Brian Little, Randy Lerner, Lee Hendrie and Ian Taylor

This post was ready to go last night and then one or two things happened and a beer followed and I became inspired. Then another few beers came and I forgot what inspired me until this morning, but then this morning it's the points I'm remembering.

I'm hoping something good comes from this post, so I'm writing it again and seeing as it's basically points about the four people in the post title, you can decide what section you want to read.

I'll leave it up to you to leave a comment, but I think there is certainly something worth commenting about and sadly, some points that might annoy some. But, take them in the spirit in which they were written and have a little blind optimism. Unless your name is Mat Kendrick that is.

Brian Little shames local reporter

My previous post mentioned something about how Mat Kendrick from the Birmingham Mail always looks tired and how his job is basically to drive traffic to his employers website.

It used to be that local reporters were respected and looked upon as someone that could tell you the latest news and you could believe in what they were reporting. Sadly, it's not like that today and they're basically fed the scraps the club want them to have.

And yesterday, Brian Little told all Aston Villa fans all they need to know about how the local press work and confirmed what we all already knew.

I actually feel sorry for Kendrick because I'm sure he thinks of himself as an actual reporter and not the glorified blogger that he is, so he must be humiliated by this tweet.

Has Lerner decided to not sell Aston Villa?

Okay, that headline is a little misleading, as it was just a rumour that did the rounds on Twitter last night, but it's one that could quite possibly be true for the simple reason that it makes sense.

Lerner has spent months trying to sell the club and not found a buyer so the only logical thing to do, if he really wanted to get rid of Aston Villa would be to lower the price to a point where the vultures would be interested and I don't think that is something he wants to do.

When I say vultures, I hope you know what I mean, it's not going to be a single owner but a fund or group of people that have just scraped together the asking price and the ones that are going to borrow against the club to make it happen - absolutely the wrong type of owner.

And I don't think Lerner will take the price there for a number of reasons, but one is that I think there is an emotional attachment to Aston Villa and I think that is maybe why, he might want to give it another go.

And as I wrote a while back, things could have happened to make him think twice about selling and if he has, I for one would welcome that change of heart.

And remember, I'm the one that told you he was only here for the cash. But now, it really is a case of better the devil you know. There is also a very real opportunity with the right owner and Lerner really is very much the right type of owner.

So, to end the Lerner section, the rumour was that he might have changed his mind about selling. We'll know if that is true quite soon because it will mean appointing a new CEO and finally getting some real channels of communication open and not the prefabricated ones when he first came and if these are to happen, they've got to happen soon.

But the slate is clean for Lerner, so this is an opportunity for him, just as much as it is for supporters. But time to move on.

The ambassadorial dream team: Hendrie and Taylor

So, I guess you all knew this was coming up at some stage. The story is that Paul Lambert didn't want Ian Taylor on the club tour of the US because of something that Taylor might have said to a local reporter.

Let's be clear though and read the section above about Brian Little if you haven't; you can't always trust local reporters. But let's say for a second that Taylor said what he said, or something close to it; what was really wrong with it?

Sure, there is a company line to follow, but Liverpool have just made Robbie Fowler there 412th club ambassador and we know how much he likes to follow lines. There is also opinion and it wasn't as if Taylor was saying Lambert should be sacked.

Everyone knows Paul Lambert has my backing and that I've got a belief that the football is going to get better, but he can't be making decisions about club ambassadors. It has nothing to do with the football and I'm afraid Lambert hasn't earned the right to act like Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger at this football club yet.

He still has a lot to prove and if he spent a little less time worrying and getting involved in things that have no direct impact on the football, things might go a little quicker in the right direction for him.

Aston Villa also doesn't have that many options for club ambassador, but Taylor is absolutely one that should be, but if the whispers I'm hearing are true, Taylor is officially no longer an ambassador for Aston Villa Football Club.

His contract with the club expired last month and as of today it hasn't been renewed. That, along with Lambert not wanting him on the tour forced the marketing department to find someone else to go and next on the list was Lee Hendrie.

Still, they've got to get Taylor signed up again, because this is about so much more than just a game and I'm sure it's something Robin Russell is working on right now.

But I've got a little confession to make about Hendrie because when I read the news, I made a cheeky comment on Twitter and in fairness and transparency, maybe I was too quick to judge.

We all know what Hendrie was like as a player and what he got up to when not playing, but wouldn't all of us have done what he did to some extent?

If we had all this money thrown at us to play football for the club we loved in the town we grew up, we'd probably all get a little carried away. We'd also all at some stage find the straight and narrow and while we don't know for sure that Hendrie is on it, from the outside, he's doing his best to turn things around.

So I started following Hendrie on Twitter yesterday, hoping for some photos or insight that wasn't club sponsored. This is what a club ambassador delivers and I'm hoping for some good banter.

As supporters we enjoyed the banter with Taylor and we'll enjoy it with Hendrie and because we're not a Manchester United or Liverpool, we have to treasure the ones we have and that is why the contract has to be renewed for Taylor and why Lerner will do it.

And on that; go follow Hendrie, hope I'm wrong about Tayls, think about what I wrote about Lerner and feel sorry for Mat Kendrick, because he got bitch slapped by an Aston Villa legend yesterday.