Well some fun and games today and some journo’s printing a story Randy is looking to sell. So today we had this unsual comment from Pat Murphy.
After reports in a tabloid newspaper that Aston Villa’s American owner Randy Lerner is prepared to sell the club for £200m, BBC Sport’s Pat Murphy tells BBC Radio 5 live: “Randy Lerner has treated that story with disdain.
“I have just spoken to Aston Villa’s chief executive Paul Faulkner; he says he has spoken to Lerner and the story is nonsense, there’s no truth in it.
“Faulkner says he speaks to Lerner three or four times a day and he watches every game, no matter where he is in the world.
“He (Faulkner) added that Lerner had put £250m into the club and has no intention of walking away.”
Now please note the last line …
that is a lie or something has changed … I think we have the answer to the £90M question.
Now Randy until the £90M had not put all the money in the trust did and that was around £90M …
Now it could be Randy has put the 90M in to pay off the trust debts.
Of course buying the club should not be included into this either so this is what I call an Ellisian lie/statement and for me Faulkner has just stated the selling price to everyone. The price is £250M and that will get Lerner some profit back because of the management fees and interest he has charged.
So if someone wants 25% of the club Randy wants £62.5M
Remember please that two months before he sold the Browns he also denied he was selling.
Game on in my view
Pat Murphy also claimed that Villa want to rebuild the North Stand, what on earth is that nonsense ? A monument to himself, the Randy Lerner Stand ?
I can’t tell if Lerner seriously wants to sell, or if Journalists thought Lerner wanted to sell due to the lack of spending recently.
I reckon if a serious offer comes in, one that would see the club ran as it is today. I reckon Lerner will sell, but until that happens he will do his best for the club.
I expect money to be spent this summer, more than in previous seasons.
It may be Adam but with a different owner, I just think all the signs, the stating how much he has invested (incorrect figure) shows he is off.
I’m totally confused Ian.
How does “no intention of walking away” mean that the club’s up for sale?
And why use such a cryptic comment when suggesting that the price is £250 mill, when he can just come out and say it outright if he’s looking to sell?
I still fail to see what the £90 mill has to do with anything.
And surely Randy is the trust anyway?
No Randy is not the trust that is a separate legal entity who LOANED us money on a commercial interest rate. The £90M is as I posted approx the value of the trust debt now and that if he has paid off the trust debt he owns the club lock stock and barrel by himself.
Now as for the denial read this
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/8022786/cleveland-browns-spokesman-denies-franchise-sale
Is it not the same ? two months later club sold.
so is this not a time for celebration then Ian?
lets just say you are bang on .. its for sale ..
is it not time to go mental celebrating! lerner is selling! all our problems are solved!
Not at all because If he is selling we have no idea who to and their motivations
Lerner has had his try and it basically failed so I bear him no ill will just time to go and see if anyone else wants to try and judge them.
for example if he sold to the owners Leeds are selling to I would call for a total boycott of the club …
So you’re saying that the Trust money is totally seperate from Randy’s personal wealth?
That’s not been my understanding of it, but if that’s the case, what you’re saying makes sense.
I’m still not sure you would deny the club’s for sale though, unless there’s a deal in progress.
It is separate because he administers that for the family. Now he could have decided to become the sole owner and creditor, makes things easier.
this convo is as pointless as booting the ball back 2 opposition in less passes as possible.
lerner has never shared his visions of plan villa. so don’t think he will start now.
the 90 mill will be nothing 2 do with anything but moving debts around
Fuck off Lerner, the Villa is OURS! Just fuck off, you spineless, lying, pennypinching, ignorant fuckwit. We need people with ambition and funds to stop this great club from stagnating. ‘Transitional period’ has run its full course…time to move on Randy, its simple, just fuck off, the Villa is OURS…your simply the temporary custodian. You have lost interest in us, likewise, we have lost respect for you. So just fuck off, the Villa is OURS.
party time now Langford! this should make you pretty happy if it was in any way true
There is no smoke without fire.
We spent nothing in January and we have a “long term project” in place with a manager who only has just over 1-year left on his contract.
Bye, bye Randy and good riddance!
they are call dry ice machines .. and the tabloids use them to great effect honestly
i don’t know whats funnier .. people beleiving a tabloid fluff piece or then believing the official clubs statement as a lie. the world is upside down!
