da 888casino： After appointing Norwich boss Paul Lambert this summer, it heralds the dawning of a new era at the club with their fourth permanent manager inside three years, but after owner Randy Lerner sold his NFL side, the Cleveland Browns, rumours have continued to persist that he may be about to do the same with Aston Villa – is this little more than a 2+2=5 piece of journalism or does it actually carry any weight at all?
da lvbet： Lerner bought the club back on August 14, 2006, after reaching an agreement with Aston Villa of £62.6 million for the takeover of the club. It was later confirmed that 60% of the club’s shares, including the 39% stake of previous owner, the much-maligned Doug Ellis had been sold to Lerner and it brought about a radical change in the club’s fortunes.
The first change was that new manager Martin O’Neill was given significant funds in the transfer market, certainly more so than the club had spent previously under Ellis. O’Neill spent as much as £119.25m in four summers at the club and while his transfer record could be said to be patchy at best, as he went on to marginalise many of the players that he bought for large fees, he did help the club secure three consecutive top six finishes.
During the O’Neill years, Lerner was seemingly very open to the prospect of spending money to try and transform the club from mid-table also-rans, a sleeping giant if you will, into genuine top four contenders. The club only recouped £35.1m during those four seasons to give them a net spend of £84.15m which works out at a hefty £21m per campaign, a huge hike on what had come before.
However, due to O’Neill’s inability to crack the top four, Lerner, rather understandably, stated that the club had to adjust its budget and begin to cut their cloth accordingly and O’Neill clearly didn’t fancy the task and left just five days before the 2010-11 season. Since then, in the past three seasons, the club have very much operated within their means, spending £58.15m and bringing back in £67.25m after the big-money sales of Ashley Young, Stewart Downing and James Milner.
The result was that the club appeared to go off the rails a bit, lacking direction and a coherent plan as the likes of Charles N’Zogbia, Stephen Ireland and Jean Makoun all flopped as the club slumped to a horrid 16th-placed finish last season under the quite terrible Alex McLeish, a manager so far out of his depth in England it beggars belief that he was approached for the job immediately after securing relegation for the club’s bitter rivals Birmingham City.
The backdrop of McLeish’s ill-fated reign, though, was the fact that he was tasked with seriously bringing down the club’s huge wage bill, which has seen the likes of Carlos Cuellar, Emile Heskey and Habib Beye all let go at the end of last season.
Lerner inherited the Cleveland Browns from his father Al Lerner back in 2002 after his death, generally serving with the same low-key manner and unfussy style that he has operated with while he’s been at Villa Park. The 50 year-old sold the franchise to truck-stop magnate Jimmy Haslam for $1bn, increasing the owners wealth hugely.
The club’s chief executive, Paul Faulkner, has been keen to play down any links between that deal and anything involving Aston Villa and the potential idea of Lerner selling up, stating: “The Browns situation has absolutely nothing to do with Aston Villa.” It appears as if an issue is trying to be made where no actual problem exists.
The only real reasoning behind the rumours of Lerner reportedly being open to offers is the fact that he’s slowly but surely reducing the wage bill and operating under a sell before we buy transfer policy. Given the fact that we are currently in the midst of a double-dip recession, while it may not be what the fans want to see, it’s financially prudent to bring your costs into line and reign in your budget if performances aren’t up to scratch on the pitch – Lerner serves as a prime example of when foreign owners go right and he’s been excellent for the club since taking over.
I’ve yet to see any real reason why the club should have any worries about Lerner’s commitment – he goes to games frequently, he appears to genuinely care about the club, having bought it himself rather than just inheriting it and with an extra $1bn in his coffers, this may see the spending taps turned on a tad more this summer. There’s no certainty to this idea, of course, but the likelihood is that it will free up some money to spend on transfers this window, even if Lambert will need to keep an eagle eye on balancing the budget at the same time. If anything, the sale of the Cleveland Browns should be seen as a positive, that Lerner has preferred to sell a well-established family franchise as opposed to the Premier League club.
In Paul Lambert, the club have one of the best young managers in the entire league, if not Europe, and while the squad certainly needs tweaking and strengthening in certain areas, with more depth needed all over the park, the future is certainly brighter at the club now than it was last season. They weren’t the only club thought to be lowering their wage budget last season, but it was a step that was required after the excess of the O’Neill era. To try and claim that because Lerner has sold one of the sports teams he owns that this guarantees that he’ll sell the other is patently ridiculous and carries little to no substance at all.
You can follow me on Twitter @JamesMcManus1
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