Aston Villa chairman Randy Lerner has ploughed a huge amount of his own fortune into the club. The Guardian says Villa's US-based owner, Randy Lerner, has put almost £140m into the club since his 2006 takeover, according to official documents. The club's statement of capital, filed at Companies House this month, shows that £138.6m has been invested from Lerner's UK holding company, Reform Acquisitions. The financial accounts for the year to 31 May 2009 are not due to be filed until the end of next month, so it cannot yet be seen how exactly the money was paid to the club. However, the most recent published figures, for the previous year, to 31 May 2008, reveal that the investment up to then, £49.5m, was in the form of loan notes, from Lerner's holding company in the United States. During that year the manager Martin O'Neill's signings and a more than doubling of players' wages led to Villa recording a £7.3m loss. The interest paid on the loan notes owed to Lerner's US company was at a fairly standard 2% above interbank rates, amounting to £4m, which came out of Villa's own income, including fans' ticket money. More...