After another tense campaign in avoiding relegation in the Barclays Premier League, Aston Villa have hit another rock or blessing (depending on opinion) in which Randy Lerner wants to sell the Birmingham based club.
After taking over in 2006, the American owner has now come out and stated he wants to sell the club. After a successful first three years with Martin O’Neill guiding the club to three 6th place league finishes and a cup final, it has all gone downhill since O’Neill left unexpectedly in summer 2010. After the initial investment of trying to get Villa into the top four of the PL and that coveted CL spot, the investment has slowly dried up and cost-saving measures have been put into place since 2010 to restore the finances into a healthier state.
After hiring several managers to bring some form of stability into the club, it has failed to do so with Aston Villa repeatedly flirting with relegation in the past three seasons. Something the fans feel that a club this size, history and location should not be dealing with. I don’t believe they still require Villa to be challenging for those European spots, but to see their team perform well at Villa Park consistently and guarantee a top 14th place finish with confidence of not reaching the doomed relegation spots at any stage.
However, performances at home have been erratic during the last three seasons and fans are losing hope as Villa struggle to win at home against similar and smaller teams on a consistent basis. With only : 4 wins at home in the 2011/12 season, 5 wins at home in the 2012/13 season, 6 wins at home in this season (2013/14 ). It provides evidence that Villa fans have a strong point with the lack of performances at home and the fact that they struggle to give Villa fans optimism. Villa last finished in the Top 10 in the 2010/11 season where they won 8 games at home which contributed to a total of 48 points that season.
Weimann Celebrates against Hull (Yahoo/Eurosport)
But with the lack of investment and the cuts in wages, top quality players have been hard to come by and has required the manager to bring in shrewd acquisitions. Ever since James Milner, Ashley Young, Gareth Barry and Stewart Downing were sold, the club has struggled to replace those important squad members with players who can replicate the same impact in which they did. It can be argued that some of those players mentioned above have failed to perform well at their new clubs, but I am sure many Villa fans can agree that these players were first team members who were successful at Villa Park. There has been some optimism with young talents such as Clark, Weimann, Gardner and Albrighton coming through the youth set up and providing some good solid displays at various times. Thus, allowing some transfer funds to be spent on shrewd acquisitions such as Benteke, El Ahmadi, Westwood and Vlaar. It does look like that Villa will have to continue to work with these constraints, but as some of the players above have shown, they are able to compete at this level, but can they be consistent enough over the new campaign?
Whoever buys a controlling stake at Villa, will have to spend wisely due to new FFP rules coming into force for the PL. It is positive news that the wages and transfer fees have been reduced to avoid the club from struggling financially as we have seen with Leeds, Rangers, Portsmouth and even the rivals Birmingham City. As the worse thing that could happen to Aston Villa, is to be relegated and struggle to stay afloat which would hamper future development and opportunity to get into the PL later on (Worse case scenario). The squad size is very large for a team who only participates in the league and the occasional cup run. Therefore, for players to come in, players must go out or risk the mishaps of the O’Neill regime. Also, with academy players slowly coming through, the club needs to employee staff who can get the best out of their players and develop their academy players into more regular first team options.
It is evident that Lerner did invest heavily into this football club but felt the chance was gone when Villa only achieved those three 6th place finishes and one cup final. In doing so, he tried to recoup/reduce the investment, by selling the key players mentioned above and slim the wage bill heavily. In which is understandable, as Villa had one the highest wage bills during the 2010/11 season. The wage bill was around a staggering £80m (approx).
Extract from Guardian: “But alongside that strong growth has been the vaulting expansion of the wage bill. Villa’s salary payments amounted to £22.4m in Lerner’s first year, a just about sustainable 60% of the club’s turnover. Today they have reached £79.9m or nearly 88% of the club’s total revenues.”
Randy Lerner at Villa Park (Image from Bham Mail)
Extract from Telegraph: “What exactly keeps Lerner engaged in Villa becomes more mysterious with every financial bulletin. The £17 million loss announced for last season represents an improvement on the £54 million, £38 million and £47 million lost in the previous three years, but it still costs a man once billed as the perfect owner dearly. ”
There is no denying that Lerner invested funds into the club, but performances and positions on the pitch did not reflect the rewards it should have provided. Some blame must be put onto O’Neill when he bought players such as Habib Beye and Jean Makoun who were on relatively high wages while rarely making many appearances for the club. McLeish was unfairly criticised during this ill-fated reign when he was tasked to reduce the wages further yet still managed to avoid relegation. Albeit, he resulted in playing very negative and dull football, he still managed to do a better job than Lambert in his one year at the club. Was he used as a scapegoat as he was an ex-blues manager? Or did Lerner completely fail to identify that he previously relegated the rivals the season before and was not the long-term solution?
It is not surprising that a good majority of Villa fans want Lerner out and also Paul Lambert. But Villa fans must realise that Lerner did provide stability and good times in this first three years at the helm. However, it sadly felt apart when differences between him and O’Neill sparked the downfall of the West Midlands club. It cannot be forgotten that his investment at the club has also helped the young academy players develop, which some are now first team members of the squad. I feel that these new exciting prospects can help Villa become a stronger team in the next few years and build a strong core to challenge for more aspiring objectives in the near future. Lerner now feels it time to leave and hopefully the fans and himself can part on respectable terms after a mixed journey with the club.
With Lambert, fans must realise that he has been working under tight circumstances and has not been helped with the long term injuries on Okore, Gardner, Benteke and Kozak. With a better pre-season and with one or two more smart signings, Villa should be able to consolidate further up the league. Lambert has been fortunate to be allocated some decent funds in this two years at the club. Albeit, still working on a tight budget, he spent approx £23m in the 2012/13 season and £18m approx in 2013/14 (transfer fees). Still quite vast amounts of money and several new additions in which some have failed to impress e.g. Tonev, Bennett . Lambert does need to improve on motivating his players against weaker teams as this has been Villa’s downfall for a few seasons and has resulted in them being around the lower parts of the league. The squad contains several international players and should be now reflected in more consistent performances rather than the erratic and unpredictable Villa side we all currently know about. It will be Lambert’s third season in charge if he is still at the helm once the new owners come in. Therefore he should now look to push these young and more experienced players on to more better things to get Villa back into more positive times. His third season will hopefully put some stability into a very volatile period for this Premier League club. Something that is vital for this club to stay in this division.
Whoever comes in to replace Lerner must realise, that this club has many problems, but has the potential to consolidate itself as a formidable Premier League team and challenge for domestic cups. For money isn’t the only thing it needs………
Thanks for reading.
@Seb_gomez8
Sources below to find info which is provided in this article/post.
Websites: http://www.theguardian.com/football/2011/mar/01/aston-villa-randy-lerner-accounts
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/mar/01/aston-villa-17m-pound-loss
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/aston_villa/9410582.stm
http://www.transferleague.co.uk/premiership-transfers/aston-villa-transfers.html
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