s life, he is a facilitator of sports team buying and organisation. Who knows if rumours of Ellison are true but this is clear that it is possible.
They way things are going under Lerner we will be relegated sooner or later , so what do we loose by rolling the dice with a new owner ????? Fuck all things are awful down villa park ATM & have been for the past 4 years so lets see what happens under new owners , thanks for everything randy now …… Fuck off
Have to disagree with this article Ian you e put two and two together and made 5. Just like u did with OGS coming. We are strongly being linked with 2 baseball owners worth about the same as Lerner. One is well known for running the club as a business and is very frugal. His team like Lerner’s win fuck all. We are out the frying pan into the fire.
so what the heck you want then ? to stick with Lerner ? because whoever takes us over is going to be unknown for running football club.
Well we will have to wait and see. Of course I want Lerner gone but only to someone that is going to get us up there competing again. Or what’s the point.
indeed why spend £200M plus on us to be midtable, that makes no sense does it ?
Lerner spent 65m which was a lot bk then. The reason they would spend £200m to keep us mid table is simple. If they create a team that is mid table but plays decent attacking football like saints then the fans will flock and accept the fact we are a mid table team. They will also buy merchandise and STs. In the meantime our frugal owner sits back and gets his 90m a year sky money so effectively he willbe paid back in 2 years then it’s all profit. That’s why
Profit you say? I don’t think thats the case Ooahh, 200m of what kind of profit? how much profit does southampton make? are you telling me someone would invest 200m for those kinds of profits?
Lerner hasn’t made any profit yet, Maybe he will break even maybe not, he is constantly accused for being in it for the profit,( still yet to see the one solid piece of accounting to support that) but you are talking about billionaires that control or invest in multi billion dollar hedge/mutual funds start ups stock etc, i think you will find they made or inherited those billions from far more lucrative vehicles than a owning a football club, and at the end of the day they don’t have fans with some very flimsy grasps on money or profits or the business world telling him to fuck off.
If someone invests in Aston Villa or takes us over, it will more than likely be out of a need for publicity or for the love of football maybe not necessarily the love of Villa.
My worst fear is for a leveraged gillett and hicks/Glazer style buy out.
you know thats going to end in tears.
Fair points colonius hope ur right.
True but what your kinda saying is if a new owner takes us away from relegation and makes us for example the new saints you would be happy with that. I wouldn’t be happy with anything less than us competing with top 4 it’s what defines you as a club rightly or wrongly. If that makes me an unrealistic ambitious supporter then so be it I’m sick to death of the media wanking over London, merseyside and the mancs. I want them wanking over us too just for once!!
nath hands out loads of tissues
Is Bill gates one of his mates too??
Let’s be honest, we are just not that lucky to get someone with more money than god and a desire to blow the lot!
However we deserve someone who actually cares about the club with regards to performance. It’s been clear that since MON hosed him, RL has basically kept the lights on but that’s about it! If someone else can do a better job, works for me!!
Neither Lpool or Everton have spent tons and have looked decent all year through a decent football coach / philosophy! I’ll have some of that please 🙂
If we are sold in the summer i feel this deal has been in place for sometime. Look at KEA contract of two years and then Lambert on three. He will get a pay off on his contract come the end of the season.
Now most of the bomb squad have gone the loss of revenue on our current team would be minimal. Releasing Lowton and say Westwood would be next to nothing in comparison to the players they have replaced.
The restructuring may well have been part of the deal so the new owner can come in and have enough room in the squad to add quality.
Good piece it is rumoured to be two.I think if this goes through the article you did Ian about the offset of debt was correct.Im all for moving forward as Lerner knows he won’t take us further but will in his eyes pass us on to ones who can.I look forward to next season if we remain in the Prem UTV
I really want change down the Villa we have gone backwards for 4 years now….Randy gave us 3 years when we started dreaming of top 4 finish now i am praying we stay up, i am not saying Villa have the god given right to be a top club, but look at the size of the club the fan base the following we get week in week out we are a massive club, we should not be getting out played in the transfer market by teams like stoke and fulham we should be on a level with spurs and everton thats where we should be not in the dregs….so i will be dreaming that this happens but know matter what, i will be with villa and so will each of you thats why we must have change because we been there good and bad now its time for some good.
For me the comments from Lerner indicate that providing we stay up the club is sold and IMO the agreements are already in place.
Hope it’s Ellison, net worth of 48 billion, we will be a major player again.
Really concerned in typical Villa fashion we’re going to screw it all up by getting relegated. Somehow we need Sid and Given to help the players pull one win out, or at least a couple of draws, because Lamberk is getting his pay off regardless, so the useless twat won’t care.
Once the takeover happens, the most single important factor is that we appoint a top manager. No point having money and watching someone waste it (as we witnessed under MON).
when we get taken over the first action of a new owner will be the manager then we will know their intentions …
On the football side of things could somebody give Gabby a video of Suarez to watch before next weeks game.
