It’s a complaint that’s often been aimed at Randy Lerner over the last couple of years and one that seems to have raised itself again today.
Randy Lerner is way too silent and never comes out with a statement of intent or ambition.
Well, ok he did a while back via his mouthpiece Paul Faulkner.
It rattled on about our aim for European football and hoped for us to be moving on to even higher levels.
All total rubbish, given that we pay peanuts as wages in the scheme of the Premier league and don’t even pay the transfer fees that get put forward in the papers, if you believe Paul Lambert.
So, given that most thought Paul Faulkner was talking through his behind, would we be really be more inclined to believe the words if they were to actually come from the owner’s mouth?
And anyway, would Lerner say anything other than everything’s rosy in the Claret and Blue garden?
Maybe he’d say something like “we’re cutting back severely for x seasons, then we’ll go again”?
Is that want we’d want to hear? I doubt it personally.
So to be honest, I can fully understand why he keeps his mouth shut. He has absolutely nothing to gain.
If he promises the world and we fail (which we surely would), he ends up looking a total mug and becomes an even bigger target for derision than he already is.
And if he tells the truth, in that we’re in a period of austerity, even more will be calling for him gone if he can’t fulfill the fan’s ambitions.
No, it just isn’t going to happen, is it?
So we have to accept that Lerner’s silence is going to continue, at least for the short term.
Until a time where actions become louder than any words.
And he seriously invests again, with a decent manager who doesn’t have to work on a shoestring budget.
Although i am not a massive fan of Lerner, i feel he does not have to make statement as such.
What i do feel is the club need a better press officer who relates the fans to the club, Lerner is a private man and will remain so even if we do well. The club do not have to tell us everything but a relationship needs to be built as the gap between fans and club is too wide and it appears to me both sides have issues of trust with each other
That’s a good point, although I feel the press officer isn’t a high enough level for this sort of thing.
There’s nowt wrong with the press office, to my mind.
They spout the usual PR/hype stuff that it seems works with the younger generation, even though I’m very sceptical.
It’s not helped in the slightest that Paul Faulkner (the main mouthpiece) knows absolutely nothing about football as a game or a business, as far as I can see.
Personally I have no respect for him at all when it comes to footy and he’s supposedly the link man that you’re talking about.
I don’t think Lerner is in isolation; Abramovic, The Glazers and countless other owners all do their business under the radar. They’ve just got better chief executives or more vocal ones that are transparent and have better dialogue with the fans.
And why’s that?
Cause shady b*****s?
Shall we call him Mr X? Has a history (allegedly) of Soviet gangsters, protection rackets, contract killers, arms dealing and the small matter of $500bn has been effectively stolen from the Russian people – lovely fella.
Then there’s MR X, MR X and MR X who have siphoned off over £696 million in interest fees, bank charges, debt repayment and to prop up their fading property empire.
Under the radar? You bet it is.
I agree but something i have noticed on a lot of forums is the total lack of two way communication between club and fans, maybe not press officer but something similar. Lerner is a private man and i can respect that, however Aston Villa are very much inthe public domain.
This summer is huge for all concerned at Villa i cant see the stadium filling as well as it has this season if something is not changed, the football has been dire too watch overall and people will not want to spend so much money on something that offers little in return.
Paul Faulkener is a waste of space. Couldnt organize a piss up in a brewery.
I made this very point about Lerner in a post I had published after the stoke game. The fact that he doesn’t communicate adds to the fans frustrations. Understandably, people can’t get their heads round the fact that we have gone from being able to lay out £7m and £40k a week for bench warmers, to paying peanuts for under performing championship players who are now deemed worthy of a first team place. There isn’t even a ‘spin doctor’ employed by the club to try and fool a few people. I think he should be made to speak to the fans or at the very least release an end of season statement. Is there anyone who thinks next year will be any different? I don’t.
We’ve gone from ellis who you couldn’t pull away from the public eye,to a howard hughes type in lerner.at least ellis turns up to some games even now & at his age,what’s lerners excuse?
Badger I think you are too forgiving towards RL and his inept stewardship of our once great club this is after all not the first season of shite but the 4th on the bounce.
Who cares if he’s a private man? Does the fact he likes to sit in at night watching the Telly and he aint much of one for the karaoke down the boozer on a Friday make it ok for him to be the ruin Of AVFC?
“we’re cutting back severely for x seasons, then we’ll go again?
Is that want we’d want to hear? I doubt it personally.”
And why not? What would be wrong with that? Better than the present deafening silence?
