Lerner shunned Toon and Toffees

[Scottish Mag 3]

Doug Ellis has revealed that Randy Lerner turned down the chance to invest at both Newcastle and Everton.

 

Lerner, owner of NFL outfit Cleveland Browns, bought Villa from long-term chairman Ellis earlier this year in a deal worth £64 million.

 

Ellis ended a 35-year association with the club by doing the deal, but he insists it was the right one for the Birmingham outfit.

 

"I have to praise Mr Lerner wholeheartedly," he said.

 

"There were five consortiums interested in buying Aston Villa but I always knew he was the right man and I have been proved 100 percent correct.

 

"They had looked at the likes of Newcastle and Everton and others but they all carried debts.

 

"But I had never borrowed a penny at Villa until 2005 and that was because we needed to rebuild the training ground at Bodymoor Heath and needed £4 million.

 

"Bodymoor Heath will be the best in the country. We have borrowed the best ideas from everywhere from Middlesbrough to Arsenal."

 

Ellis says it was his first impression of Lerner that persuaded him to sell to the American.

 

"It was instinctive. I am a devil for first impressions and he has kept every single one of his promises," he said.

 

"Randy Lerner gave me the right feeling the first moment we met.

 

"We were on the same wavelength from the very beginning. Mr Lerner and his people are not only extremely warm people but football people through and through.

 

"That was clear from the outset. They are absolutely driven by Aston Villa, the name, the history, everything."

[ewerk 27117]

He couldn't afford us, at the price Villa was a much better deal.