Comments and Debate on Aston Villa

Posts tagged “randy lerner

Thank You Randy

I would imagine all season ticket holders received the following leaflet today from Randy Lerner and CEO Paul Faulkner.

This is a fine gesture, no one asked for it and I certainly appreciate the effort to put such a simple thing together and well done to all.

And in return, THANK YOU to Randy Lerner for the time, effort and money put into Aston Villa FC and thank you for restoring the pride of the club.

Onwards and Upwards.


The BBC on Lerner – McGregor would have loved him

Matt Slater on his blog on the BBC has written this excellent piece about meeting Randy last week.

BBC LINK

This is not the first article of this kind but is the best I have seen from a neutral commenting on many of the themes I have expressed on this blog since it started.

It is too long an article to reproduce here but some snippets

On MON

Perhaps Lerner was thinking the same because it was the first subject he addressed last week: forget the rumours, O’Neill is staying put. The significance of this cannot be underestimated for a number of different reasons.

First, the O’Neill question has come to symbolise something bigger than a staffing issue. The Ulsterman’s ambition is of the burning variety and his public statements (and coded messages) about what Villa must do to break into the top four have become a de facto line in the sand: how much do you really want Champions League football, boss?

Second, if a football brain of O’Neill’s quality, backed by four years of almost unstinting Lerner generosity, cannot do better than sixth place, who will and where is he working now? Losing the former Celtic manager would threaten Villa’s progress at a time when the top-four target has never moved so quickly.

Martin O’NeillO’Neill became Villa boss in August 2006. Photo: Getty Images

Third, if O’Neill believes he cannot achieve his goals under Lerner, what will that say to the talented team he has assembled? What would James Milner think?

And finally, Lerner knows how important it is to get the key personnel decisions right in England because he has got so many of them wrong in Cleveland. This is not the place (and I’m not the journalist) to list the reasons why the Browns have struggled on Lerner’s watch but a failure to find an O’Neill figure is one of them. Until perhaps now, that is.

On the money situation

Lerner is not George Gillett, Tom Hicks, any of the Glazers or even Kraft’s Irene Rosenfeld. At a time when American owners of British businesses are about as popular as Icelandic volcanoes, Lerner is a shining exception. There are no Norwich City scarves at Villa Park.

This does not mean they are without debt – don’t be ridiculous, this is the Premier League we’re talking about so Villa are officially £72m in the red – but that debt is to Lerner and, with an inherited fortune of $1.5bn, he does not need to call it in any time soon.

Lerner actually made it clear last week that he does not view the sums Villa “owe” him as debts at all. Since 2006, he has pumped £179m into the club in a fairly even split between loans and equity. But to him it is all just equity or “capital investment”.

I have said Lerner is the McGregor of the new age

Among the many things Lerner is given credit for by Villa fans, one of the less well-known is his backing for an Aston Villa Supporters Trust initiative to erect a statue of William McGregor, the club director who helped start the Football League, at Villa Park last year.

McGregor, who died in 1911 after a 34-year connection with Villa, once said “football is big business” but I would argue that many of football’s recent problems have been because it has not been business-like enough.

Aston Villa, however, might just have found the perfect owner for these straitened times: a rich fan who thinks like a big businessman. McGregor would have loved him.


Lets all get Randy

You may have read this piece before from the Daily Mail that Neil Moxley wrote but well worth repeating this for those of you who may have missed it

Says everything why I love Randy Lerner as our owner and why I personally trust him 100%, there are things I could add

Free scarves, Euro Champs return, Holte Pub, general refurbishment at high level, free away trips etc. etc.

But this explains it much better than I

The headlines don’t really do Randy Lerner justice. That’s sometimes the problem with this job. Journalists are trained (difficult to believe, I know) to cherry-pick the juiciest tit-bits and spin them into reports of interest.

So the story that needed reporting, given the general air of mis-trust and confusion that has reigned at Villa Park for the past couple of months, was Martin O’Neill.