And who’s asking for the world? I don’t think anyone expects us to be rivalling Man C in the transfer market or Barcelona in the Champions League but we do expect the finances be made available to compete and not languish just above the bottom 3 season upon season.
And yea your right he can’t fulfil fans ambitions, well not by employing 2 bob managers and buying 2 bob players.
Lerner’s doing exactly what he and his farther before did at the Browns, here’s something posted after the sale to Tennessee businessman Jimmy Haslam III. –
“The Browns are out from under the dark shadow cast by Lerner…a man that never really took much heat for his role in the outright betrayal of the City of Cleveland. Let’s turn the page and see how this next chapter in Cleveland Browns football shapes up.”
spot on bws. i just read also that spurs should have a 58k capacity stadium by 2017. We are just left behind now and unless an obscene amount of money is put into the playing side we will never do more than tread water. I for one have had enough to the point that when we lose I simply do give a toss anymore iv just stopped caring. Interestingly you look at what champions elect liverpool have done by signing one world class striker for £25m and makes you wonder what the fuck mon was doing all those years. Lerner was at the browns for 10 years i think and strangled the life out of then just like he is doing to us now.
But you know you do care mate and always will because it’s in your DNA, that’s why it hurts so much to watch us wither on the vine.
No BWS iv really had enough I can’t be arsed about the club anymore I’m sick of Lerner and will not set foot in vp again till he fucks off. He has knocked the love I had for this club out if me bit like a woman who loves her husband till he beats her! Enough is enough after 40 years of solid support since div 3 I have never felt this negative. You look up at clubs like saints and Luke shaw saying he wants to stay with them and challange for fourth. It’s a fuckin disgrace the way the club had been neglected by Lerner if villa park was a child he would be had up for abuse. Rant over I am no longer supporting this dross
I don’t see Liverpool as champions elect.
Suarez has had a fantastic season that would have seen any club in Europe towards the top of their table.
He’s still an absolute c**t.
Lerner had a five year plan to make CL and Europe regular when he arrived. He put enough funding in place, just not the right manager.
Citeh, Spurs and arguably now Liverpool have seen that plan off. He can spend big and fight for seventh, or run the club on a sensible financial platform and keep us midtable.
The harsh reality of the game I’m afraid. I don’t like it, but I can fully understand and appreciate where we are.
The top few clubs in the league will all spend more on one player than the eighth placed team downwards on all incoming signings.
How do you get round that ?
Can’t see anyone stopping Liverpool they are just out scoring everyone and will easily roll over man city and possibly Chelsea. Bottom line is Lerner said when he first come and I paraphrase that he is a custodian of the club and if he can’t make it work then he will step aside and let someone else do it. Well Lerner you have failed miserably if you can’t take this great club forward then get the fuck out now as you have turned us into a joke!
Bang on mate and Vaze we a hardly sitting a comfortable mid table and say a cheeky little cup run to boot. No we are winging it season upon season and we are eventually going to be found wanting.
No Cup runs I am afraid BWS, they are too much of a risk on a paper thin squad….. and if we were mediocre mid table team I could see the plan….. But season after season we rely on other teams being more shite than we are and flirt with relegation, if there is a plan its a bloody naive one, because sooner or later we are going to get bitten on the arse !
BWS you put that in a nut shell mate, badger enough is enough and you and us know it, as people are saying now let’s see what they do in the close season, only the concerned fans will stick to stopping a yank fuck up what’s belong to Aston Villa by not spending, I know it will hurt us fans to do it, but has to be done, he’s taking the piss out of my life long love.
Cheers Bill, I think this is starting to gain some momentum now with highly regarded and respected figures such as Villa Historian John Lerwill saying their piece (as he has done on Aston Villa Life today). Here’s an extract – “Perhaps we have to accept that Villa will never compete financially with the big clubs, but at least let’s have a chairman that can help the lion to re-find its roar!”
Astonished Lerner fans looking to blame everyone and anyone accept Lerner. Is this a Joke? Or have I been transferred to the Villa park PR machine. Only one man is to blame for Villas awful decline., that Man is Lerner. He employes Faulkner and Lambert and it suits him. He needs them he wants them, wake up. It deflects away from him. Any fan who can not see the calculated Lerner is naive at best. The investment arguement is old and flawed. He loaned money and had recouped money. Lerner treats fans with contempt. Why would he speak to us. I also don’t agree with Badgers assessment of two scenarios you forgot the third. Honest assessment realistic spending not cheap players who are not good enough. I’m not asking for championship or top 6 spending but a club like Villa should not be bargain basrmt buying clinging onto the prem with substandard players unable to compete with Hull crystal palace etc. Lerner out
Ted I sometimes wonder if some of our lot are suffering with Stockholm Syndrome.
