News breaking this evening is that a genuine bid of around £150 million has been submitted to the people handling the sale of Aston Villa.
The consortium is led by the former Arsenal defender and Captain Tony Adams, but it seems the brains behind the outfit is one Paul Smith, who was previously Chelsea’s group business affairs director.
Until he was seemingly unfairly sacked by Chelsea in 2007.
I find myself wondering how this story has got out, as surely you would expect things to be kept very quiet until the actual deal is done, so that we actually don’t have any chance to voice our opinion. And it certainly seems that Lerner doesn’t like his business done in the open.
I doubt he’ll be too happy.
The BBC report I’ve just watched also says that Lerner is loathe to sell until our fate this season has been decided, which doesn’t surprise me I guess, as think of all the extra money that’ll be rolling in if we survive.
I don’t know, but every time I hear the word “consortium”, I get this creepy feeling down my spine and thoughts of a lack of investment, whilst taking money out, automatically go through my mind.
Perhaps it’s unwarranted, but I have my doubts.
While I want Lerner out, I really do worry that we may be jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Hmm, it seems some of you are talking about £75 mill up front and £75 mill leveraged?
If that’s the case, they can ram their bid.
And if Lerner genuinely cares about the Villa, he’ll tell them the same.
Imagine us being taken over by an outfit that can’t raise the required poke upfront and has to spend years paying our debt off.
We think things are bad now???
This might be a genuine bid, but I’d expect it to be one that flushes others out.
If we stay up.
Win the cup and the price jumps another £50 mill, imo.
VERY interesting article here;
http://theshortfuse.sbnation.com/2015/5/7/8566787/aston-villa-takeover-tony-adams-arsenal-azerbaijan
What a thought provoking article! All I want from an owner is to ensure they truly have Villa’s best interests at heart; is business savvy and will invest to help us move forward, without endangering our long term survival.
I have read other articles where Tony Adams would have a role on the football side. I really hope that this is not as manager, as his record is not impressive. Whoever takes over should give Tim Sherwood a fair crack of the whip. In his short time at the club, Villa now play some really enjoyable football and are winning a good percentage of matches. Personally, I’ve lost that feeling of dread the previous manager gave me every match day.
I am confident Tim Sherwood will steer Villa clear of relegation. Further, I would not bet against us causing an FA Cup upset. In any sane profession this would guarantee the manager’s job, but this is football and takeover time, what is fair, often goes out the window.
Hmmm the plot thickens sounds very dodgy tbh
So a family who owns HALF the wealth of a very poor nation (tbc), is peeing it up the wall on sports ventures??? And if they are so wealthy, why do they need to raise another £75m? Buying half of Villa on the never never????
Wouldn’t touch this consortium with a barge pole. Mine or yours!
Adams won’t get a look in, when it comes to running the team and rightly so, as he’s rubbish, imo.
He’s just the known face, that gives the bid some credence, imo.
Azerbajahnis (sp)? No thanks.
I want someone where the game is more in the blood and it’s not just a prospective money-making scheme.
I don’t believe any prospective new owner will buy us for the love of football in general, or us in particular. They will either be washing dirty money, or looking to make money. We may not be fighting relegation every year, but for all his faults, Lerner will be looked back on as the one that got away. His only faults were incompetence and not being rich enough to bankroll us out of the mess he got us in. I do think his heart was in the right pace though. Ih had appointed the right manager, and had a better CEO in place we would be in a much better place. He may have finally stumbled on the right combination, just as he is disappearing.
Mon has a lot to answer for took Lerner for a ride IMO
No he didn’t Oohah.
We had to pay big time to get players in…
I give up on this one.
You win…….
Even though it was probably as close as we’ll ever get and you won’t give any credit.
And you’re wrong, as per usual.
Yes but we know why we paid more for average English dross. Allegedly of course Badger. Agree with your post the Consortium dosnt fill me with confidence either. A load of vultures and venture capitalists getting together for an ego project with an exit strategy in place to cash in big time.
Badger, for once I agree with Oohah. Sixth position was a poor return for the money MON spent at the time. He made a couple of good signings, but most was average, overpriced and overpaid. I hated the football we played towards the end of his reign as well.
OohAhh is right here.
MON was given more than enough money to get us into the CL, the majority of that money went on absolute dross.
Blimey second time this week u agreed with me guest u feeling ok . Remember there was no man city to contend with either. Mon totally bottled it could never win s game in March and bought complete dross for high prices
Ha, yeah i think i need a lay down.
DSV – spot on. Agree with you completely.
There are reports of three live bids…
It’s wierd because £150m is nothing in business investment levels nowadays.. Especially with the vile new TV money coming in…
Very weird, when you consider the money coming in, as you say.
This is a no-brainer.
Unless you suspect things are going to go tits up……..
Fiona Bruce just announcing in Sunderland that she was in Newcastle at the election results program! Lol! She should follow football more closely!!! Does she know the rivalry in these parts?????
This consortium can stuff their bid, we do not want to sell our club to someone who has no cash… £75m in shares and £75m in credit, think what we could do with £75m in transfer funds with the interest going on wages….. Lets hope Randy waits until something respectable arrives on his desk.
True were will they get money for players unless Sherwoid sells to buy which will happen under learner anyway
Tony Adams can do one. I’d rather keep Tim Sherwood and a shoe string budget, plus I believe Sherwood is on the brink of something special with us. Keep our star players, add a few more and we can easily be top 8 imo.
