As you know Randy Lerner is the current owner of the NFL team the Cleveland Browns. As he also owns us and I like the NFL I have watched with interest developments at Cleveland and the way he operates there as contrast with ourselves.

There are a great many differences between the two sports and clubs but the constant factor is the noticeably low profile of Lerner’s ownership. At both clubs he keeps away from interfering and employs people he believes can do the job. At Villa this strategy has proved successful as clearly Martin O’Neil takes the role of the football czar and this means he has total control over the football side and takes total responsibility for it. With the off field items each head of department reports I understand directly to Randy through his trusted right hand man Paul Faulkner.

Over at the Browns it appears Randy has the same structures but has made a few mistakes in picking up and coming people who have failed under pressure rather than at Villa where he appointed an experienced manager. After years of failure this season he took the decision to get a man of stature to run the Browns football wise from top to bottom – Mike Holmgren and the article linked below makes the very good comparison between him and O’Neil

Article Link

Then Holmgren behind the scenes has recruited two back office staff who are highly rated in the NFL and the future is very bright for the Browns.

The effect on Villa ?

Well Randy has spent a lot of time on the Brown’s problems and it is not clear if he has to direct money to the Browns to find these new and highly paid staff, but it shows he cares about the organisation from top to bottom and will try and recruit the very best in each of their field.

This has certainly worked off the field where despite the Brown’s continued poor performance, by turnover they rank as 13th in the NFL which shows the back room commercial boys certainly know how to generate money which hopefully will filter through to Villa Park.

I do wonder if the template is the same at Villa and on the pitch is the lack of any rumour regarding transfers simply because any new signing from now will be in the very top bracket.

As usual time will tell !

On a side just read a report in the Star that claims Randy is flying back to Villa to ‘calm nerves’ that he is till involved at Villa. Of course Randy as noted above has had to spend time with the Browns but I have not heard one word of grumbling from the Villa fans over this. It seems this is something the reporter picked up on a forum post from the General stating Randy was over for the Semi final tomorrow and making a false story over that, what you see in print you should not take at face value !