Lol brilliant reply Sir, I take my hat off to you.
Can you link me on the AVFC OS to show an official statement ?
I don’t understand now, sorry i am confused.. I think i should bow out of this one
your article has quotes from murphy which in turn is quoting Faulkner! you can’t accuse the club of lying if you simultaneously don’t believe they have officially stated anything!
not accusing you of anything but this is not an official statement, Faulkner has spoken to Murphy and gave him something but an official statement is on the Os.
A bit of semantics of course but we do have a media officer who should be issuing statements not the CEO, shows how messed up things are.
TONY HATELEY RIP.
Tony was hero to Villans of my age. He seemed to have his own personal gravity, less than any centre half, because you would see him jump up before the defender – hover in the air, head the ball precisely where he wanted it to go and come back to earth after the centre half. In the precision of his heading Villa have had no equal since. It helped that Tony had a flat forehead, many of today’s black strikers have a very round skull which makes control far more difficult. Because his heading ability was so good Tony’s footwork was criticised by comparison, but he was no slouch and he improved that aspect of his game with different coaching at Chelsea.
If you were at White Hart Lane for the 5-5 draw you would not forget it. Spurs were London’s best team, Villa’s away record wasn’t good so I travelled in hope rather than expectation. I bought a Villa rosette outside for luck. Ha! On a dusty pitch Hateley appeared in white boots, the looked like plimsolls but were probably tennis gear. Just after half time Villa were 5-1 down – I tore the rosette in half and dropped in on the terrace. The Spurs fan next to me commiserated but more goals seemed inevitable.
Incredibly Hateley scored four goals all with his white boots and had then tucked a goal-bound shot under the keeper which kicked off the line by I think Joe Kinnear. The Spurs fan, a stranger, insisted on buying me a new rosette on the way home.
Excellent post and echo all that HEITS and will post this as an article
the lie within the lie!!!! the conspiracy continues..
You hope Randy will sell and a sugar daddy comes along and restores Villa to the top a la the early 20th century or the early 80’s
I understand this .. but putting your faith in tabloids … believing every public is a lie.
it undermines credibility Ian.
Also, if you don’t believe anything faulkner or lerner says.. why complain when they don’t say anything?
back to reality for me. I will wait to see what happens in the summer.
I think it will be a good assessment point and the summer spending or lack there of will indicate what the foreseeable plan is.
firstly Faulkner has not said anything, we only have what Murphy said.
Secondly there has been known facts going on and since when did Villa respond to rumours ? the position was never to respond to a rumour
It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma,
Wrapped inside a kebab.
Chili sauce sir?
facts wot facts u just said rumours when are rumours facts lmao
I don’t see the urgency lerner spent loads ~ yes he has stopped wasting money but so would I av the way managers squandered the money. more pressing is the style which we are forced 2 endure. teams with far less budgets are actually playing football. some performances we av seen this season are rite out of the 80’s at plough lane
It’s a little bit chicken and egg this. When RL brought the club only Chelsea had a sugar daddy and thus he thought he could probably compete!
Move on 7-8 years and everyone has a new owner spending money like it is going out if fashion and his approach isn’t cutting it anymore! So not willing (or able) to spend massively what do you do……and I think sell the club and recoup his money is the answer!
Tried, didn’t work out, hopefully someone else fancies a blast!
UTV
there is a theory that goes the decline can be traced back to the day Qatar took over Man city and he realised could not compete for the extra CL place and cut back from that point.
and that makes sense to me too.
my take on it was always something along those lines.. he comes in 2006 .. as longboy says throws some money at it CL is the goal.
along come city then tottenham’s fortunes changed, then FSG to liverpool .. you have to admit that in the face of 20m for downing .. as an owner .. you could question if you could or even wanted to compete at that level of spending!
I always figured he tried the money route, the game changed .. 10-20m plus 60k-100k a week for the marque player has now become 35- 50m and 250k a week! if i look at mata, torres, negredo, lamela kind of players.
whether by money or by management or by legacy . there are 6-7 teams legitimately competing for a champions league spot right now.
