You won’t have seen much of Randy Lerner, the 48-year-old former New York lawyer who bought a controlling stake in Aston Villa in 2006.
Bar the odd candid camera shot of him watching on from the stands at Villa Park or wherever his club happen to be on the road, he doesn’t do television. His only, rare interviews are given to the written press. There are no fireside chats calling for the removal of club directors, a la Tom Hicks at Liverpool. There are no Villa fans turning up at home matches wearing black and white scarves in a bid to reunite the club with their 1870s beginnings and club colours, a la Manchester United fans in protest against the Glazers.
There is simply a football club that is well run by an American businessman who also owns an NFL team. A rarity on these shores.
When Hicks and George Gillett took over at Liverpool, the latter promised manager Rafael Benitez the funds to sign anyone he wanted – even if that anyone included “Snoogy Doogy” – but their repeated failures to deliver the funds required have angered supporters to the point of revolt. Things couldn’t be much more different at Villa.
Martin O’Neill – appointed by Lerner a mere few days into the American’s tenure – has broken Villa’s transfer record twice in his time at the club, first for Ashley Young in 2007 and then for Stewart Downing last summer, two signings typical of O’Neill’s period in charge. They’re talented, they’re experienced in the Premier League, and they’re English.
James Milner, Stephen Warnock and Emile Heskey have flourished since being signed by O’Neill and all look good bets for the England World Cup squad, while Luke Young, Steve Sidwell, Fabian Delph and Curtis Davies provide adequate Anglo-Saxon backup.
O’Neill inherited Gabriel Agbonlahor, but has brought his game on to new heights that many thought he wasn’t capable of reaching, while even his non-English purchases such as the vastly experienced goalkeeper Brad Friedel, captain Stiliyan Petrov and defenders Carlos Cuellar, Richard Dunne and James Collins – a Spaniard, an Irishman and a Welshman respectively – all had prior experience of British football. Of O’Neill’s significant signings, only John Carew arrived without any previous knowledge of the game in this country, but anyone who’d witnessed him play knew he was almost built for the Premier League.
On Sunday, the quiet revolution reaches a new, noisy high point, as thousands of Villa supporters converge on Wembley for the Carling Cup final with Manchester United.
This is a competition that has been kind to O’Neill, who won it with unheralded Leicester City in both 1997 and 2000. Heskey was in the team both times, scoring a last-gasp equaliser to take that 1997 final against Middlesbrough to a replay. He’s won the competition twice with Liverpool since too, and on Sunday will equal Ian Rush and Kenny Dalglish’s record of five final appearances. He, like everyone at Villa, owes an awful lot to his Northern Irish manager.
At Leicester, the League Cup finals represented an apex of the club’s success and of O’Neill’s time with them, but a win for Villa on Sunday would feel like something different. With Lerner’s backing, a Champions League place to chase and a squad of young, hungry, mostly British talent seemingly destined to only get better, this could be the start of great things.
Aston Villa won the first League Cup in 1961. A 2010 success would be as welcome as it would be deserved.
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