Since Randy Lerner appointed Martin O'Neill as Aston Villa manager, the club's fortunes seem to have changed. No, Villa haven't realistically competed for any silverware yet, but there are certainly promising signs at the club. Villa have recently appeared to be a club who are a solid top 6 team, with some promising talent on their books.

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It seems that the US as a soccer community takes a bit of a beating over the exploits of American owners who dip their toes into English waters; while Randy Lerner has managed to keep Villa fans...

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The Bucs and Browns are a combined 1-14 this season, while across the pond Manchester United stands second and Aston Villa stands eight in the Premier League standings. I know what some people are thinking, what is the connections between the four teams. The connections is simple The Browns and Aston Villa are owned by Randy Lerner, while the Bucs and Manchester United are owned by Malcolm Glazer (pictured right). Click to continue reading...

I have wanted to write a piece about Stan Kroenke for a while now, about a year ago I wrote a story about the ownership of Arsenal just after Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith left the board.

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Early on Saturday morning I was listening to the World Football Phone In on BBC Five Live and their correspondent for North America was asked about Stan Kroenke what he is like as a guy, what his intentions may be in the future and what we would want to get out of a club like Arsenal.

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First of all, check out this insane header goal from Martin Palermo of Boca Juniors:
Then, read Jack Warner's comments about England's bid to host the FIFA World Cup in 2018. No word on whether others within FIFA feel the same way or not, but that can't be a bad thing for the USA bid. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool are unlikely to receive a takeover bid any time soon, according to leading football broker David Bick, who has handled a number of high-profile takeovers, including those of Aston Villa, Manchester City, Manchester United and Leeds United.
Bick told Goal.com UK exclusively that he does not expect Saudi Arabian Prince Faisal bin Fahd bin Abdullah to make any concrete bid for control at Anfield, despite reports emanating from the Middle East over the weekend that the Prince was close to securing a £350 million deal for a 50 per cent stake in the club. Click to continue reading...

O'Neill looks to add more stability to his back four.

Aston Villa are weighing up a £7million move for Blackburn Rovers defender Stephen Warnock.

Villa boss Martin O'Neill has already splashed out on Stewart Downing and Habib Beye and wants owner Randy Lerner to finance a move for a centre-half and left-back.

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When you think of a club backed by an American billionaire (or two) you think of Liverpool and Manchester United. It is rare that Randy Lerner's ownership of Aston Villa comes up. But he has financed a lot of buying of players since he bought the club. And still Villa have a threadbare squad that will be troubled by the injuries and departures they've suffered this off-season. Click to continue reading...

While it seemed yesterday that Newcastle United right-back, Habib Beye, was all set for a move to the 'Tigers' of Hull, with a bid accepted, it appears that this development motivated Martin O'Neill and Randy Lerner to make a dramatic eleventh hour swoop, and Habib is now a 'Villan'. The 31-year-old is reported to have [. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal: A top-four finish is far from guaranteed but Arsène Wenger feels a new formation, rather than new players, will elevate his team.
Preview
Aston Villa: Maybe the alarm bells should have been ringing at the end of last season when Randy Lerner suggested 'more modest' spending. Click to continue reading...

Stewart Downing was at Aston Villa's training ground to discuss his £12 million move from relegated Middlesbrough and unlike most footballers worth £12 million, he arrived on crutches. The England international is recovering from surgery on his fractured foot and won't be able to make his debut until October, but Martin O'Neill has apparently decided to throw caution and cash to the wind and sign him now instead of next January as previously believed.

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According to John Wragg at the Daily Express, Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill will have funds to spend this summer. Owner Randy Lerner said,

"Martin's achievements have been superb ... We have improved steadily and we have qualified for Europe two seasons in a row.

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Gareth Barry has claimed that he rejected the chance to join Liverpool in favour of a £12million move to Manchester City amid fears of becoming a victim of Rafael Benítez's rotation policy at Anfield.
Barry implied yesterday that he was concerned he may have been asked to play out of position by Benítez, rather than in his preferred role in central midfield, and was worried about how that would affect his place in Fabio Capello's England team before the World Cup finals in South Africa next summer. Click to continue reading...

Aston Villa midfielder Gareth Barry is in talks with Manchester City about a move to Eastlands.

Barry, 28, was linked with Liverpool in the summer of 2008 but the Reds could not meet Villa's £18m asking price.

The England international has been offered a new deal to remain at Villa Park beyond the end of next season - when his current contract expires.

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According to Express and Star, Aston Villa owner Randy Lerner admitted that the club expects to spend less this summer than last. He said,

"I would expect to invest less this summer than last summer. When we set out to build up the squad, we probably expected year four to mean more modest spending than year three.

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According to John Edwards at the Daily Mail, Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill is preparing a £5 million bid for Anderlecht defender Roland Juhasz.

According to BBC Sport, Aston Villa owner Randy Lerner revealed that the club has offered midfielder Gareth Barry a new deal.

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Another Holte End Gem. The levels this works on, my god...
Regular readers will know I use that particular German word a bit too often, but shameful joy is the bread and butter of English football. The Holte End, many of whom had long given up on anything approaching a meaningful season and still recovering from the heart cramping noise of Martin Laursen's announced early retirement, had nothing else to offer on the last day of the season but a banner reading, "SOB on the Tyne. Click to continue reading...

The AP is reporting that VICTOR MACFARLANE the Ohio real estate developer who bought DC United along with San Francisco-based Wil Chang, has sold his interest in the club.
MacFarlane came into The District intending to use his ownership of the team as a wedge to get a major development off the ground in the then red-hot DC commercial real estate business. Click to continue reading...