BWS with the obvious refusal by some to acknowledge Lerners contempt of club and fans, do you think it’s now a case of we get what we deserve? Supporting Lerner but blaming the individuals HE employs seems so outrageous and contradictory. Yes Labert and Faulkner need to go, so why hasn’t Lerner got rid? Lerner pulls all the strings you rightly raise the Browns ordeal, yet some continue to defend a man who considers fourth from bottom a success.
So who do we have lined up Ted? Who’s going to buy the club or is Lerner going to walk away and let it fall apart? Say 100,000 of us are willing to invest and Lerner wants £250million, that’s £2,500 each. Let’s make that £5,000 each to allow a £250million fighting fund to buy in some top talent straight away and over the next three years. Keep saying “Lerner out” and hope someone does something about it if you want but you haven’t yet established that your mystery buyer or buyers is any better than Lerner. You are clearly a lot more intelligent than everyone else, why not give us your vision for the Villa over the next five years.
There are buyers out there trust me but Lerner had priced the club out the market. The quartars princes are looking at Liverpool they should look at us huge potential if they spend big.
Oohah, who are these buyers?
As a neutral, I’d be looking at it like this;
Liverpool, a world brand at 3 times the price, or Villa at a third of the price?
It’s a no-brainer.
Lerner has not priced the club out of the market at all.
He just put too much in, in the first place.
He gambled and lost, so now has no option but to try and recoup his losses, as I doubt he’d want to walk away 50% down.
Any Princes are only looking for a quick way in and sadly, Villa don’t fit the bill, as we aren’t world renowned or based in London.
That’s good news for West Ham then with their nice shiny new big stadium and excellent catchment area and transport links.
Absolutely.
As much as I detest the porn bros, you can’t fault their business accumen.
They bought the shit for pennies and sold to a crook for around 25-30% more than the Villa.
Contrast that with Lerner, who likes to play a more “gentlemanly” game.
That’s the difference between people who made their own way (however distastefully) and someone who inherited money.
Of course, the difference is also that Lerner might actually care about the club, whereas the porn bros only care about money.
Disagree badger man city were a club that were well below us in terms of status and history. Look at them now. Shiek mansour could of bought Liverpool at that time but didn’t. I don’t buy this London argument either Birmingham is an hr and a half away from London and an easy commute. Alternatively players can live an hr away from training ground so could move further down the m40 to Warwickshire etc where London is nearer. If we offered a player a100k per week and Liverpool or a London club offered say £70k we would get that player. Yes we would have to pay more money initially but over a couple of years when we start making a name for ourselves and hopefully get in CL it will be easier to attract a top player without overpaying. It’s calked speculate to acculate.
I don’t think that there are too many Lerner fans per se, but as Foxy says, be careful what you wish for.
There are far more Chairman who have proven disastrous for their clubs than those that have been delightful.
Realistic question here ;
1. How much would Lerner have to invest this Summer to produce a squad that is almost certainly guaranteed a top four finish to make CL football ?
2. What return would Lerner see on that investment in the next five years or so if Villa could make CL on a consistent basis.
3. What sort of crowds would Villa Park see if we were in fourth, fifth or sixth and battling for a CL place ? Would we make much more from merchandise and TV revenue ?
If you can answer the above three honestly, you can see that we will be a club that spends quite a bit more than most clubs from seventh down, and as such, we’ll probably finish somewhere from seventh to sixteenth over the next decade or so.
A bit like we have over the last decade or so. Don’t know why some seem to think that Villa are a club that should be fighting for the title ? That hasn’t happened for twenty years, and even then it was a couple of seasons in the sun in all fairness.
A villa team going for fourth and playing good football will attract a full house. We already average around 36k and that’s us playing shit. Who gives a fuck about Lerner’s return on investment that’s not our problem he will make money at our expense. No thanks iv had it with this it’s a joke
Bang again Love it, just who does give a flying f**k about Lerner’s return?
So with childlike wonderment, you want a Chairman who will spend massively and doesn’t expect anything back but the adulation of an adoring fan base ???
Jesus wept. What time are we drinking milk at nursery this morning ?
Try reading my earlier comments you narcissistic twat.
I really don’t see why anyone would buy a Premiership club and want a financial return, it was all an ego trip for RL me thinks, and the amounts he was flashing around with Oneil and Faulkner at the helm backs my thoughts up…. Now he has got bored and wants to run it as a proper stand alone business, which is a little naive.
