dn1982

So apparently there is a contract ban as such, meaning no extensions or renewals will be happening.

Off the top of my head that means we will lose Callum Robinson and Marc Albrighton this summer for free, whilst Ron Vlaar, Fabian Delph, Gabby Agbonlahor and Jack Grealish will all be going into their last year of contract with nothing new on the table.

Very, very risky.

The so called ban is on players not out of contract. Albrighton has been offered one but will get more elsewhere he isn't worth the reported 35k he's been offered. I expect Robinson to sign. There's no immediate rush on the others.

Right, so is there a press conference at 2:30PM GMT today?

 

If there is, it appears nobody has bothered to tell the press.

No it's twitter Chinese whispers. Started off with a journo saying nothing will happen before 230pm in his opinion to a statement to a press conference it's probably at the. Messi being unveiled stage now!!

I think the only thing that is 100% is that the media haven't a clue what's happening at the Villa. Not one got what Lerners statement was going to say right. If Lambert does stay I doubt the club will issue a statement to say to that effect. Hopefully the club will keep us informed and if there's isn't any progress Lerner will have to make a decision soon as to how we will progress next season as if he doesn't back the manager he could invariably get us relegated and end up costing himself a fortune. I still think things are further along that we know but only time will tell.

From TBAR

 

marcxc1983 wrote:well, to try and sound as convincing as possible I wrote it out before hand what I was going to say. I rang late, us east coast time, as the place was closing so that whoever I spoke to would just want to answer and get off home

I said "good evening (had to make believe I was in the same time zone at least), I am Anthony Russell and I am Personal Assistant to Mr Paul Faulkner of a Aston Villa Football Club" to which the young lady replied "yes sir, how can I help you" no, "who" or anything like that so promising straight away. Anyway, I said "I am currently arranging transport to your establishment on Friday afternoon/evening for Mr Faulkner who is due for a dinner meeting with Mr Lerner and his representatives, I was wondering if you could please confirm your zip code as I do not have it in the paperwork I have." Now, if the place is 'closed' Friday then she should've said "We are not open" or something to that effect.

She replied "hang on one moment please", a touch of background music followed and I was SURE I'd been rumbled! She came back after about 3 minutes and said "do you have a pen Mr Russell? it is NY 11930, do you have the code for the parking lot?, I said "I do not but we have a driver bringing us so I'm sure he will be able to help."

That was that then, by this time my heart was doing ten to the dozen! Super sleuth indeed :)I didn't want to push my luck with any more info but then after I thought I should have because she had already given me the info I needed so I couldn't lose, but guys it's 100% them going   "

 

 

worrylingly this shows what an Amatuer Lerner is - He wants to keep things quiet - yet a phone call confirms all !

How amateur Lerner is? I must have read it wrong did he give out the details? Lerner has made plenty of mistakes giving out a postcode isn't time of them! A lot of people want this done and dusted yesterday but I'd rather wait and get the right buyer rather than the first buyer and I'd say Lerner will be trying his hardest to do just that and when he's gone I'll not just remember the last few seasons but look at his reign as a whole which is one were we never quite got CL and never quite got relegated and I've had some great times and some awful.

The statement had to come out on Monday otherwise there would've been meltdown. Especially after the way we finished the season. Whether we are close to a deal I don't know but I can guarantee we never went up for sale on Monday and that there has been a lot of work done already behind the scenes. Hopefully we are close and it was literally a holding statement for the fans.

 

If youre doing a deal of £200m+ a fan meltdown shouldn't really stress you to much......

But a fan base in revolt wouldn't sit well with any potential owners also I like to think Lerner still has respect for the fans. Otherwise he wouldn't have released the earlier statement.

The statement had to come out on Monday otherwise there would've been meltdown. Especially after the way we finished the season. Whether we are close to a deal I don't know but I can guarantee we never went up for sale on Monday and that there has been a lot of work done already behind the scenes. Hopefully we are close and it was literally a holding statement for the fans.

