Previously I wrote an article that went over the situation at Villa in regards to the ongoing sale of the club. This week, the recent update is that talks are on-going and will most likely be completed by the end of the season. What I understand Lerner and a party of interest are undergoing ‘delicate’ negotiations. The price is still rumoured to be around £150 pounds, but a lower price would be negotiated should Villa drop down to the Championship. The current buyers will remain secret as they continue to negotiate with Lerner and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
It’s clear that Aston Villa will get sold sometime this year. But what do you expect from the owner? What kind of actions do you think the new owner would have to take to improve Aston Villa as a club?
On an imaginary scale, the best thing that could happen to the club is a repeat of Man. City. An owner who would be a huge fan of the club and willing to invest. Worst case scenario would be an owner that invests too much, doesn’t understand the sport and loses interest over time: Birmingham City, Leeds United, Blackburn. I think you’re seeing a trend. It could get worse than it has been under Randy Lerner, we can’t forget that.
But apart from squad investment and interest, I’d personally like to see Aston Villa invest a little more in their youth set up. Maybe open up a youth academy somewhere in Europe. With Tim Sherwood and Kevin MacDonald back, we have good staff members that are interested in the development of youth players.
Lerner has done a fantastic job in developing the infrastructure at Aston Villa, including new training ground facilities and Villa Park updates. In the grand scheme of things, Randy Lerner hasn’t been the worst owner the club has even seen. His intent was good, but things got a little underhand under Martin O’Neil.
Since when did the acronym EPL become acceptable? Who started calling it that?
And your point is?
It’s just quicker to type than The Premier League. And we include the E to distinguish it from our previous managers initials…
I was talking to a 30ish yo Wolves fan today (mutual respect on both sides) and he suggested that if we do stay up, surely Sherwood will get £20-30 million to spend, to try and improve us?
Of course, he’s not quite up on the facts of the matter re Villa and Lerner not wanting to spend and wanting to sell, but it’s very similar to what I was suggesting before the winter window, hence I totally agreed with him. He even said we should be looking at players in the £7-8 million area and totally move away from the £2-3 million class, as it isn’t good enough; something I also said.
The point is, this is what an outsider (as a fan of arguably our biggest Midlands competitor over a very long time) thinks we ought to be spending in our position.
That’s what I expect, £25-30 mill transfer net spending, as a minimum.
Every year, given the telly money coming in.
And if the consortium (which is indeed rumoured) can’t do it, I’d advise them to not bother bidding, as it’ll end in tears for us fans.
I never fancied Ray Ranson’s bid and I don’t like the idea of consortiums at all, as you can guarantee they’re only in it for the money, imo.
Oh, apart from Arsenal (with all the bitching and infighting at ownership level), can we think of any other Prem club that is owned by a consortium that has been sucessful?
I think Lerner has proven a poor owner overall, but at least he had the sense to realise he’d been out of his depth and is willing to bail out at a loss, (albeit nowhere near as bad as is being made out, imo).
If he does sell, it’ll tell us all exactly what he was about in that if we end up with some fly-by- nighters, it’ll prove he didn’t give a toss about the club.
Badger, consortium can mean many different things; not sure I would describe Arsenal ownership in that way but hey ho. I did post on here some time ago that Lerner may stay in for a period post sale as he has done at the Brown’s where he retained a (30% – I think) stake with an option to sell (or possibly the owner has a buy option) after a stated period – again I think it’s either two or three years. At the Browns there is a single owner but with a diluted financial interest. Could have a similar set up at Villa post sale which is, I suspect, what will happen. If structured properly this could give Villa access to substantial funds for team development.
Agree with much of what you say Badger; however I’m not sure that there’s any PL club actually owned by a consortium!
Arsenal are owned by two or three main shareholders who all seem to have bought their shares seperately from different family-sellers at different times, rather than as a single joint purchase, and yes, there has been plenty of bitching there as different rich men fight to get the biggest slice.
Looking at it the other way – what if there were several long-term Villa fans, none of whom individually has the hundreds of millions now needed to buy & run a competitive PL club, but who together have enough serious money to persuade a proper external financial investor to back a bid – would that be so bad?
Hitchens/Ardent,
Perhaps “consortium” was the wrong word for Arsenal, but it’s as close as we get in the English game, so was my best comparison.
Whatever, I just don’t think it’ll work, especially in footy, where the investment/profit debate is probably more difficult than any other industry.
Consensus will be difficult to achieve, for a start, as we can see on this or any other Villa site. And that’s at the lowest level, ie us fans.
As for a consortium of Villa fans, I can’t think of one who wants to buy us, let alone a few, so that’s a non-starter.
No, you buy a Prem club for mainly two reasons, imo.
You want the attention/acclaim it can bring you, or you want to try and make a profit.
In a consortium, you aren’t going to get the first, in the way that you want.
The profit side of things is plain to see for me though (Lerner’s doing just that atm, in raking his losses back in).
Lerner has to go if he can’t change his attitude, but I do worry about who we might end up with.
The likes of Bill Kenwright at Everton are rare these days.
Agree that there probably isn’t a single genuine fan who has either the very deep pockets or even the desire to buy the club and run it, etc., – but there may be some who are relatively wealthy and with enough business experience to take part in a proper buy-out if they can persuade others to do the same.
Still, I don’t disagree with your general point, just saying that there may be a viable alternative to looking for a billionaire sugar-daddy!