Personally for us fans its like getting a new bike and Xbox for Xmas then the following year expecting to be happy with an apple and some oranges
Same old same old. We were generally a mid table team before Lerner came. He has pissed loads of money away for us to be a mid table team. He will get most of it back if someone buys the club. What will we get? Carson Yeung or Roman Abramovich? It’s a crap time to be a Villa fan. Some of that is down to Lerner’s mistakes, but a lot is down to the polarisation of the Premiership between haves and have nots.
It would be nice to win most of our home games and play some attractive, attacking football. Is that too much to ask?
Just as an aside. I think the Browns lost pretty much every game for the rest of the season after their takeover. Early days I suppose but change doesn’t guarantee improvement. We can all see that plainly enough by looking at the fortunes of other clubs.
I’m sure I read somewhere that the Browns’ stadium has been renamed after a sponsor.
Nearly as bad as the Lerner’s moving them from Cleveland to Baltimore.
When Lerner gets round to moving Villa I hope he brings it a bit nearer Hampshire
Lol, Hampshirers in the air!
Wintonians (I think that’s what people from Winchester College are called) in the air more like. The team could all play in blazers, ties and boaters.
DS the Lerner’s took control of the Browns in 98 so 14 years of Lerner damage aint going to be repaired overnight.
Agreed but the same is true of the mess we are in. Lerner selling is of no use if we get the wrong owner. I think that is just as likely as getting a filthy rich owner who is happy to blow gazillions on a vanity project. It’s a long haul as far as I can see. I don’t blame Lerner for the steps he has taken to get the finances sorted. It really is at the point where he should be able to loosen the purse strings a bit. If he doesn’t it looks grim. If he does it depends what Lambert does with the money (assuming he is still in charge).
Benteke is another body blow. Holt is the obvious move but then we have all our fit and experienced forwards on the field at the same time. It would be interesting to see a change in tactics rather than do the obvious. I’m not holding my breath.
Some good debate today :-), which as usual, was the intention.
But I think some of you seem to have taken the article as a defence of Randy Lerner.
It isn’t.
I personally think we’re a club that are treading water and just holding our head above the surface.
Which way we will go, who knows?
Which is why I hold the whole setup in contempt, to some extent.
There’s no direction from the top, save for someone who is universally regarded as a money man only.
You all know the score with regards to me personally. I’d had a second wind, where I felt the urge to attend games again and wanted to take the grandkids.
I can only lay out serious money to watch total garbage so many times before I concede defeat though. Which I have for now.
Hence no, it wasn’t a defence of Lerner; I was just making the point about why he won’t be saying anything soon and why we shouldn’t expect him to.
Fear not help is at hand. Based on the recent success of very similar tycoons buying in to the EPL I can reveal a shortlist of eager buyers includes:
Boris Kutchabalzov an oil tycoon from Uzbekistan who wants to move into Aston Hall, and run a tunnel to his box.
Charles Lim a Singapore banker who wants to rename the club Aston Poodles and change the club badge.
Paddy Burke an Irish Builder who wants to change the club shirts to Green because its a lucky colour where he comes from.
Ayatolla Kumerli who intends to outspend anyone from Dubai or Qatar, but will rename Villa Park IRANAIRWAY stadium and align the Holte end with Mecca.
Presidente Cory Marcos, who after her release from Jail in Manila plans to turn the North Stand into a shoe rack to house her collection.
interviews start next week in Cleveland.
Mate, there’s a few on here will be excited to read that lol !
Because I don’t scream Lerner out and everything’s got to change, you’re branded a Lerner fan, PR machine, spin doctor or the like.
The argument of anti-Lerner posters is very weak. It’s along the lines of ;
– We were great before he came (16th under Dave O’Dreary & GT Mark II)
– He has to spend half his own fortune or go
– We need a billionaire philanthropist
There is no way that he is going to run this club as a vanity project or to try and make in roads into the UK economy or build a high profile to mask a murky past.
He will carry on giving Lambert £30-£40m each Summer, and that is as much if not more than most clubs in the country.
It’s no use some of you talking to Wolves fans saying we should be better then we are. We had a wonderful two year period in the early Eighties, and we won a couple of league cups in the Nineties. We won the FA Cup in the Fifties.
Why are we entitled to be a colossus of the English game ? That was the late nineteenth century chaps.
I get a little bored of the Lerner out rants, yes the football has been poor, but we have had some highs this season, that’s what I watch the Villa for.