Love him or hate the bloke never stops running where as Gabby looks like he don’t give shit.
under any new ownership he would be the first one to go for me
I think so 2. If that’s the case we need a big name manager with money to spend to show intent. Someone like Benitez as long as he dosnt have a wankfest over Liverpool
Don’t see what the admiration for Bentiez comes from .. he was a phenomenal manager in his early days, valencia, Liverpool champions league but he needs about 100m every window to finish 3rd and he has an atrocious record in the transfer window. Liverpool were outspending Man Utd at the time as well. Think how many full backs languishing in the reserves for liverpool under his reign, He needs serious money and he has some really iffy results since his days in Valencia (who are on the brink of financial crisis every season now)
He is also at what is a very competitive club right now, in Napoli,
Whereas I think Lambert has been unlucky and only recently turned off track if we get mega money, then we will need one of the big names that can attract those big name players. But hopefully a fresher and more exciting and possibly one that has experience of taking a Club up a level or two. One like Jurgen klopp, perhaps?
I dream of course but some thing of that ilk would be the way to go for me.
This of course is based on the fanciful notions that a take will take place, and if it does, the new owners will have more money than sense and fling it at all things villa and fling more of it than the other top clubs … big ask!
I think if Wev huge amounts of money to spend will attract class managers and players.
Klopp won’t come, he’s turned down bigger clubs (like Napoli) to stay at Dortmund. Same with Benitez as you’ve said.
Big question is, should we go the exciting way of big named players, big named manager, huge wages, or go an equally exciting way (at least according to me) of a young manager who is actually really good (yes there are some out there) and go with a mixture of class youth, a brand new academy-type system, and go for a long term plan. City have a mix of both where they have an incredible new academy and spend shitloads, or Chelsea where they have a poor academy, buy every youth player with talent, send them out on loan, give 0 of them a try, sign really good youth players for huge fees and hope they work out.
I like City’s way as their academy right down to the U-10’s or so are playing the same way and they’re scouting all the best youth. Will start producing players and they plan on being able to run as a stable club after their 10 year plan without having the need to spend 150m every summer.
How many of city’s academy are in their team though? Like Chelsea they prefer to buy tge finished article
One thing that gets me, is WHY Gabby isn’t doing the running? It just says to me that something stinks at the club enough to bring the guy down. In the meantime, the club exploit his position to cover for the shit situation Lerner has us in.
Well I’ll be a worried man as it seems like for like to me, my only hope is who ever takes it on will spend time with the club and heed our concerns, ie as Oohah saying go for glory and not use us as a boys toy. Lerner to me was a person that was motivated by money ,the club neally cost him dear, he sees the time to sell now,maybe problems in his own little world of life. I say good riddance to an owner that had no thought for the clubs honour and the fans, cannot come quicker enough for me.
Finally, some light at the end of the tunnel at last, randy had good intentions i ahve never seen us so bad than this past four years, this sale can not come quick enough as we am only heading in one direction at the moment, time to rekindle the Villa spirit and get that buzz back down VP, hopefully exciting times ahead.
I have to agree Clive.
Even when we were rock bottom in the third, we had a feeling of moving upwards.
We need that feeling back.
Beat Swansea and we are in the pink££&££££££££££
If there’s money to spend a top manager and players will come
If Lerners hasn’t sold after that statement who in the right mind would renew their ST
People will renew now thinking he will sell and we will be like man city next season that’s why. Boy are they in for a shock
Be nice to get back to being a proper football club again can we dig up Brian Clough
What about the possibility that he is not selling up but just bringing in an addition investor ? In which case out of loyalty to Lambert he stays. He does seem sympathetic towards Lambert in his statement saying it was unfair conditions. Man City under new ownership gave Hughes a chance and they could have had any manager they wanted at the time.
That’s a very good point Tekkers.
Yes, Lambert was dealt a bad hand, but he hasn’t maximised it, imo.
He’s spent serious money and the team is just utter rubbish, seemingly in their ability and the way they’ve been played.
He has to go, simple.
No second chances.
I agree badger that Lambert has to go. Hughes did eventually get pushed out and probably only delayed their rise to the top table. Its just a niggling feeling I have that he will give him a go at it with less financial constraints if Lerner stays as chairman.
I actually thought Hughes was doing ok, fwiw.
I believe he didn’t really want to go down the megabucks route and was trying to play it slower.
The sort of manager I’d like, but obviously not quick enough for the owners, given the money that they were willing to pump in.
Not that I kept much of an eye on them, so I could be totally wrong in that assessment
40m is NOT serious money for 15 players!!
Which is why lamberk should have bought 6-7 quality ones instead of 20 shite ones
Totally agreed Helenius, but he shouldn’t have spent £40 million on 15 players!
He should have bought way less players, with better quality.
