The sacking of Tim Sherwood on Sunday was inevitable after such a disastrous start to the season. Sherwood leaves the Villans bottom of the table after a wretched run of results exposed his inexperience and unsuitability for the role of Aston Villa manager. However, to blame the mess that the club finds itself in purely on Tim Sherwood and his predecessors is naïve and unfair. There is one man who is most accountable for the decline of Aston Villa Football Club since Martin O’Neill departed in August 2010.
Randy Lerner’s lack of interest and investment is slowly killing the club and the hope of its supporters. Relegation to the Championship looks increasingly likely unless the new manager can galvanise and organise a group of players who have talent but little confidence or self-belief. However, the club will be unable to lift the apathy and despair that surrounds Villa Park unless Lerner sells to someone who wants to invest his time and money in a club that is failing to live up to its huge potential. Lerner is seldom seen at Villa Park these days, although he did manage to show up for the FA Cup final, and now merely resembles an infuriating glory hunter rather than club owner.
Each manager appointed by Lerner has struggled to cope with the restrictions placed upon him and you have to wonder how many top managers would want to put their reputations on the line and take on the job now. An atmosphere of complacency and negativity has engulfed Villa Park. During the last five seasons, how many games can you genuinely say that you’ve enjoyed? Aston Villa Football Club should have bigger and better aims than merely wanting to avoid relegation; Lerner’s ‘bright future’ marketing slogan is looking more and more ridiculous with every passing season.
With Lerner at the helm, we run the risk of languishing in the Championship year after year and becoming another Leeds United or Nottingham Forest. We’ve allowed the likes of Stoke City, Swansea City and Crystal Palace to become clubs that we admire and they have overtaken us in terms of the calibre of players and managers that they are able to attract. Randy Lerner needs to cut his losses and go because he has consistently appointed managers and board members who belittle Aston Villa and what we have achieved. He appears to show no interest in helping the club succeed and that is unacceptable in football and in business. Randy Lerner, if Aston Villa Football Club is relegated this season, it will be your fault.
Be carefull what you wish for !!!!
Even languishing at the bottom of the table Villa as a club has value ! The problem is that the squad needed a complete overhaul if we are to get to a position that a club size of ours should be at . The problem is not just down to Lerner as it is the way the club has been financial run on a shoestring budget for years before Lerner took over which was fine in the years before the Prem . But I’m not a fan of the blame game , but I do blame the often churned out comment “But we are a big Club” as being part of our problem !
A lot has happened since Randy took over at the club both at the club & in the big wide world some of it good and some bad And most of that has only a small part to play with the footie which over decades at Villa has varied between excellent, to the very poor .
It’s easy to look at “smaller clubs” and to see that they appear to be performing well and many are on the pitch , but perhaps not at the board room level & beyond . And that is the reason for my comment at the start of this post as whilest the footie is currently poor I understand the clubs finances are more stable than they have ever been . BUT to ensure the longevity of the club they still could be better and staying in the Prem is a necessity , not because of the pending TV money but because of the clubs other finances
Some seem to think that driving Lerner out will solve our footie problems but will it ?
If he has a strop and tries to recoup his losses it could be the begining of the end for our club , after all what does a 2nd rate club want with the facilities at Bodymoor , and if sold they could probably cover any losses over the sale of the club .
But it is probably the facilities at Bodymoor that make us more attractive to players than other 2nd rate clubs, and without them we probably would struggle to attract players .
Remember Lerner may not own the fans but he owns everything else so I say again ” be careful what you wish for “