With another season drawing to a close and the usual suspects in their normal places in the top four, isn't it about time that the second level of teams finally pushed up to join them? With Everton once again in a Europa League place, Villa making massive strides, despite the fall away they suffered after Christmas, Harry Redknapp finally making Tottenham hard to beat and Manchester City getting ready to add to the squad to make them more consistent, next season may finally see the gap between the big 4 and the other 4 draw a little bit closer.

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Those who would purify English football believe the current debauchery and debt stems from foreign ownership. That is not necessarily true.

American billionaire Stan Kroenke bought out the Carr family shares in Arsenal for about £45m, increasing his stake in the club to 28.

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According to James Nursey at the Daily Mirror, Aston Villa are looking at replacing Martin Laursen with Everton's Joleon Lescott. Owner Randy Lerner is prepared to give manager Martin O'Neill £10 million to get a deal done.

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Slap-up dinner for cheesed off away fans Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill has arranged to buy dinner for the 295 fans who spent thousands of pounds travelling to watch a weakened side crash out of the Uefa Cup to CSKA Moscow. Villa owner Randy Lerner has agreed to pick up the £15,000 tab for the conciliatory [. Click to continue reading...

If Martin O'Neill managed any other club in the Premier League, would he be able to achieve more success than the club's current manager? What if O'Neill was in charge of Chelsea or Liverpool? Could he do a better job than Scolari and Benitez? I believe he could, by far. Read on to find the answers [. Click to continue reading...

The number of Premier League clubs owned by Americans became four this week after Dallas-based businessman Ellis Short acquired controlling interest in Sunderland. Short now owns the largest single stake of Sunderland at more than 30 per cent, and gives him effective control of the northeast club. He joins fellow Americans Malcolm Glazer, Randy Lerner, Tom [. Click to continue reading...

Newcastle United's problems continue today as Mike Ashley has now appointed London-based investment bank Seymour Prince to help push through the sale of the club. Magpies owner Ashley confirmed last week he is keen to sell the club after a nasty fan backlash to Kevin Keegan departing the club two weeks ago. Click to continue reading...

People always misjudged the anti-Glazer protests at Manchester United. It was always a more nuanced argument than being against foreign ownership in football. There is nothing wrong with foreign ownership of English football clubs, as long as they are well run. Randy Lerner's time in charge at Aston Villa is proof of this, as if [. Click to continue reading...

According to an article in the London Times, an ally of the Randy Lerner, the American owner of Aston Villa says they are ready to spend £30 million on 1 player. Well if thats really the case then why don't they? There are plenty of players that they could use so why don't they just go ahead and spend the money? Click to continue reading...

I read this article by Jose Moran from Fox Sports.com and I disagree with a lot of it. Its very easy these days to criticise Gareth Barry, but to say that he betrayed Aston Villa is taking it a bit far. You have to try and look at the situation from his perspective for a minute. Gareth Barry has given his all to that club for many years and they continue to be a team that will finish in the top half of the table, with a slim hope of challenging for a place in Europe. Click to continue reading...

First thing today the deal was off. Now, it might be back on again. It was announced earlier that as Liverpool had failed to meet Villa's deadline of Wednesday to sign the 27-year-old England midfielder the deal was definitely off. It is now reported that Villa boss Martin O'Neill and chairman Randy Lerner are due to meet Barry and his agent for talks later this week. Click to continue reading...

Aston Villa's Brad Friedel warns Gareth Barry over Liverpool's 'obscure' owners
The two clubs have repeatedly clashed this summer over Barry's future, with Villa refusing to sell the midfielder for less than £18 million.
And Friedel, who has moved to Villa Park from Blackburn, believes Liverpool owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett have conducted themselves poorly since taking over at Anfield in 2006. Click to continue reading...

Want to experience the trials and tribulations of an English soccer team but not sure which one to follow?
We'll follow a team through the 2008-09 season here at The Netminder. Each week, we'll go through an update of team news and check in with the papers and blogs. If we find a receptive front office, we'll talk with players and managers every once in a while.

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Gareth Barry was last night facing up to the sobering possibility of starting the season as an Aston Villa player, after it emerged that Rafael Benítez was beginning to explore other options in the transfer market. The Liverpool manager has become exasperated with Villa's refusal to negotiate over their £18m valuation of Barry, leaving the midfielder, who picked up an injury on his return to training yesterday, increasingly unsure of his future. Click to continue reading...

Former Wales international Mark Delaney claims Gareth Barry would be "crazy" not to move to Liverpool.
Delaney, who made 158 appearances for Villa between 1999 and 2007, believes the Champions League represents a career path too good to refuse.
"He has been Villa's best player for the last four or five years and I am surprised it has taken this long for a big club to come along," said the 32-year-old, who was capped 36 times for Wales. Click to continue reading...

I always had Gareth Barry down as a straight guy, a decent footballer, a humble team man, the sort you want to see succeed. Silly me. If you thought that Cristiano Ronaldo's move to Real Madrid was the tawdry business of the summer, you have not been paying attention to Barry's attempts to get himself a transfer to Liverpool, whatever it takes. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool seem to have decided on a new transfer policy this summer which makes the same impact as Real Madrid's lovelorn chase for Ronaldo. Liverpool seem to be using their local paper, The Echo, to release transfer target information into the public domain to unsettle players at other clubs. Gareth Barry became the first and now it seems [. Click to continue reading...