OK, so we have our window deals.
We are in deep deep trouble and we get a midfielder who has barely played and never at even the French top level. We then get a winger/attacking midfielder who at 25 is promising (stop laughing !!) and never made a single PL appearance for Spurs. Somehow these two are supposed to save us.
Well even the most optimistic amongst you will know that neither can do this. It just looks to me without question that we are preparing to go down. Do not give me that rubbish about give them a chance. The FACT is we needed so much better, so much better. Saying so and so is better than Bannan means nothing, it is crap talk, it is defeatist talk, just like from Lambert and Lerner.
Lerner has shown his cards this window, total spending since MON went, NET £3M and wages well down, why is he not spending, does he have the cash ? Is the club in serious financial trouble and we are not being told ?
No, I do not believe that, I believe Lerner has had enough of the toy, trying to spend the bare min and simply ‘hoping’ for survival doing not a lot to get it. We even had the OS tweeting to claim a 25 year old is promising, it is desperate desperate stuff and all the empty seats at Villa Park tells it’s own story.
How on earth can this squad stay up, answer it can not and that suits the failure of an owner Lerner perfectly fine.
How he thinks losing all that TV money is right, I will never know.
PS
This Tweet from Steve Froggatt says it all
Steve Froggatt @SteveFroggy
Villa transfer window beyond a piss take
Why boycott. Lets see what happens and give the team the best chance they have by supporting them. Up the Villa. Moan moan moan moan moan, bunch of kids some of you…
we also have idiots.
Sorry Morgan Villa , dont share that view, nobody, but nobody, would be daft enough to throw good money after bad, feet is what you have and feet gets you what you want. I understand where you are coming from, it hurts, it hurt me, but I’m not stupid to give my money so he can have every thing in life, he has robbed you me and all of us he needs to know he’s got to go.
JD Villa. Very occasionally you post something that finds a chink in my armour and pulls a heart string. The transfer window is closed, we will not sign anyone else, no point in sacking the manager, no point in looking for scape goats. We have to support the team, rally behind the lads who come out on the pitch hope they respond and battle. We are fighting for survival, as fans we have to do our part and back the Villa – be the cliched 12th man. May is the time to demand a change.
I am villa through and through.We can’t all have the same opinion.I am not in favour of villas transfer funding and lack of it for a club of our stature yet I understand that Lerners money is not all villas and that we have to look after the money side of things.Also i am a supporter before anything else and would never change that come what may premier league or championship.I like to put my point of view in the political side of things and do think villa deserve better from our owner also think Lambert deserves more backing from Lerner to.But I remain villa always like everyone else who use this site UTV.
My friend, I agree with you. We’re all Villa and we all want our club to succeed. I follow your rallying call. UTV
Simon Dawkins walks on water la la la la la la la la la…oh well we’ll see when he is in the middle of the EPL…..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwhYFfftJY4
Fans seem to forget that we had a frog who nearly died under the pressure, then a jock who sent the nose’s down more than once! does anyone remember 8 or 9 straight wins under Mcallister? if that wasn’t a option why not snap up Houghton when he was doing so well at the toon? the Toons loss and ours??????????
Firstly fans are boycotting anyway, crowds back to Mcleish levels.
Also the trust is totally secret so no idea, it is only Randy, his mum and his sister, they have a pot full in there from the Browns, cashed in on the first proper bid, prob is the Browns never owed the trust anything, Villa do and a very large amount.
If he sells now he would make a loss I think of about £50-75m if we somehow hung on, with a much reduced wage bill then maybe we could be worth more in the PL to sell.
I was laughed at but I will keep on saying every action for the past two years is geared up to reducing the debt as much as possible and selling up.
Selling to who ?
I just don’t see it.
With a tighter fiscal policy, and a squad decent enough to finish sixth to twelfth, the Premiership will likely still be a relatively decent place to own a club and get by.
He is probably waiting for the potential marketing of an NFL style worldwide media rights affair that would bring in lots more money.
I am probably one of the few that thinks that Randy genuinely wanted to see Villa do well, and improve and advance under his stewardship.
This supposed long term plan, to get heavily in to debt to earn a decent rate of interest back to the Trust is complete and utter bollocks.
If you have £100,000 of savings, you don’t spend it all via a Trust and sit back delighted at earning a going rate of return. You’d just pick up a going rate of return and keep the £100,000 spare !!!
