After watching the mess that is the Browns yesterday and reading their message boards, it is clear that the problems over in the States for Lerner are far bigger than at Villa.
Quite a few of us bloggers are skirting around the issue at Villa but there is a simple truth to this. No one man, no matter how rich can support two ailing clubs. At the Browns he employed in Holmgren a top class NFL coach and it has been a disaster this season. The reaction to the defeat yesterday to a team who had only one one game previously was telling, there are strong calls for Randy to sell the Browns.
Well at Villa we know the situation, an unpopular manager, cash taps turned off and some people asking if we should get corrupt but oil cash rich Arabs as owners. At the moment though Randy has to make the crucial decision of his sports management because keeping the two clubs is not a sustainable option any more. As we know his fortune came from his Dad selling of MBNA to the Bank of America. I have mentioned before just how badly the shares have done in the last 4 years, this has really hurt the Lerner family fortune.
Many things Lerner has done for us and the Browns has been very good. Over there despite the Browns being perennial losers the marketing and commercial income has been very good but now you are seeing empty seats, something unheard of. Over here he has done very well in many areas, fans relations, training ground, ground infrastructure, money for players BUT this has all stopped. For our sakes as a club he has to decide which one he should concentrate 100% of his efforts and attention towards, half measures will not be acceptable.
When we have these unwelcome breaks attention does move to other areas, blogs have given people different things to think about but the most crucial is what Randy is thinking and wants to do.
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Can’t see RL selling – at least not in the near future- but I can see him looking for an investment partner to reduce his exposure. Possibly with clauses allowing the partner to increase their investment/percentage ownership and eventual outright purchase at a given date in the future.
It will of course dilute Randy’s profit potential but with the climate as it is and his own portfolio suffering, arguably in part due to over exposure to both Browns and Villa, it makes sense to hedge.
I bet his advisors are telling him he has too many eggs in the Sports Franchise Cake.
Nice OP Ian.
There is NO such thing as an investment in football ….. nearly all the top clubs are making losses. The only people who make money from football are those who borrow to buy a club and take a nice pay packet while the club stay in sustainable debt The Glaziers borrowed money to buy Utd and get handsome salaries from the directorship, same with Liverpool …… if they go bump, the club loses not them as they are Ltd companies. The game’s destroyed by money and debt.
Sheik Mansour is just so rich he can have City as a play thing to brag about, same as Abramovich ….. they just like the status of owning a Premier League club, they are obsessed with winning the CL so they can brag more to their friends. Football has become a commodity and is finished as a reputable working mans sport.
SELL SELL SELL SELL!
and take that useless excuse of a manager with you!
Lerner out is the worst excuse for a Villa fan I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading. Total fucking idiot!
Kendo, you’re a twat dude, bet you’ve never even been to VP, let alone buy a season ticket.
Please Please Please sell up Randy. I have loved the past 4 5 years, but time is up now. UTV
at the end of day when lerner first came to villa an made us a promise that he would be the man to spent his own money an try to take us forward DID HE DISAPPOINT US ammmmmmmmmmm i dont think so ?? — he backed mon to the end he spent a truck load of money year in year out mr lerner had a real go at it an at the same time mr o neil went crazy spending it on poor players an then high wages at that time 2006 city liverpool had not got the money they have 2day it was villa who had the rich owner now if u think about is lerner has spent well over 100 million at villa an look where we are today i wonder will we get in to the top 10 this year ? i wonder will we be in a fight for are lives again this year ? — now city or so rich its a crime man u well they are just man u chelesa are still a top team liverpool have got lots of money now tottenham have a wonderfull team now aresnal are well ahead of villa at this stage so when lerner took over at villa in 2006 there was 4 teams to catch puls the fact villa at that time had more money to spent then 2 of them liverpool an arsenal so we had every chance to break in to the top 4 so we had a go at it lerner spent lots of cash it did not work out mon spend 50m on nobodys but i dont blame lerner for that an— NOW 2011 MAN U MAN CITY LIVERPOOL CHELESA ARSENAL HAVE GOT LOTS OF MONEY TOTTENHAM HAVE A GREAT TEAM VILLA HAVE HAD TO SELL ALL THERE BEST PLAYERS AN ARE TAKEING A BREAK FROM SPENTING RIGHT NOW AFTER SPENDING 100 MILLION LERNER WOULD HAVE TO SPENT AGAIN SOMETHING LIKE 100 OR 150M JUST TO GET VILLA BACK IN THE RACE AN IT WOULD STILL BE A BIG GAMBLE ALL I WILL SAY IS THIS LERNERS NET WORTH IS $1.5B HES ONLY 49 YEAR OLD MAYBE IN THE FUTURE HE WILL OPEN HE S CHECK BOOK AGAIN BUT TO ALL VILLA FANS WHO HAVE THE NECK TO TRY AN QUESTION RANDY AS THE OWNER OF VILLA GET A LIFE SAD LITTLE TWATS WHO NO NEXT TO NOTING ABOUT FOOTBALL
I’m split 50/50. On one hand…I love the fact that we are a well liked family club, ru the proper way (although recently there has been a lot of whispers about boardroom interference reference player sales etc. which isn’t good in my eyes)
And on the other hand…I have supported Villa for very close to 20 years now, seen us rise and fall up and down the premiership, got my hopes up time and time again, seen us win a couple of trohpies, and lose in the final of a few! And the one thing I have ALWAYS said we need to be from now on, is more ruthless. If we want to succeed, be the big club we all know we can be again, then we cannot hold onto this nice club image, we have to be ruthless, ‘Oh hello Man Utd, whats that? You want Ashley Young for a cut price of £16M? How about swivel on this upraised middle finger.’
