Randy Lerner; the sad decline of Aston Villa’s ‘new messiah’

It all started so well in August 2006, out of Villa Park was ‘Deadly Doug’ and in came a wealthy American with a Aston Villa tattoo to boot. The honeymoon period was brilliant, as Randy Lerner put the Birmingham based club back on the map and back into Europe. Ashley Young, James Milner, John Carew, Martin Laursen and Olof Mellberg were just a few of the legendary names that played at Villa Park, and to think that the better times were just 5 seasons ago. During 2006-2010, whilst the team was performing and the club’s stature was increasing, the hierarchy at Aston Villa were not keeping an eye on the numbers, and this has led to one of the most shocking mismanagements of a football club in recent times.

As an Aston Villa fan, Lerner wanted to become a custodian at Aston Villa, and in the early days of his tenure through renovating the Holte Pub, investing in the team, and seeing through the development of Bodymoor Heath, Aston Villa had a new messiah.

Fast forward several years later, and amongst many Villa fans he is vilified, and he can’t leave the club quickly enough (the irony is, that he wants to as well). Randy Lerner has taken one of only a handful of teams that have not been relegated from the Premier League into its darkest days since the late 1980′s.

Being a Villa fan over the past 5 years has been torture, slowly seeing a team that was well built (we must give credit to Lerner for this), being dismantled and replaced with substandard players. And this is the big issue. Pulling back on transfer funds is fine, if you have a clear strategy in player recruitment and development (much like Southampton have now). What Lerner did was go from plan A to plan D, and Lerner was poorly advised in taking such drastic action. To pull out funds, a club must either have the best scouts in the business, or the best academy around, Villa have neither.

Randy Lerner has made several huge errors, but letting people go like Steve Stride in 2007 and having a lack of ‘football people’ around him, has cost him and Villa dear. Appointing a Birmingham City boss which had just relegated a team was also one of the most bizarre decisions in Villa’s history, the list goes on. Whilst Tom Fox was seen as a shrewd appointment at the time, he is a money man and the appointments of Hendrik Almstadt and promotion of Paddy Reilly has left a sour taste in the mouth as this summer’s recruitment was mainly down to them.

Lerner’s football naivety has cost Villa big, with the team destined for relegation unless the biggest miracle in Premier League history can be pulled off.