Fair comment Badger / Ardent. I do think the model of a single owner but with a diluted financial interest is an interesting one which is a variation on the Arsenal shareholding. Although, on the face of it, there are no dividends available for shareholders, if one buys at the right price then there is a real possibility of capital appreciation of the asset. £150m for Villa staying in the PL with the right type of financial backing could produce a huge increase in value for shareholders and with sensible tax planning may well be an attractive proposition. No doubt someone cleverer than me will put me right!
Consortium is just a more respectable way of saying ‘syndicate’.
I disagree that the best thing for the club would be a Man City type takeover. They have no soul or history. We should be aiming to build a club deeply rooted in the locality, in our history and one that takes decency seriously – a club that looks after its own as in the case of Petrov. The noise is getting louder about the amount of untapped British talent, and as a nation that’s produced consistently over the past fifty years, that source can’t have suddenly evaporated. I’d like to see a club with more European ideas towards teenage footballers getting a proper education, not one string to their bow idiots who end up on the acrap heap if they fail to make the grade. Investment has to be consistent and half decent, especially with the new TV money. We, the fans, are not stupid and understand that the club cannot be bankrupted – be transparent with the true figures and we won’t scream and shout because we can’t afford Messi. We need to offer wages that don’t insult the players we’re trying to attract, or get them looking at other clubs for a pay rise a la Barry and Milner or Young. I want to see us competing, not just making up the numbers. I want to be proud of Aston Villa FC.
…scrap heap…
Bum bum scrap heap sounds better, (joke.
Bum Bum – hear, hear.
Well said, although I don’t think you can make the argument Milner, Barry and Young left for pay raises. They left for better clubs than us who are challenging for trophies, and unless we do get a City type owner, that’s always going to happen because we’re never going to be a United no matter what kind of owner we get. Downing you’d have a better argument making that for.
I think the biggest problem with this, and I want exactly what you want, is that our fans aren’t patient enough. If we’re not challenging, they’ll be on any new owners back within 2 years. Most fans from what I see are always asking how much so and so is worth solely because they think because they’re worth 10 billion instead of 4 billion, they can and will spend more, which is false. No matter how good a player we get, unless we have a City owner who’s willing to up his wage to 250k a week or so like Aguero, we’ll lose them to the best teams like Barca, Madrid, United, Chelsea, etc.
But all in all I want exactly what you want. Which means we need world class scouts, Sherwood too become a tactical genius, a better youth system with a better ideology from top to bottom on how each team plays. City’s going to be the scariest team within a decade because they brought in Barca’s former academy directors and have their under 12’s playing the exact same way all their youth teams and their senior team play.
Possibly but we too were challenging at the time to break into the top four…then Randy pulled the plug…
We were “challenging” so to speak but we didn’t have a manager that could break us into it, we finally did get a manager that could’ve if he didn’t fall ill. But that hasn’t stopped Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and Everton losing their “better” players over the years either.
Come on Andy, Bale and Ronaldo are shit. Admit it!!! 😉
Swansea preview please.UTV
Mr Cheese said he’s going to do a preview, Giddy, although I’m not sure when it’ll be posted. It’ll no doubt make a nice change from my rattle though 🙂
I hope it’s an optimistic one I can’t be doing with anymore negative bollox.UTV SOTS
Good morning (it’s 1 am) my optimistic friend. Entertained last night – a good time had by all and I’m pi**ed as a f**t. So here we are another Saturday and the world is well. Good win for the Villa today and another giant stride towards safety. Going for 3-1 ‘cos I’m feeling good about a Benteke riot. Suppose I should wend my way up the apples and pears but enjoying an Ash track fest. Ah just pour another glass. 🙂
Kerry, I’ve removed your post, as I want to use it for an article early in the week, if you don’t mind.
If that’s a problem, let me know and I’ll reinstate it mate.
Giddy, I suspect it’ll be optimistic.
I could have a sneaky peak, but don’t like to do that.
Your reply to Kerry deleted too, hope that’s ok and you understand why.
It’ll make a nice post, imo.
No problems MATE. 😀 UTV
Ps yes it was a good read.
Ive got a sneaky feeling just like last week that I reckon I will be watching match of the day again this week utv
Manchester, the self-rated “Second City” which owes its location to the fact that it rains so often the cotton won’t break, has been rated by David De Gea’s girlfriend as “Uglier than the back of a Fridge”.
She is singing Spain’s Eurobore entry this year, no doubt hoping for lots of votes from Brum.
Buzzcocks. Magazine. The Smiths. The Fall. Happy Mondays. Stone Roses. 10cc. Joy Division. New Order. Dour surroundings inspire.
Don’t get me wrong, I still hate Citeh and Utd!
Black Sabbath, Moody Blues, ELO, UB40, Judas Priest, Roy Wood, Stevie Windwood the list goes on.
Fuck the Mancs and the scoucers, oh and the Beatles were (imo) a shower of over hyped, emperor’s New clothes shite.
Ticket to ride? Well make it one way and fuckoff.
I’ve looked in my crystal ball (having got the last two spot on) and predict a Villa win 3-0 tomorrow.
Based solely on the fire in our team’s belly at the moment and the awesome fire power we’ve belatedly discovered.
Looking at the possible line up, even with injuries, we still look really strong which is strange when only a few weeks back they all looked like they belonged in the bomb squad.
UTV TS for World President
I think you might be right. 3-0 it is!!!