It is a worry that we could end up going into next season with our current bunch of players.

If you're worrying about that now you'll be suicidal by August if we aren't sold!!

Re Lambert - A lot depends on time-scales - if the new owners are coming to the table in August for example - they may think it better to start with the in situ manager - rather than start day 1 with a manager hunt. If they come in earlier than yes, even as a Lambert sympathiser - a fresh start would be best for all...

Of course theres always the possibility that Lambert won't want to stick around, and would rather find himself a new club

If they come in late that means no improvements on the squad. If that's the case I would want Lambert out. He's proven he can't get much out of this group of players.

I think the point being if you have a short amount of time to buy it may be better to use the manager who you believe knows what needs changing hence the August timescale. Getting someone in late who doesn't know the players could be very detrimental. I think it'd be better for the club to have a fresh start but if a billionaire owner decided on backing Lambert with serious cash I'd fully support that decision. Hopefully we won't have to wait that long though.

I just hope the new owners go and get Nicola Cortese as CEO and let him run things. Not many Chairman would have got rid of Nigel Adkins and bring in a virtual unknown in Pochettino. As his first job should be to get Pochettino as I think Southampton will cash in on Lallana and Shaw and he'll want off! There's a rumour somewhere about Saudis and a European CEO you never know it might be this!

There's a massive catchment area around us. We're the biggest club in 100 square miles with little or no competition in our own city. If we are successful there's more room to grow than Man City for instance.

I don't really want Man City type investment. It takes the gloss off any success you have. I want clear, clever more organic investment, I want the best young players we can get and make them into stars rather buying the best off the shelf. Oh and I want a **** big television.

 

Sorry - but our location goes against us. Ive heard this arguement about the vibrant second city, catchment area,potential - and I really don't buy.

 

Our ground is in a very deprived area of Birmingham - and Birmingham consists of many such deprived areas.

 

Been to Manchester lately?

 

Like I said if it catches someone's imagination then great.

 

But lets not pretend being in central Birmingham is a point in our favour.

In his post he mentions 100 sq miles! From that I assume that's the location bit he actually means not the fact it's Aston the fact we are in the 2nd city and have a massive catchment area if successful. Glory hunters are welcome anytime!!

Does anybody know the timeline of the sale to Lerner? I can't remember. Was we put up for sale? I know there was more than one interested party and I'm sure it didn't last too long from start too finish. I believe that Lerner has been working on the sale for months and this statement is just a step closer to the announcement of a sale. You don't need a billboard outside the ground to let people know that we are for sale so it's inconceivable that we have only been on sale since 10am. As people have mentioned wording the statement the way it is would be detrimental to the price and who would do that?. Surely a I'm looking for a buyer but still 100% committed sort of statement would protect his investment more? Openly time will tell though.

 

It wasn't long.

 

But I beleive the other consortuims didn't have the finance in place - so although you say there were a number of interested parties - they was really only Lerner with any clout.

 

I fully expect the consortuims to start circling in the next few days - problem with them is they don't have the money - I think a couple of rival consortuims merged in the end....

 

Nicholas Padfield - Led a consorstuim (not credible Imo) last time.

On the contrary, It was actually quite a long time. Ellis effectively put the business up for sale in May 2006 when he said:

"..... if the right people come in and really want to take the club forward then I'll treat it very seriously."

The first registered interest by other parties iirc was June 2006, Lerner didn't come into the frame till mid-late June/early July and only reached agreement with Ellis on 14th August.

So it didn't happen very quickly at all. Not saying it won't this time and in theory it should be simpler as Lerner holds all the shares whereas back then Ellis only controlled around 40% (?)

 

Right now - Id jump at those timescales - Id be chuffed if we had new owners by Aug 14

I think the difference being Lerner has been getting us ready for a sale for some time Doug probably said that to call the fans bluff!! Hopefully because he's been getting us ready to sell we are further along than then!!

