Aston Villa owner Randy Lerner refuses to dish dirt over Martin O'Neill's resignation
Aug 12 2010 by Mat Kendrick, Birmingham Mail
RANDY Lerner has broken his silence following Martin O’Neill’s shock resignation - but refused to go into any more detail about Monday’s bombshell announcement.
In an official statement issued yesterday lunchtime, Lerner revealed that concluding the James Milner-Stephen Ireland deal with Manchester City is one of the club’s most pressing tasks.
The search for O’Neill’s successor is also a “clear priority” according to the billionaire chairman, who flew back into England on Tuesday morning for crisis talks about Villa’s future.
Lerner and chief executive Paul Faulkner held crunch meetings with Villa’s senior staff at the Holte Pub yesterday in an attempt to pick up the pieces following O’Neill’s dramatic departure.
The chairman suggested his relationship with O’Neill broke down after four years because the pair “no longer shared a common view as to how to move forward”.
As revealed in the Birmingham Mail yesterday, Lerner and O’Neill have barely spoken in recent months and not at all immediately before or since the Irishman stunned Villa with his resignation.
Villa are far from impressed by the timing of O’Neill’s decision – just five days before the new season – but Lerner is reluctant to add to the club’s turmoil by dishing dirt about his broken relationship with the ex-boss.
The American owner reaffirmed his commitment to the claret and blue cause – but stressed that Villa would continue to try and operate a prudent spending policy.