I would sell to an oil rich arab any day of the week BUT with several clauses…1. the youth academy MUST be used. We have to keep stars like Gabby, Bannan, Albrighton, Delph, Clark, Gardner etc etc etc.
2. They have to keep the fans opinions at their foremost attention, its the fans that matter, the fans that buy the tickets and merchandise, i’d appreciate it if they did their research and knew what us fans really wanted from our club.
3. Keep wages at a maximum of £100,000 p/w. Not alot in this day an age (although it sickens me to say it, rediculous amounts of money for very little effort.) As i would be absolutely sick as a donkey if I ever saw that Villa had bought a player merely because they offered him £250,000 a week.
I think with those clauses in place we’d still maintain our image but with the extra funding we would actually stand a decent chance of being successful again. I don’t want to go through my lifetime and see Villa struggle, football is about winning, whichever way you look at it, its not a hobby like sunday league football, this is their profession afterall.
the youth point is a very good one. Look at city, they had one of the best IF not the best and of course all they have done is brought foreign youngsters and now kids. the likes of Ohoura a very good player get no chance now.
their philsophy will be to jsut BUY all the young kids they can and hope it works, chelsea tried this and been a total failure with none of their kids making an impact. the likes of Kalkuta, highly rated and doing very little.
so lets snap up the British Man City kids, lets be innovative and make it clear the future is with kids and build from there.
Lets not go down the same route as City and all about fuckin Money lets build something that others will admire and not sneer at.
Success is not all you know
I’d like that to work but then with an owner like Randy we would just sell them once they become successful, we need somebody ruthless, who is willing to say piss off to teams who try and poach our players, and if it transpires that certain cretins are nibbling at teir ear to join their team whilst on duty with England, then complain to the FA and do everything in our power to get those certain players fined/banned…killed? (just kidding) And if you wanted to be extreme, even pull the player from the squad until the ear bending stops.
I wish he would sell both. Nothing worse than a person who can’t admit his own failures. As Browns Fan and Villa Fan, please do what’s in the fan’s best interest, for once Randy.
now im off to work but before i do just like to say fair play to mr lerner for haveing a go at it that man did not disappoint anyone he try ed to make villa great again an he loves the club an only ever wanted to make villa a success in terms of silverwere an top 4 so fair play randy at least u did try your best mate an i for one am a real football man so i understand where randys comeing from —- BUT HOWEVER I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE FANS WHO STILL HATE MCLEISH ? WHO SLAG THE TEAM OFF ON HERE EVEN AFTER WE WIN ? AN WHO SAY THEY WILL NOT GO TO HOME GAMES WITH MCLEISH AS MANGER ? now to me that is the real shame an not a man who got a tattoo of villa on his leg put hes heart an soul in to the club plus spent well over 100 million sterling which is in an around 160 million dollars at least an as everyone no s we have spent well over 100 million sterling so its more then 160m dollars — god its allways the likes of you who talk the so called fans who no everything lmao mr lerner if you read these posts the real villa fans who love an stick with you an the great club through tick an thin no matter what they no the real story randy dont worry mate—- its the fans who sprayed the walls at villa park this year? who slag off the tean when we win ?who wont give something back to the club an mr lerner by going to home games? who hate are manager ? they are the ones we should ask questions off not MR LERNER — but hey such is life AVFC utv
The Browns are a franchise (like KFC, McDonalds, Snap-On etc…) that his father owned, they are guaranteed money win or lose so why does he have to sell them apart from not being interested in running them anymore ???
