With the news building about Randy Lerner’s sale of the Cleveland Browns, some fans are getting overly excited about cash windfalls, and some transformation from the doldrums that we have resided in over the past two seasons.
The important thing in all this is for fans to not get too greedy. I know this might sound obvious, but given that our team seems almost a different proposition to mere months ago, expectations rarely stay in a static position.
After all, you all know how it is in football – if you get tenth, you want eighth, and if you get eighth, you want sixth. Ambition, or rather expectation, is a constantly evolving prospect.
In that sense, it is easy to add two and two together and assume that Aston Villa’s transformation may be even more revolutionary than we have already seen. Paul Lambert has clearly instilled a winning mentality in the team and, whilst the pre-season fixtures really can’t show much proof of how our season will pan out, the club seem like they are on the up.
Add in the potential availability of the sale of a sports franchise worth almost $1bn and it is easy to see how fans might start getting ahead of themselves. The reality, however, is likely to be far more sober than another financial splurge in the mould of Manchester City.
Think of it in pure logical terms – what would a change from austerity to massive investment mean in terms of club strategy? Whilst Lerner would have been unable to predict if a sale could go through – it still hasn’t as I write this article – he would be unlikely to look at Lambert if he was cooking up a massive investment.
That isn’t to detract from the capabilities of Lambert – he is obviously a good manager – but rather that the club could have targeted a man with a lot of European experience if they wanted to start competing with the big boys.
Of course, there is a solid argument to say that financial sensibility is worthwhile whether you are investing £10m or £100m in a close season because even Manchester City will allude to a financial plan despite their heavy investment of over £1bn.
Regardless of all the potential for investment, pragmatism and restraint in ambition are far from bad things. Some could suggest being so sensible is akin to being a killjoy in a potential moment of huge success for the club, but the realities of what will happen are likely to pan out in moderate terms. Ergo, there will be no massive investment in transfers, partly because of the restrictions of FFP, but also because of a fact that Lerner would only sell another franchise to build a stable platform for the other club, not to splurge the money being made on another project.
For all we know, that money could well just be invested in his own personal wealth because, despite our own desire to see Villa get their hands on the cash, Lerner has his own life to pay for. Though he is far from a pauper, there is no doubt that the cost of an expensive divorce and the funding of debts at Villa have left his bank balance diminished and in need of rejuvenation. Spending hundreds of millions in his tenure, albeit fleshed out with revenue, is a cost he would like to recoup.
Evidently the supposed money withdrawal that he is taking out of the club, whether one wants to account that as a salary, management fee, or some other cost, is an infinitesimal amount. I know there are rumour mongers and conspiracists who point to his withdrawals as some kind of blood sucking strategy, but I ask you who in their right mind shouldn’t expect some moderate pay out considering the investment?
Would you, all things being equal, be happy to lend a friend several thousand pounds and only take back five or ten pounds here and there whilst, all the time, your friend asks for several hundred pounds each year? I would say no, and those fans who don’t wish to comprehend the impact of financial stability will be forced to face up to reality.
The club can not continue to be propped up by a benefactor willing to throw his financial support into a pit of oblivion. After a period of two years where we have seen the club toil under unsuccessful managers, part of the financial circumstances are resolved. The next step is to ensure that the vision of the club is consonant with running under a financially well structured deal.
So, if Lerner ends up with a lot of money in his back pocket, consider that he may well not invest in anything at all, or that FFP may well force any investment he wants to make to be put into the club in terms of a stand investment, infrastructure, and the youth – all areas that are exempt from financial restrictions.
The future is bright, and Lambert has started his tenure at the club with a bright vision for the future but, if we must be sensible for a moment, the manager must construct his future plans based on the same restraints in place before Lerner gets a (possible) windfall, rather than having the vision rewritten under a free spending ethos.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Author