Actually think Lerner should stick around unless some ridiculous offer is tabled to him. With the extra cash and if we can pull off an amazing FA Cup victory the offer of Europe will help keep players and attract new ones. Use some extra cash to keep our core and spend the rest adding to the squad and we will be a very solid unit with Sherwood in charge next season.
I would be happy to see how that pans out as well Darren. I hope Lerner isn’t so desperate to get out that he just sells us to the highest bidder with no regard for their motives or source of finance. I was glad to see the back of Doug Ellis, and full of hope when Lerner took over. This time round I just have this feeling of doom. If a takeover happens i really hope I’m wrong.
Europa cup won’t attract big names though only CL will
it will attract long names though like Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink
We don’t need to attract big names. We need to attract good players and turn them into a big name. And that’s what Europa can do.
Lerner was perfect for us when he took over, a real breath of fresh air.
Massive investment in the playing staff, overhaul of Bodymoor Heath to make it the leading European training facilities, on a par with the NFL’s cutting edge technology.
Turned a derelict eyesore into a beautiful landmark once more in the shape of the Holte pub, and attracted great PR for Aston Villa & Acorns with a selfless sacrifice of advertising revenue.
The marketing was slickly transformed into e-mails, texts, bring a friend, Villa cash, ticket deals and cheaper season tickets. Mine is only £325 now. For nineteen games that fantastic value.
For those that can remember with an unbiased mind, we were actually media darlings and the neutral’s hope for breaking the top four.
I have always been in the MON didn’t do enough, and certainly didn’t deliver a reasonable return on the funds expended during his reign.
Don’t forget that this was when Spurs & Man City were flailing around, dicing with the drop as we are now, and that Everton had no money, but a rock solid Moyes buying at the right price and shaping a side.
We couldn’t finish above Everton, not in four seasons of trying, and the one season we looked like breaking the top four, we bottled it. Two nil up against a shyte Stoke side at home anyone ?
Having sacrificed a UEFA Cup quarter final in Moscow. Nice to see the sights though.
We played good counter attacking football, we got decent wins, most memorably at Old Trafford thanks to Gabby, Everton away with Young upstaging Lescott, and Arsenal.
But at home. If a team wouldn’t play us, MON had no Plan B. So we’d play out nil all draws with the likes of Pompey, Fulham & Bolton.
MON didn’t measure up to Lerner’s investment. Make no mistake.
What would I want in a new Chairman/owner ?
Lerner II with a better manager & CEO. I think that we have them.
Vaze – well put, agree entirely.
yep Vaze I sgree with you as well. UTV
Vaze you are the new Nick Clegg! I agree with Vaze.
Well said Vaze.
Completely agree with Vaze, please put it as an article !!!!! So we can have a proper discussion!
Vote Vaze in election
He would be far better than one of the Cranckies, that have just taken over Scotland
That’s a great post Vaze. Spot on.
Good post vaze as already mentioned submit it as an article MATE.
I personally enjoyed the ride under MON, but it would seem I’m in a minority.
It’s a shame you didn’t submit it as an article Vaze, as it seems it would have gone down well.
I personally enjoyed it up until his last season where it just got tedious. We were a lesser Arsenal, we were a complacent team that was never improving. The football wasn’t good enough for fans unlike Arsenal.
Looking back on it now though, it was rather poor that Villa weren’t getting CL football and such. Had it been an actual good manager with tactical ability and willing to test out different styles and such, we’d have gotten it at least once.
And agreed with Vaze.
It would of seemed like a good ride compared to recent seasons there’s no doubting that even fergie complemented us by saying we were the only Team that could break into the top 4.
I enjoyed that ride too, we had some great times, it’s just a shame that MON showed us the difference between a good manager and a great one, he’s a good manager no doubt, but not good enough, and that was our problem, he always fell short.
I hated half of his transfer dealings, and i hated counter attacking football.
Sherwood has proved that putting teams on the back foot pays off, no more trying to hit teams on the break, no more hoofball, i’m actually enjoying watching us play for the first time in years, feels good.
There were some good times – but a poor return on the amounts spent at the time…
Agree with most of the above but we did have some exciting times with MON and very little since.
Here’s to some exciting times with TS and Villa waking up at last.
BTW had a quick look in the crystal ball and it’s 3-0 and another brilliant Villa win tomorrow.
UTV
No hammers preview LADS???? 4-1VILLA I have that feeling again in me bladder.
That’s the beer giddy 🙂
yep must be the beer, I spoke to syd my fortune telling fish. 7 – 1 to the villa greelish hatrick
Good post Vaze; well argued points. There were some great times under MON but one gets the feeling he was an obdurate man that failed to recognise how football was changing and that the Cloughie school of football and man management had sailed with Noah.
Sadly that view is supported by his failed attempts to return to club football.
Another in the same vein is Roy Keane.
Yep agree good post and point made from Ardent Villa rounds it off, hey lads my next door neighbour who have to add a Westham fan! well he did live in London, said do want a lift to the game, should I accept as he’s as big as a shit house wall? He might not like us winning today and leave me 30 miles away from home, Giddy like it mate but 2-1 will do me.
Welcome to the rollercoaster ride of Villa under Sherwood, I am going for a draw, as if we win I think we will be safe and that is far too simple for the Villa.
West Ham
It is five months since West Ham last won consecutive league matches.
The Hammers have gone 10 Premier League away games without a win (D5, L5).
Sam Allardyce’s side have scored just four goals in their last eight fixtures.
Off the BBC site. Let’s hope they keep that run up. They have nothing to play for, and a manager that seems to be on the verge of being sacked pretty much all the time.
Easy Villa win for me