Does anybody know the timeline of the sale to Lerner? I can't remember. Was we put up for sale? I know there was more than one interested party and I'm sure it didn't last too long from start too finish. I believe that Lerner has been working on the sale for months and this statement is just a step closer to the announcement of a sale. You don't need a billboard outside the ground to let people know that we are for sale so it's inconceivable that we have only been on sale since 10am. As people have mentioned wording the statement the way it is would be detrimental to the price and who would do that?. Surely a I'm looking for a buyer but still 100% committed sort of statement would protect his investment more? Openly time will tell though.

All the ITK's have been royally shown up here.  HH was the only one with an ounce of integrity.

 

Why? Just because a new owner hasn't been announced yet doesn't mean that a deal isn't in the pipeline.

 

Most ITK's have been right about the club being sold/up for sale.

 

 

I think anybody could deduce that the club were up for sale based on his original statement.

 

But I'm still not sure why you are calling out the ITK's just yet as these have proven to be right so far. Especially as anybody could deduce that the club were up for sale based on his original statement.

 

The ITK kicking will commence once we know who is actually buying the club as a lot of ITK's have stuck their necks on the line by giving names.

 

Too early to start knocking the ITK's just yet IMO.[/quote

Or if we haven't got a buyer by the start of pre season!! I'm confident we will

I think without being ITK that we haven't literally just gone up for sale at 10 this morning so I'd imagine that we have been tryng to find one for months. This would fit in with our cut backs for the last few years. I still have a feeling that we are close to being bought. Does anybody know the mechanics of a sale? How long does it take? Due diligence etc? Surely that would only be carried out after our final prize money was worked out? Just guessing and just a feeling.

3pm would tie in with the US Stock exchange but why would a private owner need to wait till then? Also as it's just normally a released statement there's no need to do it at that time. I'd be surprised in Randy Lerner and Andy Gray are close so I'm not getting my hopes up I'd say it's more of a 2+2 = 5 but I hope it's released soon as regardless of content we need direction this summer the place is a shambles!!

I agree with there fans I hate our fans who say 'our massive club'. We are a big club a top 10 in the country club we have a big amount of potential but it stops there take out stuff that happened over 50 years ago and our record is crap for a big club.

Accept your point, but 1981/82 is well less than "50 years ago"

True enough but even that is over 30 years ago!

Top 10 is where we are size wise we shouldn't pretend we are bigger than that. Of course if Ellison buys us and throws 500m at us we can argue we are in a few years legitimately

 

When are you going to get your head around FFP? Some posters on this thread do not seem to understand the ramifications of it.

FFP will collapse under a law suit and anyway even IF broke the rules and was successful the fine is equivalent to the increase in TV money we have just received for 1 year or a good CL campaign so essentially a tax not a punishment!!!

Optimists think it's a done deal. Pessimists think nothing will happen. Idealists hope it will happen. Realists know we just have to wait. Personally I think theres enough information about through leaks, ITK and the way the club has been run to point to a sale being close. So I'm probably in the optimists camp hopefully a back page exclusive on The Sun in the morning!! Followed by a Villa win and a club statement. Best Sunday ever!!

I wonder what Derby fans think about watching their club at Pride Park compared to the Baseball Ground, or Sunderland fans or Man City Fans or Arsenal fans or the 20 Walsall fans think........

 

Better facilities, better view, easier transport links with better parking watching a much improved Villa team playing.

The baseball ground and roker park were sheds. Arsenal couldn't expand and neither could Man City and when offered a ground cheap they bit the councils hand off. We have a magnificent stadium which can be expanded to meet any immediate demand. IF we needed extra seats down the road I would with a heavy heart agree to a move as long as the ground was something special with a massive main stand that could be called the new Holte End and be as big and as special as it was when it was standing! I think we are some way away from that yet though.

I am sorry but I cannot see Larry Ellison buying us.  We are Aston Villa, these things do not happen to us.  The last time we got bought by a billionaire everyone else suddenly became even more richer.