Jeez, if you can’t see that, well, we’ll just have to disagree.
I’ve said it for ages and most sites now agree, buying loads of cheap shit is not the way to go.
You need some quality in the mix.
And £40 mill could have bought some.
lambert needed 2 build a squad with the 40 mill u claim and this was over 18 months , also removing high earners or how else would the club reduce the debt it had accumulated. had villa been relegated last year we could have been in real shit, rumours were we had running costs so high and adding to a uncontrollable debt, so lets face the facts lambert has kept villa’s head above the water line.while managing a large debt. our running costs now are almost breaking even with tv alone.this will help attract buyers much more than say 2 seasons ago.
before he came mcliesh had only just kept us up. plus i remember the footy worse and negative formations using 7 ~8 defenders playing for draws. so while lambert failed to live up 2 our dreams. he leaves us in much healthier position than he found us
Sorry Nath disagree to a point,I’ll give you what your saying regards cutting costs and that was what Lambert was asked to do, but ,and a big BUT we was very lucky that their are 3 teams supposedly words that us, Nath if we don’t go down its because of that scenario, and not down to Lambert. He has done some stupid moves with plays positions, he has not noticed in form and off form players, he failed to stick experience into his team, that’s why I think he’s out of his depth as a manager for Villa, the principle was good but he failed in knowledge of the game. Nath I admire you loyalty for the man ,but not my cup of tea, he lacks experience.
Worse than us.
lerner was responsible for lack of experience, wage budgets allotted to lambert, dictated the players lambert shopped for, if he had bought 6 or 7 experienced players the debt which has been almost cleared. would still be ere and the position in league would av been similar.
also buy 6 or 7 experienced players instead of getting numbers leaves u open 2 injuries and lack of depth. i think hes done as well as anybody given the hand he was dealt.
Nath was Lerner responsible for bad team selection, was Lerner responsible for bad positional positions, I don’t think so, as I’ve said we don’t agree and to me you are barking up the wrong tree with Lambert he is not good enough for my club he’s useless to say the lease.
I don’t want American owners or Scottish managers bill. Both a bad combination for us.
lmao u see bill it doesn’t matter if we agree aslong, as we debate in peace, lerner is in my opinion the bigger problem. he went about the job totally wrong, he splashed the cash in MON rein, but for a few good signings. most were players reaching the end years of their career, on inflated wages. then realizing his mistake lerner said no 2 mon, stopped the spending. only a few panic buys after this b4 lambert stabled a sinking ship.
also you don’t get top managers in crap jobs and villa is less than appealing, lambert has made the job better, 4 then nxt manager because the squad is younger, on manageable wages. so maybe nxt manager can take us on to the nxt lvl. if we are taken over or not
Is there anything at all to link Ellison to an interest in soccer/football/EPL/AVFC?
Sorry Ian, I just don’t go with the notion that because some of the people named have a common cultural/religious background that is enough: that same ‘connection’ applies to a lot of others [look at Spurs for a start…].
Nor do I see who would find AVFC worth £200m, when we’re not in London, we haven’t been able to attract any ‘global’ -brand sponsorship in years, and have average attendances of around 34k in a stadium that can only hold 42k.
If Lerner is selling up, it seems much more likely to be almost a fire-sale so that he can just cut his losses and get out.
I agree ardent it’s more likely to be one of the Texan baseball owners who are worth around the same as Lerner and run their clubs frugally. Expect the same shit different owner
Looking at how it has gone for the Browns since Randy sold them, I genuinely fear for Villa. I reckon Lerner will sell Villa on to someone of a similar level of wealth to an Ellis Short or the gent at Fulham. I predict our new owner will throw a relatively largish amount of money at transfers this summer BUT not enough to reverse the rot that has set in under Lerner. Quite simply Lerner does not understand sport and he does not understand what we are crying out for at Villa. I fear more huge frustration.
…and let me clarify that I am usually a huge optimist! It’s just that Randy Lerner’s track record and sense of judgement are far from inspiring. PLEASE PROVE ME WRONG RANDY!
I agree macca a new owner will do ok for a few months to get fans on his side then it will be more mid table mediocraty
Have to remain in the prem 1st that is not certain yet.Have to beat Swansea or Hull as I fear Spurs n Man city will beat us
No chance we will go down have u seens Norwich’s run in hammer house of horrors
Nice lil piece IanRobo and I see your logic. If iv learnt anything over last couple seasons its not to believe anything until it actually happens which is why I shall not be looking any further than Saturdays game.
Oohaah, you won’t be happy until we challenging top 4??….That’s going to be a miserable next 10 years+ for you!!!
Agree it will be miserable but if we get a lot of money spent we have a chance
It would be nice if somebody or somebody in a consortium who bought the club was a villa fan.
Don’t give a fuck who they support as long as they are successful with us. Like having gabby a good villa man but totally useless