7 into 4 won’t go.
to outspend any of those top 7? well Lerner probably realises he well and truly can’t or well and truly does not want to.
there is a side argument to be made for the case Everton. sell to buy for a decade. opted for stability in terms of manager. continuity basically.
i think even if we were to be up for sale tomorrow we should try this route.
otherwise be prepared for debts and no guarantee of return. Utopia for agents and middle of the road managers who get their $$$ regardless
Stability is great, but do we keep with Lambert who isn’t tactically good enough, questionable formations and so on? Do we keep a manager who plays more like Tony Pulis than someone like Wenger? Moyes fortunately proved he was good for Everton, and then they made the upgrade to Martinez (never thought I’d say that, didn’t want him here… Questioning myself now. :p). The question is, is Lambert worth keeping to create stability? No, I definitely don’t think he is. Do you?
honestly so far .. I think can’t rule him out yet. in other words i don’t know!
But it would be pointless in firing him now unless you were going to hire a proven winner with a budget to match his goals so for this season – I think i can say that i beleive Lambert should be our manager until the summer as a minimum.
I will be just fascinated to see what happens at that point because I just fell we will need either a transfer budget upgrade, there is investment or a sale of the club .. something that changes the overall big picture for villa maybe a renewed statement of intent from lerner and co – i don’t know. something will have to change if you want to see any progress from the 10th ish place (assuming we solidify that position)
I think he has deserved criticism absolutely, Villa is a size of club that would be new to him. He has learned as he went along at times.
But when i look at it from a overall point of view.
First year 15th .. hammerings but real progress in the 2nd half of the season ..
he managed to get a few more points and a few positions higher than mcLeish as well
this season, we have reverted to some awful football at times but then i see the latest few games and some plucky f U football world .wins like southampton and man City.
I think the effect of injuries to the team have been underestimated greatly.
when benteke comes back broken, and you are missing Vlaar and gabby .. That is our spine and we are just such a different team with them all playing.
we are 10th .. and more or less have a fully fit squad back in place.
I think Lambert has provided season on season progress..where it counts .. results. I don’t think anyone can dispute that. you just have to look at the table and points and compare.
football style, tactics, his demeanor and press conference style – all up for debate
In Moyes second season with Everton they narrowly avoided relegation. I think Lambert is a better manager for our struggles last season and is improving as we go.
Keep him until the summer.
ask me again in the summer!
Can’t blame injuries every team gets them. It’s his fault for not getting strength in depth when he’s had the chance
We lost supposedly because of the hard mid-week Derby game… Not that Everton didn’t have a bigger derby game and were crushed or anything. Lambert’s excuses are as good as McLeish’s. 😉
@Colonius – Do you think that the EPL’s gotten worse though? It’s getting worse and worse every season. I personally don’t think that it’d be that hard for a good manager to make Villa good again, but that’s it, Lambert’s not good enough. We’ve shown progress in the EPL, but yet went out pathetically in the cups. I’m still going on that the EPL’s only going downhill and that we’re getting better because clubs are getting worse. We have the 9th highest paid for team right now, 9th… It’s not like every player’s come in for free, Villa still spends quite a bit each summer and still nothing to show for it.
We’ll keep him till the summer, though I don’t think we’re in any real trouble, so sacking him and bringing in a manager for the 2nd half of the season to understand each player would be a good idea imo.
Spot on Andrew can’t believe he said it was fatigue same for both sides and we were winning with 20 odd mins to go. EPL has got ton stronger IMO as even the sky 4 struggle v lower teams these days. That’s either because sky four have got worse or bottom teams have got better due to new sky money. We will soon find out when city play barca in CL
Eh, other than a few shock defeats to the smaller clubs, which has happened in every league every season, seems they’ve been taking points regularly off the same smaller clubs which is why we’re still somehow 10th, and the bigger clubs can’t make any headway from each other due to not being able to consistently beat each other.
As much as I think that Lerner is past his time, who might come in (if indeed anybody does) has to be a worry.
While Lerner is being a total skinflint, at least he isn’t asset-stripping the club is he?
It could be out of the frying pan and into the fire.
If indeed the club is up for sale, let’s hope he plays it the same way as Ellis and makes sure he only sells to someone who actually has the dough to buy it, as opposed to some massively leveraged consortium or similar.
That’s about the only thing I did appreciate about Ellis, fwiw.
As much as our current issues hurt and frustrate me, I think I much rather have lerner as the owner of our club.