I don’t know what world some on here live in, but the statements and intonations are ludicrous at times.
I have enormous respect for Ianrobo and do not think he is being in the least alarmist.
We all want football to be simple.
The 2013 reality is that it is not.
We want truly rich Chairman who loves the club and prepared to under-write/subsidise the club as his hobby if need be until he runs out of money, and then hands it on to another rich fan to do his bit for a few more years.
We want a Chairman who prioritises VICTORY with STYLE on the days it really matters i.e. cup finals or against the top four contenders.
The stark reality is that the present owner is a person with business interests which rise or fall based on geo-political matters far far removed from a football pitch or training ground.
The future is uncertain. Randy may have decided this back in 2011.
Local property prices, levels of consumer spending power, jobs, HS2 factor, are a factor but possibly not the biggest factor in mid and longterm planning of Villa’s owner.
It may be Randy has looked at the economic facts of the UK economy, Sky TV, BT and decided that the Jeff Bonser theory is about to come true. That Sky-BT will in say 2015 go the way of Ondigital and not be able to honour payments that clubs have literally banked on.
Rupert Murdoch has managed Sky very well -and built a customer base and paid every promised fee to the Premier League- but he is on his way out.
The court cases of ex-staff members listed for September could rock the UK political world, economy and media ownership/management.
It may be that Randy has wider fears and concerns about the US economy and his portfolio of investments.
Randy Lerner is not necessarily as rich as he was in 2006 or as certain that his investments/assets/revenue streams/bank accounts are as secure in the next 2 to 5 years as they seemed back in 2006-2007.
The world changed for a lot of very big business people in September 2008.
The US Stock Market halved.
Gold has taken off compared to every paper currency.
People believed when Randy bought from Doug that by now property prices, stock prices, consumer spending would be 30% up on August 2008 levels, not significantly below.
The bull market became a bear market. It has lasted, lasted and lasted longer than any US or UK economist expected.
The US Government now owes money it can not ever repay to China and Japan (who have bought a trillion dollars each at interest AND the US government can only pay the interest by begging the Chinese and Japanese to buy more bonds every year). The Japanese are getting to the stage they can not buy more US government debt and are only hanging in to stop China getting total whip hand over US foreign policy in Asia and The Pacific. The Chinese know if they do not buy more, the dollar crashes and their currency assets – held mainly in dollars – will be worthless or at best worth much less. The Chinese are now demanding Obama give them US assets as security for the bond market loans.
The US economy is probably back in recession, the last quarter figures went down and this quarter looks rough.
The Germans are demanding their 45% gold reserves held in New York be returned to German soil, ditto 13% in London and 11% in France.
Gold is king if a currency devalues fast and hyper-inflation comes. Hyper-inflation is the only possible way the US and UK governments can pay off their debts, not just the annual deficit.
David Cameron said last week that the Government debt was going down under his watch. It is not. It is now equal to 100% national output. What is going down is annual deficit. The Government now borrows money every month to fill the gap between income (tax) and expenditure. It just borrows a bit less each month than it was in 2010. However, it is approaching its (Visa Card) limit for total borrowing which it needs to pay its bills.
it may be the real cuts have not yet come.
This could destroy Sky TV and BT consumer base, which meant they could not keep the TV money coming. Remember the crash of the Football League TV deal around a decade ago with an ITV subsiduary ?
It may be that Randy -rightly or wrongly – has decided that the £90 million TV deal may go bust. Players on longterm contracts for big wages can legally insist they are paid in full.
If he is right, and this is the Jeff Bonser theory, then every club can go bankrupt. The solvent club with low wage players on short-ish contracts, will emerge as King.
I think Randy decided in 2011 he just wanted to halve the wage bill for at least two years in a row, survive in the Premiership (while hedging his bets that the TV money may continue or may collapse in 2014 or 2015) and that the club is on sale at the right price (preferably in gold not US dollars, euros or pounds).
While waiting for that price, getting an annual profit by any means and avoiding further losses is the watchword.
The difference which makes Tescos respond to demands for information is that even staff members will shop elsewhere.
The fate of a typical football fan – not a customer – is whatever the owners decide it is, given that they do not take their custom elsewhere. Fan means fantatic. Wimbledon, FC United have tried to break the addiction but without great success.
Villa fans do not have the financial facts and they do not have a Chairman who has made it a point to give regular transparent answers to valid questions.
