Lerner: It’s a long-term plan

Randy Lerner today revealed he will back Martin O’Neill in the January transfer window – but insisted the Villa manager wasn’t an cheque book chief.

Owner-chairman Lerner said the process would be centred on long term success rather than short term fix.

O’Neill has enjoyed success from Lerner’s millions with the arrival of £8m Ashley Young, £7.5m Nigel Reo-Coker and John Carew since the American billionaire arrived in September 2006.

And today Lerner stressed the policy will continue, saying: “I assume we’ll be looking for players in January.

“We’ve not spoken about specific players and we haven’t set a budget.

“But Martin and I didn’t discuss a budget going into the summer or the previous window (last January). That doesn’t seem to be the nature of our dialogue.

“It’s much more about the kind of players he’s looking for, where and who they are. It’s the process of figuring out how to get to them and bring them in.

“I don’t think Martin is a kind of ‘open chequebook’ type manager. Like any manager, Martin needs the ability to be aggressive in the transfer market.”

He continued: “I think that Martin’s background and his sense of how you’re supposed to manage – how winning somehow becomes the by-product of a variety of disciplines – isn’t stimply a money game.

“It’s about bringing young players along, using older players and experienced players where appropriate and creating something among the players which is kind of special.

“That’s something that can be done through time and continuity. He and I have discussed this and I don’t see it as simply purchase players and win. I see it as something more detailed and less pefrect, but it’s probably something more emotional.

“I think that makes it more sustainable.

“I can’t deny you have to spend to compete with the top-four. But I guess I remain focussed on what I consider to be almost a more important value system.

“These players live with each other thorughout the year. They live in the locker room, they trust each other, they communicate and therefore there’s a kind of collective rapport.

“With experience and leadership, you suddenly develop a set of intangibles around which something special can happen. I don’t know that buying players and throwing them into the mix is necessarily a direct indicator of future success.

“I think you need a group of playerrs that have played together over a period of time and probably what you’d like to be able to do is add in a tactical way very specific talent, over time to strengthen waht it is you’re building.

“You absolutely need to spend to compete and you need to spend more to compete in a higher level. But while you’re doing that, you also need to be doing other things very effectively.”