According to reports this morning, Randy Lerner is looking for investment from billionaire businessmen from the Far East. Roughly translated, this means he is looking at selling up.
Randy Lerner paid just over £60mn for Aston Villa but the value of the club has gone up since he took control, mostly through increased revenue and some clever bookkeeping, so he should be able to get back what he paid for the club, what he has put in and a tidy profit.
Naturally, I am reading into this, the report does just say investment, but no billionaire businessman from the Far East is going to invest the type of money we need to challenge without taking the club too. It doesn´t add up.
So, while Lerner has made everyone feel good, which is good, if the last thing he does is find us an owner who can make the investments necessary to really challenge, then it will be job well done.
Nothing against Lerner, he has done a fine job, but if O´Neill had the type of money that Mark Hughes had this summer I fancy we´d be challenging for the league this season. He didn´t, so we won´t, but if Lerner can sell to the right people, you never know what next season will bring.
This will also help him out in the US with his American Rugby team supporters who are a little critical of him owning us. They feel their team doesn´t get the attention it deserves and as of late, he has come in for a bit of stick.
Let´s just hope this is true and it happens. Not what I thought I´d be writing, but the game is all about money these days and if we are ever to challenge that is what we need. Show me the money and I´ll show you the league.