Lerner With 85.5% Of Villa Shares

I take it they have extended the period in order to reach 90% and then take the club back into private ownership?

Interesting point tylervilla. It would certainly be interesting to know whether Randy was in contact prior to the D'Ol sacking. For some reason I reckon he and others must have been and that brought it to a head. But who knows. I understand that 85% gives randy control but does not let him take the club private. If he can't get the other 5% or so he needs, can he still walk away or is he tied in now?

It's a hap hap happy day, and whatever you've gotta do you've got a lovely day to do it in that's true

Hey Saurat, have you thought of putting those words to music?

£20m to spend this season and £40m to spend next, bring it on.

Maybe it is just me, but I do not believe that the biggest issue that the Villa has had is in investment in the team! Over the past few years we have punched above our weight in the money spent on new players. The problem has been that it has been spent on the wrong players, at the wrong times, for the wrong reasons by the wrong managers. This includes the likes of Curcic, Collymore, Alpay, Balaban, Stone, Dublin, Merson, Watson etc. Whilst some of these players gave excellent service, the return on the best part of £50 million is just £3 million. Surely buying players is not rocket science (unless of course you are Abramovich when the policy is just buy it, who cares how much they cost). It should be policy to only buy proven quality players with a maximum age of 25. In this way you can get, if not the rest of a players career out of them, you can get 3 or 4 years and then sell them on at good money. Wenger has been a master at this (Anelka, Petit, Overmars, Viera bought for £13 million sold for £67 million. Bergkamp what a great £7 million). The other option is to take a chance on players from the lower leagues. Telling them it is up to them to prove they are good enough. This gets you players such as Delaney, Platt, Yorke, Ashton, Kevin Phillips etc. So if there is £20 - 40 million to spend it is vital that it goes on players that are investments. I believe Villas biggest mistake is the total lack of failure to market the club in the boom years of TV money. Hopefully this will be corrrected by the new owners. What we need to do is ensure that all the kids in the region, country, world have a desire to support the Villa. Nothing annoys me more than seeing kids in Brum wearing Manure, Redscouse or Chelski kits. First we must dominate the midlands, by ensuring that local people want to support their local club. If we get this right, we can then look at competing on a global level. In short, buy your season tickets, wear your colours and put your stickers in your car. Encourage everybody else to do the same and sit back and enjoy the journey in your Aston Martin.

Don't expect miracles. It will take the new owners time to recruit the people necessary to drive the business side of the club forward. However, Randy Lerner hasn't invested £60 million+ to sit on his hands so we should expect a new CEO to be appointed soon. New sponsorship deals, with companies we've actually heard of, will need to be negotiated etc etc. The amateurs over at Small Heath must be sweating buckets!!!

above should read exploiting 'young girls' not 'your girls'. OOOps. Anybody know a good proof reader????

I think geordie boy was pretty good with his spelling, wherever he has gone.

Agreed JF, and the 90% figure should be a mere formality. Would help though if those selfish individuals holding onto their shares, or a number of their shares, for whatever obscure reason, did the right thing and agreed to transfer them to RAL without further delay.