Randy says that Martin stays. Good. (For the record, I think – but have no confimation – that the manager’s future might have been sorted out on the Thursday prior to the Blackburn game. And that it was Mr Lerner holding the ace cards, not Mr O’Neill

But the point about Lerner’s annual press conference was not just the important message that needed to be conveyed, but the manner of it. The American took on all-comers for 50 minutes. The friendly, inquisitive and intrusive questions about his leadership.

Fortunately, through the medium of an internet column, we can try to enlighten people as to what the man is all about. First, he is utterly, utterly devoted to Aston Villa.

Unlike Hicks and Gillett at Liverpool, or the Glazer family at Manchester United, there is no disguising his intentions. It is not to use Aston Villa as a giant cash-cow, to be milked whenever he fancies it. His investment stands at £180m and is growing.

He has bought a former farm close to Bodymoor Heath and is fully immersed in the area. Oh, and he has the club crest tattooed on his ankle. Clearly, this is a man prepared to make Aston Villa his life.

But that’s not what I like about him. True, he’s very personable, polite and very, very protective of his family. But what I admired was the following – and I’m just going to re-produce a few words from his press conference that weren’t newsworthy, because I think this gives the best flavour of the man.

‘When I walk around Bodymoor Heath in the middle of the afternoon in the pouring rain and see Gordon Cowans out there with all that he stands for, and all that he has accomplished, with his hood over his head, talking to Gary Gardner or Ciaran Clark, it’s a hidden moment.

‘It’s hidden moments like these that I think are worth mentioning because they are part of the experience that I’m having. It’s one of the signs of growth and development of the club that I value. It will become more visible over time.

‘It’s growing, that experience. Winning at Old Trafford was a big deal. Going to the Carling Cup final was beyond great, going to Wembley with my kids, driving up and seeing tens of thousands of Villa fans in their colours. I’d never been there before. It was all pretty impactful for me.’
A former colleague of mine warned me when I entered the business of football reporting that 95 per cent of those involved in football club ownership are either cheats, crooks, blaggards or conmen. That there were very few involved for the same emotional reasons as the average fan.

I think Randy Lerner makes up some of that five per cent.

‘I remain very excited and privileged to be involved,’ he said towards the end of his interview.

Aston Villa fans, you are lucky people. This man is one of you. He should be cherished.


Randy Lerner back in Forbes rich list

The Forbes rich list is now out for 2010 and good news that Randy makes a welcome re-entry back into the list (valued at $1bn) along with his Mother and Sister. He is currently ranked as the 937st richest person in the world.

Forbes Entry for Randy

The families holding of Bank of America stock which has risen by 350% would account for some of this rise. However any money from America to the Villa due to the weakening of the pound recently may be hitting him.

NB. No Carson Yeung, stop sniggering !


Villa’s financial health robust but we rely on Randy, wages are the key

The Daily Telegraph have just run a story on the latest annual report and it makes for some very interesting reading.

I posted this article back in January and these figures confirm what I said then and confrmed why MON was saying what he was.

The headlines are (some from the Telegraph report, some from the report I have downloaded)

Losses of £43.7m for 2008 -09

£179m total invested which includes £95m in equity and £84m in loans

Players wages of £70m against turnover of £84m – 83% of turnover

Wages in one year increased from £50m to £70m

Match Day revenue increased from £18m to £22m

Full Time employees increased from 336 to 445 due to a big increase of players, football management and coaches

£5.6m paid out in interest for loans from Lerner family trust

£7.6m in ‘management charges’ to the US holding company – Reform Acquisitions LLC

The concerning figure is the % of wages vs turnover this simply is too high and unless turnover can be increased then wages have to go down before we buy, what was made clear in January is the truth of the situation.

Players will have to leave before we can buy new ones and we have to be careful. Whilst the loans are not repayable until at the latest 2019 we can not keep on extending them but at least repayable to the Lerner family trust and not a commercial organisation.

