Lerner may be willing to slash price for quick Villa sale

When Randy Lerner first put Aston Villa up for sale earlier this year, we heard that his asking price was somewhere in the £200 million range. Given that he had bought the club for £62.7 million and has since pumped well over £200 million into the club since then, it was a bit of a loss but it also seemed to be a fair price.

Now, months later, with no buyer in place, reports are saying that Lerner may be willing to part with Aston Villa for as little as £100 million. That's apparently the low end of the range, with £150 million being the official asking price, but either way represents a steep drop in Lerner's demands.

Perhaps more surprising to me is the fact that Lerner is doing what he needs to do in order to offload the team more quickly. In the second half of the summer, with a sudden investment of transfer funds, he seemed to show a renewed interest in seeing the club succeed. Then, after the hot start, we saw Lerner come to a match for the first time in seemingly forever. There was speculation that perhaps he was okay sticking around for a while and doing what this team so obviously needed.

But, if these new reports are true, I guess we ought to heighten our radar to rumours about a sale. It seems like only a matter of time. Villa aren't relegation fodder this year, and £100 million for a Premier League club is cheap. Heck, they'll almost get that back in TV money at the end of the season. In some ways, it makes me a bit sad. A disinterested Randy Lerner is one I want to go as quickly as is possible. But a Randy Lerner who actually wants to work with the club is a great asset. Let's hope whoever follows him follows in the mold of the latter.