Lets be honest here, it doesn’t really matter who is to take over.. even if he had £400million to chuck at the playing squad, the likes of city, utd, Chelsea are that far ahead it would take all of that and probably more to catch them let alone compete with any further spending from them?
If lerner wants to rebuild the north stand that’s great, it lets our wonderful stadium down to me…
the premier league is not an even playing field anymore im afraid… it is my personal opinion its pointless even trying to compete with the top 6!!!
HOWEVER.. how we spend the money we do have is a topic of discussion and also the way we play…. there is no way a 33 year old stk on loan from a team in the division below should be starting infront of a player whom the manager bought just a few months ago…
we csn also discuss why Gary Gardner isn’t even getting on the bench and also not in the u21s?
we have scored 7 goals in the last 3 games but we have also conceded 7 if im right!!!
I really want lambert to succeed but im really struggling to stick with him at the minute
I am curious about gardener too. Although less so about Gardner versus helenius.
Gardner is recovering from his second ACL injury .. he is a bigger lad and i can see where they may take this season to protect it or build him up more and more.
anyways its enough to mitigate my confusion at his exclusion so far.
I would still love to see him given a go before season ends
Helenius though is more annoying for me .. he can probably learn from Holt as Lambert said but i am not sure he needs to. he played in a support role and support striker in denmark, would you teach the likes of albrighton or Bertrand or delph to hold the ball up or protect the ball with his body?.. horses for courses and from what i seen of him on youtube he strikes me as a football at his feet type player. not a get in amongst it target man.
especially since both gabby and Benteke could perform that role already!
Helenius is a come deep to receive the ball and play football type player, far too advanced for us. Probably the reason he’s not playing is he’s no good at hoofball.
Completely right, he’s not the get stuck in, kill a defender type. Playing football is his style and it’s pathetic Lambert’s trying to change him for the worse.
Going around again that Lerner’s looking to sell… The naming rights to Villa Park to raise cash for the club (guessing this still has to do with the FFP rules that he wants to follow).
Oh and revamping the North Stand.
Still don’t see any of this as meaning Lerner is selling. I guess the reality is if someone offers the right sum then he will sell. What he has done over the last couple of seasons has brought the club to the point that it is maybe break even. If it’s not sucking up large amounts of his cash he has no need to sell, but at the same time what is the point in owning a football club with no ambition other than to survive?
Suppose he is prepared to sell at £250M. Anyone spending that would have to want to push for Top 4. That means you can add upwards of £100M to invest in players, plus covering big losses for at least a few seasons. That’s going to cost £400-500M. Does anyone really believe that will happen? I know I don’t.
Bad news looking to rename ground Ffs and develop north stand http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-not-put-up-6660175?
WHY ON EARTH would you develop the North stand when we only sell out 1/2 times a season now. The time to do that was in 2007-09 when we had regular sell outs and an average close to 40K.
As for renaming the ground, who the hell would give us a large amount, we are not high profile or anything like that.
If he does that, then I would be prepared to set up a new football club because Villa Park should ALWAYS be Villa Park and not bespoiled for some ugly dash for cash.
Leave that to less classy teams than us.
Rename the ground…good lord, please let me die first. It was bad enough demolishing the wonderful and world renowned Trinity Road stand!
Fuck off Lerner, and anyone else who want to change our name, ground or colours….simply, just fuck off, the Villa is OURS
One thing that does stand out in Faulkner’s statement though. “Lerner is not ACTIVELY looking to sell”. He could have said Lerner will not sell or is not going to sell. You could read the statement as saying “but if someone makes him a decent offer”
Everything is for sale at the right price!
and we have the price – £250M
And the queue to buy is 0 long!
Hi Ya Boys Daily Mirror now have it Randy Lerner willing to sell naming rights to Villa Park to raise money for club.
iam bored aswell
ian has his say ~ like his opinion are facts benitez style
my mirror paper doesn’t say the same as terry jones claims his does
also as ian claimed red bull wanted 2 buy villa they wouldn’t change villa park name or even the name aston ~villa
basically this debate is nonsense until we know wot the fuck we are debating. iam more worried lambert see saturdays whimper performance as hard luck.he can he call that hard luck / we were lucky 2 be a goal up with only one attack most of game and below 30% of ball