The good news is that Randy has took equity around half of the £200m that has been authorised but the wallet will be getting tougher to get into, we are at the limits of what we and Randy can do. Before anyone worries about a Portsmouth situation because Randy took more than half the investment in equity then the debt is lower than it would be and this means if he sold us tomorrow the total cost would pay of the majority of debt and still give Randy a profit.

Please note the recorded net assets of Reform Acquisitions Limited (RAL) are £40m and shows RAL’s total assets are £175m which is a credible proposition.

Detailed figures show that despite lower attendances matchday revenue increased by £4m which shows the great investment the new Trinity Road suites have made.

This shows the huge investment Lerner has made and we should be very grateful for it but we need now results and to progress further we NEED CL that is clear.

Otherwise we really do have to hope that the kids can be THAT good.

These accounts show totally how expensive PL football is now and the example of Portsmouth is mirrored to lesser degree in every club who do not have CL football, it is now THAT vital

I have downloaded the full copy of the Annual reports of Aston Villa and the holding company RAL, if any accountant would like to confirm or clarify these please let me know


There is only ONE Randy Lerner – The Quiet American

One stark contrast on Sunday ta the Carling Cup final will be to look to the directors box and notice the tale of two American owners.

In the RED corner (or should that be yellow & green) will be the Glazier family. Possibly the most hated people inside of Old Trafford and that probably includes any scousers. They have managed despite the club still winning and in contention to ensure the club has £700m in debt and for many do not have the resources to compete at the very top level. This is despite record turnover and large operating profits, which get wiped out by the large amount of interest Man Utd. have to play to service in effect Glazier’s own debt, that just can not be right.

So in the CLARET & BLUE corner we have the quiet American, Randy Lerner. Posted elsewhere what he has done for the club in just under 4 years but this season is a vindication of his and MON’s policy of what I call ‘organic growth’. We had a long way to when he took over from Doug Ellis the club had rarely been at such a low point. However through player investment and steady use of home grown and cheap players MON has fashioned a team on the verge of the most successful season since 1996 and possibly since 1982 if we get ot the FA cup.

When (for there is no doubt of that) we lift the Carling Cup on Sunday Randy will be standing there proudly seeing the start of his desire for success for the club. He will deserve all the credit going (along with MON of course) for the success and he will deserve

There is only ONE Randy Lerner

being sung around Wembley as the Yellow and Green masses troop out to contemplate interest payments.


Randy Lerner, The Browns and the effect on Villa

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 !


Support Acorns

You may notice on the right hand side of this blog a link for Acorns. As the nominated charity for Aston Villa I am delighted at the effort we have put into supporting them and let me remind you of William McGregor’s famous quote which I believe is the driving force behind our club.

“For brilliance and, at the same time, for consistency of achievement, for activity in philanthropic enterprise, for astuteness of management and for general alertness, the superiors of Aston Villa cannot be found”

I know times are very hard but if you can find a few pounds the benefit for life limited children then they can have a more restful time.

Randy Lerner can be very proud of what he has done for Acorns, I am very proud of our owner.


12 years and it comes to this, bye Barry

So after nearly a year Barry has gone.

I remember his debut at Sheff Wed away and shortly afterwards his second game at Goodison. Anyone who was there will remember the impression he gave to us all. He seemed to have everything at only 17, poise, quality passing and an intelligent football brain.

Over the years at Villa his form never quite lived up to that promise, well until MON joined us. He played Left back, Left Midfielder, Left central defender but never seemed to settle into one position, in fact at the end of DOL it is well documented he was about to leave us for £4m to Pompey.

Then MON joined us, made Barry some promises and made him the key of our side that Barry really played up to it and up until last season played fantastic and played his way into the England Squad and now an almost permanent fixture of the England side.

things were different then

things were different then

Then it went wrong.

