Neville’s bid for Villa gets boost

LIFE-LONG fan Michael Neville’s hopes of his consortium taking control of Aston Villa have been boosted by the apparent withdrawal from the bidding of American billionaire Rady Lerner.

Lerner is believed to have pulled out of the battle to buy out major shareholder and Villa chairman Doug Ellis after holding lengthy talks with the 82-year-old this evening.

It is unclear what was the reason for Lerner deciding to end his interest more than a fortnight after initially meeting Ellis who put the club up for sale nine months ago.

But Lerner, the owner of NFL side Cleveland Browns, was sufficiently unimpressed with certain facets of the discussions.

Neville has sufficient new backers to be able to make a bid — believed to be €93 million — to take control of Villa, who were put up for sale by Ellis nine months ago.

Neville is one of two parties now reported to be interested in the club, the other a consortium fronted by Athole Still.

Still, the agent to former England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, was seen leaving Villa Park yesterday after holding talks with club officials.

And his involvement has led to speculation that Eriksson could be coaching the Premiership club next season.

They are expected to face strong competition from American billionaire Lerner who is expected to at least match the bid of Neville’s group after meeting with Ellis yesterday.

But Neville is the first to make public his interest after originally being part of the consortium, including Irish property developers the Comer brothers, which expressed an interest in buying Villa before Christmas.

A statement from Villa to the Stock Exchange read: “The board of Aston Villa PLC can confirm that they have received a number of indicative offers which may or may not lead to a formal offer for the issued share capital of the Company.”

Neville said: “We have a desire to make Aston Villa great again, to be challenging at the top end of the Premiership and qualifying for Europe.

“We have been working hard to get this bid done and our interest is definitely Aston Villa Football Club.”

Neville has made it clear Martin O’Neill would be his number one choice to replace David O’Leary, who parted company as manager last week.

He said: “Martin O’Neill is top of the tree. Any club would love to have him on board.”