Tescos provide about 10000% more information to shareholders, media, staff and customers than Villa under present ownership.
If Villa were Champions, Championship League regulars, habitual top four, regular cup winners, playing flair pulsating football, then who cares ?
If Villa were still guaranteed Premiership every year, then maybe again it is something people can ignore.
But as the scenario is watching a slow crucifixtion over three months before a season of non-household names in the unexplored darkness of lower league football, with best players sold, then Ian’s questions become more than valid.
If there is a plan, and this does not include halving season tickets and merchandise costs, then the customers (as Randy sees them) deserve at least Tesco standards of mutual loyal communication.
If the plan is to get wage bill below gate money, with TV revenue seen as a bonus and not the cake, then just be honest so people know it.
If Randy’s plan is to make the club saleable as a profitable business, then just say it.
The thing crushing people is the limbo where honesty should be.
..very interesting post. Maybe you construct a theory a little bit too complex but in the end you could be correct: RL expects many Prem clubs to be in financial troubles, so he prepares our club with a radical diet for this time. We will see if that comes true and when this scenario will happen if we are in a position to profit from it.
Let’s hope so !
Gearing for 2014 with this fair play nonsense im afraid
I’ve had a look at Dawkins seems ok to me just you tube footage and other stuff.
Savo Milosevic looks good on you tube!
Give it up JDVilla, the club have.
and this is against MLS defences, the same ones hasbeens like Beckham had sheer joy over. OK if Dawkins was playing against Bennett every week he could have success, Everton have …
oh well
Mate I was a villa supporter in 87 I didn’t give up then and I won’t give up now.I love AVFC and if we go down then so be it.I agree with things about Lerner on some points think he could be more involved,maybe spend a bit more but we are losing money by the millions each season.Lerner isn’t a bottomless pit and only a small portion of his money is villas.He could of spent a little more but we don’t know all that goes on with AVFCs finances.Accept what’s going on move with it or just don’t move with it what will be will be Lerner is in charge.Protest,boycott express your feelings but never abandon the villa that’s your blood.
Never quite shaw where you stand JDVilla.
One minute its Lerner’s fault then its Lambert’s fault. You just seem to go along with whatever the majority are saying at the time.
As I’ve just put Lerner is responsible le for the one side running of the club,finances and the people he hires to help him.What he does with the villas finances has a knock on effect on Lambert.Poor funding equals poorer standard or inexperienced players which will then have a knock on effect on the pitch.Lamberts tactics and results have not followed hid reputation but most wanted Lambert so suck it up.As for where I stand I stand with AVFC up or down.Hope that’s cleared things up for you.UTV
The only thing about aiming for just PL survival is that it’s no fun for the paying fan. If we’re looking at winning 20% of matches and losing 50% to 60% then where’s the fun in that? There are a lot of fair weather fans out there and I’m one of them but mainly because I live far enough away that it’s a minimum of £40 to get to and from VP and takes at least five hours out of my day in travelling alone, and on my own. If we were winning matches then I’d make the effort to come up more often but it’s a bloody long drive back when you’re in a foul mood after watching a limp directionless display. Ok, I have tickets for a couple of upcoming matches because as bad as it seems to be right now I’m a bit of an optimist. The problem though with having around 27k to 33k bums on seats in VP is that it looks uninspiring but also sounds it too. The 27k to 33k are the season ticket holders and loyal fans and the rest of those seats need to be filled with people like me who have many other things we’d rather spend our £70 to £80 and a day out of the weekend on than more depression. Yeah, not so many people have to come as far or pay that (and I appreciate a lot of away matches involve that much travel) but it still costs a lot of money for a ticket. My wife really doesn’t like me watching matches as she knows I’ll be banging on about it for the rest of the day! The better the football and the more successful the team the more people buying tickets, the better the atmosphere and the more merchandise and pies sold and kids wanting to grow up Villa fans.
This club has been mismanaged at all levels for the past 5 seasons. We have spent poorly, made terrible decisions on and off the field.
This last transfer window has really shown just how far we have fallen. We needed to spend well and wisely to make sure we avoided the drop and look what happened. Its almost as if we have given up.
The only way we will get out of this mess is if Weimann and Benteke fire on all cylinders and Nzog starts to fill his boots!
We moand when doug was incharge,god I wish he still was! Face it wer goin down and stayin dwn. Vtid