Yeah we're a cursed club. We have the worst luck in the world and everything bad always happens to us. How terrible it is to be a fan of this club - I cannot think of another set of supporters who have been through worse.

I think it's that we are nearly club so often! We get a billionaire and Man City get one worth 10 x him. In my time of attending games on my own from the age of 12 we have nearly won the title twice nearly won the FA Cup. Buying Cascarino instead of Sheringham Bruce scoring in Fergie time little things that had massive affects. Hopefully now is our time to get lucky.

Ps I don't care how unlucky or cursed other clubs are it's all about the Villa

The FFP for CL teams is just to stop other teams breaking into the elite and to solely protect teams already qualifying for it . Man City look likely to be fined £50m but that will not count against there losses and can be paid directly by the owner so is basically a joining fee to UEFA's elite. Lerner voted against this along with Fulham (I think) Fulham were bought 6 months ago. Did Lerner know when voting he was selling? And that having such rules in place would only benefit those already on the gravy train? Either way IF we are bought by someone with extreme wealth like City £50m is nothing and can be made back in 1/2 years qualifying for CL so as stated it's just a way for UEFA to fill it's coffers!! I would also think that once a BIG team is excluded for FFP it will be challenged in court and it will collapse under restriction on trade or something. Here's to hoping these are our problems of the future instead of worrying about relegation!!

Our best defender and Dutch international and he's not good enough for us?? I don't see the logic. Hopefully next year Okore and Vlaar can give us the solidity we need at CB. Clark and Baker aren't good enough simple and I doubt they ever will be. It must he hard to get any sort of consistency when the defence is constantly changing.

Good God, that's naive!

 

You are looking at made-up positives instead of looking at the ice-cold facts. Lambert tried to build a better team and squad, he is not trying to buy covers and semi-professionals that might or might not cut it in the Premier League. Most of these players have been failures and they are in fact not good enough to play in the Premier League. One thing is one or two players not hacking it, which happens at every club, but most of the players haven't been good enough to get into any squad in the Premier League IMO. On top of that, a few of the ones that are playing in our team should barely make the bench in my opinion. KEA, Westwood, Kozak, Lowton and Bacuna are all players that I want to replace with better players, which means there is space for them on the bench. Not that I don't like Westwood, I think he is a tidy player and he has some potential, but there are numerous players out there with much higher ability and that goes for almost all of his signings.

 

We got Benteke, which was great, but that's about it. Even Sam Allardyce manages to pick a gem in the market once in a while.

Completely agree but I'd go further with Benteke. Lambert obviously likes a certain type of striker but with Benteke he got the complete package by accident who turned out (providing he can recover fully) to be the new Drogba.

 

With back or front to goal, in the air or on the floor, strength and skill, he is the complete forward. He surprised the shit out of us and Lambert I suspect.

 

We have to give Lambert credit for this, accident or not.

 

It may be that some of the other signings  aren't as bad as they seem at the moment it's just that Benteke is SO good that he can play in any system, no matter how progressive or regressive the tactics.

I think that is spot on, and it's also to his credit that he generally plays a system that gets the best out of  Benteke (you could summarise it as "get the ball to Benteke and let him do his stuff").

 

The big problem is that he seems to have no plan B for when Benteke is injured or in poor form. That's been a massive problem for us this season.

I think Kozak was plan B and he got injured some will say not good enough the same was said of Benteke early on so too early to judge IMO.

No, Kozak can't be "plan B". The point I am making is that Benteke is so good that it is OK just to put him on the pitch, make sure he gets a regular supply of the ball, and he does the rest. There isn't much need for tactics etc. Kozak may be good (too early to judge) but it's clear he doesn't have that sort of quality, so Lambert actually needs to manage and devise a system for winning games when Tekkers isn't fit or on form.

Why can't he be plan B he isn't the same type of player. Maybe plan B was to play him as a target man with wingers? You don't know as he had hardly got going before he got injured. I also think Benteke could play off him as he has done for Belgium. We have also played loads of different systems so there's more than just one way unfortunately we are crap at most of them but that's a different argument!

