We need to prepare ourselves for a new owner and if the worst happens, it's not going to be nice. Randy Lerner, despite the words, has only one interest right now and that's getting the money he wants for Aston Villa. He really doesn't care where that comes from.
We've got to get our heads out of the sand and stop thinking that Larry Ellison is interested or that we're going to get some billionaire working in oil that has more money than sense. These things are rare and if these things are going to happen they don't happen when the owner puts the club up for sale publicly.
If a multi billionaire wanted a football club and was interested in Aston Villa, it would have happened by now. Randy Lerner started to sell Aston Villa as far back as December and that was just when I heard a rumour. Chances are that it had started a long time before that. His mention of Bank of America Merrill Lynch is his way of saying, if you're interested they're my agents.
Look around and you'll see that there are not that many owners like Roman Abramovich or Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. In fact, they are the only two in the Premier League. All the other new and foreign owners are pretty much just like Randy.
What I'm trying to say is that supporters of Aston Villa have to prepare themselves for the reality that is most likely and that is another Randy Lerner and everything that comes with that.
Sure, whoever the new owner is will spend some money, but chances are it will be pretty much what the club can afford to pay him or her back and when you factor in the large amount of money they are now going to have to pay for the club, that isn't going to be like it was when Lerner first arrived and had the literal promise of increased revenues.
Football first
But this isn't necessarily a bad thing. The biggest problem we've had over the past few seasons and it could be argued that since Lerner arrived, was a lack of anyone at the club thinking 'football first'. Although with the appointment of Gerard Houllier, we looked like someone at the club had figured that out, but supporters didn't give him a chance.
And it comes down to a way of thinking. It's a cultural thing that we have to accept and buy into because if we don't, it will never happen. And now that I write this, for all I know, Randy could have hired Houllier on that basis and the way that supporters turned on him, could have been the straw. We will probably never know.
All I'm trying to say today is this and I could be wrong, but if a deal was close we'd probably know about it and that because Lerner has gone public like this, it suggests that there isn't.
And most importantly, when change happens, money is important and it will be spent, but it will be limited by what can be returned to the new owner or by what buying the Premier League costs, but either way, if it isn't football first, nothing is really going to change.