Alex McLeish’s "ill-starred tenure" as Aston Villa manager cost Owner Randy Lerner £6M ($9M) in compensation payments last season, according to Paul Kelso of the London TELEGRAPH. The cost of McLeish takes Villa’s total spending on "hiring and firing managers" to £18M ($27M) in two years, following on from the £12M ($18M) paid in compensation to Martin O’Neill and Gerard Houllier in the previous season. Despite the cost related to McLeish the accounts show that total wages at Villa fell by £14M ($21M) to just under £70M in the '11-12 season as the club "benefitted financially from the sales of Brad Friedel, John Carew and Luke Young among others. Including the payment to McLeish, the wage bill amounts to £69.9M ($105M), which equates to 87% of Villa’s turnover of £80.4M ($121M). The accounts also show that the club "remain reliant on the largesse" of Lerner, who pumped in another £10M in Dec. '11 to "help balance the books." Half of the money "was injected as a loan, repayable in ten years," and the other £5M ($7.5M) as equity in the form of new shares (TELEGRAPH, 3/7).