Something happened and Barry for me gave the signal to Liverpool that he was interested in moving, we had a summer where we stuck to our guns and won but it was clear from what I saw this season that he was not interested in really playing for us. It does not take much for a pro footballer to lose the 5% extra that makes all the difference and he lost it. The lack of pace was suddenly shown up and he seemed to pull out of the physical side of the game. For me and others it looked over and we expected him to leave for one of the ‘Sky Four’, as it was it Manchester City and a huge wage that persuaded him to leave and let me remind you of the News of the World quotes.

Barry, 27, said: “My mind’s made up, I want to join Liverpool. There’s no going back, it’s time for me to move on. I’m desperate to play Champions League football and that’s why I have to leave Villa.
“I hope the Villa fans understand. I have given my all for the club for 10 years and I’m only leaving because now I need to test myself at the very highest level.
“And I can honestly say if Villa were in the Champions League I wouldn’t even consider leaving this great club.”

Manchester City hardly fulfil these criteria and Pat Murphy on Radio 5 today has also said that 6 months ago Barry re-iterated to him that the aim was Champions league, so it is amazing what a wad of notes waved in front of someone will do.

Motivation factor

Motivation factor

In retrospect Barry was lost to us last summer, he has been a good servant but not at the legend status, he never ripped up trees but never really player poorly but the manner of his leaving leaves a very sour taste in his mouth and we can only help that Martin and Randy have some aces up their sleeves to wash this taste out of our mouths.


Randy is a quick Lerner

Randy speaks and that is not very often and as someone who guards his thoughts very carefully he did this in a class way by inviting journo’s round for a fireside chat, no interviews but just in what seems like a relaxed manner. So what did he say and more importantly what did it mean for the future.

When he speaks it means something

When he speaks it means something

“He’s been fantastic. I think Martin has bought into the club. He has emotionally invested and I think it suits the way he is wired.

“We’ve improved steadily and we have qualified for Europe two years in a row.”

Well it seems like we all know that MON in Randy’s eyes he is doing very well and these words just add further to my comfort factor with the two of them in charge.

“Will there be funds for players this summer? Yes. Like any club we are conscious of having money available for the summer.

“We are also conscious of managing the players leaving and trying to generate funds from that. It is a balancing act but, yes, there will be funds.

“Will the credit crunch impact on funds available this summer? I don’t really view the credit crunch as a big issue in terms of the funding for the summer.

“But, if anything, what has gone on in the economy makes you very conscious of building a sustainable business because, in the end, that is what you are responsible for doing.

“To the extent that you are deficit spending, maybe you should think very hard about how you are ultimately going to pay it off and the consequences of not being able to pay it off.

“We know clubs that got into trouble before and those disappointments far exceed not having the best players and not winning what one sets out to win. They are long term problems that don’t go away.

“That is more in my mind where things like the credit crunch impact on your thinking, impact on the psychology of spending and they should in my opinion.”

All very sensible stuff and shows despite a few fears on forums that we really could have been impacted by the recession these words should comfort us all because we know to make the next step up that money will be made available.

“I would give Barry the highest ranking possible. He is the best. He is a gentleman, a great player, a leader, a great captain,” said Lerner of the Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur target.

“I don’t think anyone could do better than Gareth on any level. Am I optimistic Gareth will stay? Yes, I am optimistic. It is my nature. He is currently really speaking to Martin O’Neill.

“Am I happy for him to wind down his current contract? That’s his decision. If it means he is staying another year, I am absolutely happy. Even though Villa would lose £10-£12 million? Yes, absolutely.”

Well I disagree with a lot of this about Barry and I think some of it is make sure we get the best possible price for him but again it shows how we do business. We are not pushovers and will not allow ourselves to be bullied by others whether it is our own players or other clubs.

Finally he rounded it off by saying

“If clubs come in for Gabby and Ashley, will we sell them? No. There is no way right now I could imagine that happening.”

Again very strong signals for any predators lurking around and surely this must say to any prospective players we may want that we are deeply ambitious to succeed. This end of season speech to me is about ensuring we are seen as serious players despite the last three months and we are progressing in the right way. Maybe for some it is not quick enough but maybe it is the right way to progress slowly in what are very uncertain times.