Over the last few days we have seen brand new rumours emerge about the takeover of Aston Villa football club. After it had all gone quiet on the takeover front, it was was nice to finally have some news after a few weeks. However, like many of the takeover rumours so far, the latest one could well amount to nothing.
The latest people prospective buyers are thought to be American billionaires Joshua Harris and David Blitzer. The pair have a great business relationship and are best known for being the businessmen behind hit television show ‘American Idol’.
The pair have reportedly been scouring the country looking for a football club to buy. With Villa currently for sale, it seems that they’ve set their sights on taking over the reigns from Randy Lerner. Harris and Blitzer already own two sports franchises in the US, the first being an NHL franchise, the New Jersey Devils, and the second a basketball franchise that gives them ownership of the Philadelphia 76ers. This could be seen one of two ways: looking at it positively, it shows that they already have knowledge of how to run sports teams and could hopefully take over at Villa without any hassle or you could say that, as they already own two sports teams, Villa wouldn’t be getting their undivided attention, as seen with Lerner while he was the owner of the Cleveland Browns.
Joshua Harris is best known for being the co-founder of Apollo Global Management, a private equity company. It’s estimated that Harris is worth a healthy sum of $2.1billion.
David Blitzer is currently a Senior Executive at a different private equity firm, Blackstone Group. It is not known how much Blitzer is worth but in 2011 Forbes stated that the Manhattan businessman’s net worth was somewhere in the region of $1.2billion.
If these two were to buy Aston Villa Football Club, there would definitely be an exciting time in store for Villa fans with increased funds being made available to manager Paul Lambert (or his replacement), although it would not be quite as much as the likes of Larry Ellison, another rumoured buyer, would be able to invest.
Fingers crossed that something happens pretty soon John. Some positive news out of Villa would be very welcome.
The end of Randy Lerner era will be the most important event in the clubs history. This man has caused more damage and misery at Villa Park than any other person in the last 140 years his time with Villa will not be remembered well so the sooner this clown is gone the better.We can only hope a takeover happens soon or Lerner will take us down.
Astonman that remark is uncalled for. For two years RL put his money and his heart into the club,
Then came the first rumblings of Divorce, and suddenly, Aston Villa had to take second place. He could not throw money at Villa because his wife could claim he was disposing of capital in order to avoid an equal split of assets,
Then he had a year of court fights, which in the US are extremly nasty, So AV really took a back seat. Could he have sold the club then? The answer is NO. He managed to keep the club as an asset of his holding company,therefore stopping a very nasty mess of who owns what. Again he could not spend huge amounts, simply because by this time he had eyes watching every move he made.
After the divorce was sorted out to everyones satisfaction, he went from a ten bedroomed house to suite in a duplex. and suddenly he had nothing but lonely nights and four stark walls. Sure he had money but he was in the land of ‘leave me alone”
To those of you who have not been through a divorce, I can tell you its the most soul destroying thing a man can go through. I bet he could not care if the dishes were washed and why the local pizza house franchise opened another store on the backbone of his orders.
Aston Villa was way down the list until one day he woke up to the fact he had to do something even if it was nothing. Its a sad story but I bet my Bank balance that I am at least 75% right.
So I do not blame the guy but I do hate that my football club suffered in those dormant years and I hope that he PL gets back on his feet fast.
Thank you PL for the wonder years, but I wish you had somehow got round the USA Divorce laws sooner.
Wow. So that is the truth. You must be right, I’ve heard the same somewhere else too, but then thought it was just another rumour. No, it’s true. Randy did go through a divorce. Given that it was the US and he was seperating from his LIFE partner, I think it was a difficult time for Randy, and so Aston Villa took a back seat. For all the posts where I have blamed Randy, I have done so without this knowledge. Sorry Mr. Lerner.
But well, take over is a problem. I guess we wait and watch over everything now. The free transfers who come in, the Roy Keane situation, the sale of Aston Villa,and the return from injury of some of the players. Just hope for the best, and pray for the best too.
Merrill lynch is well known for taking it’s time with sales of this magnitude. Their sales are good value for money, and it is worth the time we wait. So let’s wait.
Sarvesh
Just get it sorted soon, i’ve said it before aston villa fc is a massive prospect loads of potential and bags of history , the supporters need something to shout about and that to me is a new owner new manager and above all new players.