Good God, that's naive!

 

You are looking at made-up positives instead of looking at the ice-cold facts. Lambert tried to build a better team and squad, he is not trying to buy covers and semi-professionals that might or might not cut it in the Premier League. Most of these players have been failures and they are in fact not good enough to play in the Premier League. One thing is one or two players not hacking it, which happens at every club, but most of the players haven't been good enough to get into any squad in the Premier League IMO. On top of that, a few of the ones that are playing in our team should barely make the bench in my opinion. KEA, Westwood, Kozak, Lowton and Bacuna are all players that I want to replace with better players, which means there is space for them on the bench. Not that I don't like Westwood, I think he is a tidy player and he has some potential, but there are numerous players out there with much higher ability and that goes for almost all of his signings.

 

We got Benteke, which was great, but that's about it. Even Sam Allardyce manages to pick a gem in the market once in a while.

Completely agree but I'd go further with Benteke. Lambert obviously likes a certain type of striker but with Benteke he got the complete package by accident who turned out (providing he can recover fully) to be the new Drogba.

 

With back or front to goal, in the air or on the floor, strength and skill, he is the complete forward. He surprised the shit out of us and Lambert I suspect.

 

We have to give Lambert credit for this, accident or not.

 

It may be that some of the other signings  aren't as bad as they seem at the moment it's just that Benteke is SO good that he can play in any system, no matter how progressive or regressive the tactics.

I think that is spot on, and it's also to his credit that he generally plays a system that gets the best out of  Benteke (you could summarise it as "get the ball to Benteke and let him do his stuff").

 

The big problem is that he seems to have no plan B for when Benteke is injured or in poor form. That's been a massive problem for us this season.

I think Kozak was plan B and he got injured some will say not good enough the same was said of Benteke early on so too early to judge IMO.

If we had a full squad from start to finish without injures , where do you think we would finish ?

I would say 12-14th

I thought 10th-14th with a firing Benteke maybe a bit higher. Still a chance aswell.

It just shows how bad he's done when you read the quite pathetic defence that the few fans of this manager throw out.

So the posts which you don't agree with are evidence you are right. Hmmmm

I think those that offer some defence of Lambert are simply trying to add a level of balance to this thread because it so frequently has none.

But whenever anyone tries to do this they tend to get rounded on and labelled, (which is against the site guidelines folks please note).

It would be impossible to say things are going well at the moment or to argue that Lambert holds no blame for it, quite evidently he does. But some people, myself included think his tenure is a symptom of the problems at the club rather than the cause.

No question Lambert has made mistakes and bad decisions at times but even Lerner has admitted he has done what was asked of him. The problem is that while Faulkner was still talking about Europe these last few years the reality was that the brief for Lambert was to cut costs and stay in the PL for a couple of years. It not been enjoyable in the slightest but that is what he has done.

Now I'm not happy with that as a brief, I'm not happy with that as the expectation level of the club and I'm not happy with a lot of the performances or some of the signings.

But I still think Lambert is a decent manager and will either here or elsewhere prove that to be the case. I expect that will cause some to want to label me a Lambert lover or something equally infantile but it really isn't the case. I've have been and will continue to be critical of him but at times I think this thread seriously lacks balance, context and reason.

I don't think it lacks balance. He's been atrocious. I don't think there are any valid reasons to defend him over this and I don't think there's any context that you could put this season in that makes it less worse. There have been so many lows over these 2 years and now it looks like he's going. The balance that tries to be added seems to ignore most facts and evidence and just seems a desperate attempt to keep arguing for such a failure of a manager.

Even if you think he has been atrocious you must surely see that he has been doing what the club wanted him to do? He has worked to his constraints. Now just a hypothetical for you. We stay up and Lerner comes out and says we've been sold to very rich owner and says if it wasn't for Lambert getting the wage bill down and keeping us in the Prem it wouldn't have happened would you still think he's done an atrocious job?