I’m very happy to see Lerner go down the street and Carlos Slim spend his money on us to advertise mexican mobile phones. Until that happens, be careful what you wish for.
Just ask your Wolves mate about fantastic Chairman that will bring change to the club lol ! Third division champions elect, we’ve been there and done that.
Well said Vaze.
Until either the rules governing English football change or something drastic happens to the way broadcasters go about their business, we’re either at the mercy of a very rich owner or things have to be so bad enough people join together to try to buy the club.
I don’t believe Lerner is the problem. He wants the club to do as well as possible to either give him the maximum return every year as an ongoing investment or to be an attractive proposition to Sheik Billionaire so he’ll buy the club at the highest possible price. Of course we fall into the possible murky area where we might already be too big and a rich investor might want to take on a club like West Ham (which really is ripe for the picking) or if in Birmingham (second city, huge catchment area, about twice the population of Manchester, big Asian population possibly relevant depending where the investment comes from) they might even take their money to Small Heath or similar. Lots of supporters follow success, I’m usually a lone Villa supporter when there’s a match on in the pub, it’s surreal when City score to find 30 or 40 people in the pub jump up and cheer.
I remain optimistic that the team is being slowly rebuilt, I hope Lambert isn’t the chosen one but then I have no real answer to who should replace him. Is it all his fault though? Does there need to be a fresh look at the coaching staff and the people who analyse tactics and so on?
For me the most serious problem is our home form and that must be addressed. It looks like Lambert is being given a chance and the last thing Lerner needs is to pay off another sacked manager and face problems bringing in someone decent. Hopefully Lambert’s contract will be allowed to run down and he will be replaced, or he’ll be given help in areas like tactics and coaching. As I’ve said before we now have a basic team (good enough for mid-table) on which we can build and some promising youngsters coming up through the ranks.
Ermm Now who’s opinion should I trust and run with?
John Lerwill’s (you know the fella well known publish Aston Villa Historian – Aston Villa Chronicles VI & II / Aston Villa : The First Superclub and all that)
Or
a couple of Randy’s groupies –
Vaze ( if you disagree with me we can discuss down Yewtree cause I’m a geezer) and oh go on please submit another another article Vaze so another two (or was it three I can’t quite recall) can comment on it. That was just sooo funny!
Or
Foxy (can some draw me a map to VP – Foxy that (VP) stands for Villa Park mate)
Ermm This is difficult one,it’s a f**king an hard choice….. But no, sorry girls it’s going to have be Mr Lerwill.
BWS you better tread carefully with our vaze he’ll be asking you to leave the site & follow the harriers next.be warned,i can see your point mate.
Cheers Giddy, sometimes I just bit big for my boots mate, do you think he’ll forgive me???
Would it really bother you if he didn’t mate??
I won’t sleep tonight mate.
I know where Villa Park is. If I want a displaced team Milton Keynes is closer. As is Coventry, for that matter.
Can somebody explain to me how you all sweat blood every week and know how bad we are but still try to get one over other posters with excuse after excuse and still say nothing wrong. The club is shite and you all know it, say what it is, and stop trying to say things will get better, it will not full stop, no way will you convince me other wise. BWS you won’t get others to see what we mean, and when the time comes they will hide their heads and say it wasn’t me that said it.
Bill we all have the right to an opinion but it’s the way certain poster(s) put things but as Ray Winston would say “now that’s a proper tool”.
Funnily enough BWS, that’s how I think of you
At least have the originality to come up with your own lines you dull f**ker and what are you his bitch?
Still lost. Whose bitch?
Fuck me BWS we have have Laurel and Hardy on here as well,keep it up Foxy and Vaze.
B6 6HE there you go Foxy, pop in your Sat Nav.
Foxy we’re the team playing in claret & blue.
Thanks. I always come by train.
Bill lets all bring our stars & stripes flags to vp saturday too show our appreciation to how he’s running us.it’s the least we could do. 😉
Altogether Now
Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Lmao. 🙂
Yes giddy we can call it the Alamo, me with my Davey Crocket hat and Bowie knife, BWS with his Daniel Boone rifle, you Giddy can fly the flag.
Brilliant lads.
Sarcasm and insults.
No suggestions as to what the future plans should be. Fascinating insightful stuff, I’ll nip on later to see if the wit improves.
As narcissism goes BWS, who plays to his crowd ? I just state what I feel is relative common sense.
You carry on pleasing the end of the Villa is nigh woe is me crowd.
The wit and wisdom of vaze
.
And the idiom is play to the gallery.