We are getting close to getting our house in order financially this season, I believe he will spend but AM has been told to get better deals in place …… Clubs and agents had our pants down repeatedly under MON and we got stung big time on most of our transfers ….. whilst Spurs were getting Modric for £16m, Van der Vaart for £8m, we were getting Curtis Davis for £10m, Habib Bye for £7m and Warnock for £8m etc….. all on outrageous wages.
Were’re 11 games in, stable (admittedly very average) but showing signs of improvement in our play on the field. Only City have spanked us score wise as they have everybody else. A tough test next at Spuds which will see what we are made of, but its hardly a disaster ……..
- “After watching the mess that is the Browns yesterday”.
If you watched it, you’ll know that they only lost due to a botched snap on a late field goal attempt. How is that a mess ? The Jets were a mess.
- “No one man, no matter how rich can support two ailing clubs”.
Sheikh Mansour could without noticing the withdrawals.
- “some people asking if we should get corrupt but oil cash rich Arabs as owners”.
Which of these are corrupt ? Name them.
- “his fortune came from his Dad selling of MBNA to the Bank of America”
Not strictly accurate, as we’ve come to expect. Randy had his own succesful company long before he inherited any money from his father. Some make out he’s an oaf who knows nothing about business or finance which is untrue.
It was Randy who oversaw MBNA’s sale to B of A, some four years or so after Al had passed on. His mother still has a significant fortune of her own.
- “Over here he has done very well in many areas, fans relations, training ground, ground infrastructure, money for players BUT this has all stopped”.
Has it ? The training ground is leading edge in terms of sports science, Villa Park was improved this Summer, we have spent £34m on two players in the last year, and the marketing and match day events for fans is better than it has ever been.
He went against what any of us would have wanted in appointing McLeish, and the jury is still out on that one, though he does seem to be getting the best out of some players who had looked on the slide.
Is it any wonder that Randy is adopting a pragmatic rather than an idealistic approach after his treatment by MON ?
Better the devil you know. I think he’s a Chairman who truly wants the club to succeed, he’s not in it for self-promotion, or as an ostentatious status symbol.
I’m happy to stick with him for now. We’ve known much worse, here and at other clubs.
As a long time follower of the NFL on TV, I’ve watched the Browns progress, or lack of it since RL became Villa’s owner.
I was surprised at the time, to see the hostility of their fans towards him, that has escalated over the years, there was a petition organised by them in 2009 asking RL to sell the club on, which he ignored, but sent an open e-mail part of which said :”It’s been way too long since the Browns have had anything to feel good about or invest in, and it’s clear that the doubt and negativity are taking on a life of their own.”
Sadly, nothing has changed, and the fans have lost all faith in him cpmpletely.
He bought AVFC with his eyes wide open, he got it cheap for a PL club, invested heavily in the infrastructure, gave MON a more or less open cheque book, hoping for quick success, although the club became stable, that success has eluded him.
Now we seem to be heading down the same route as the Browns, and is RL losing interest in Villa? Knowing the last home game was the first one he had attended this season, makes you wonder.
I think a firm offer with a good profit would make his mind up, whatever happens, he’s been good for the club, and if he did sell up I would wish him well in the future.
Kranky
Good comments mate and agree with you on if he would sell up with a profit for the right offer.
No need for the statment:some people asking if we should get corrupt but oil cash rich Arabs .
Its just nasty and uncalled for, shows a deep rooted problem.
Are all Arabs corrupt?
Its like saying all us English are paedophilic larger louts.
the leaders are corrupt or how else do you think they got the world cup with 10 grounds within a 60 mile radius ?
That suggests that actually the corrupt ones aren’t ‘the Arabs’, but the usual fat-cats who run FIFA, the IOC, etc.
The same people who sold-out the soul of football years ago.
People who offer the bribes are just as bad as those who take them
they have forced labour, opps sorry sponsorship
whilst not as bad as others, censorship is rife, no democracy and half the population are workers from other countries, treated badly
not what I want owning us
Are you talking about the Arabs or the UK there ?
That simply highlights the corruption that is endemic to FIFA.