villaboyjay

I would also like to add my sentiments towards a membership scheme. For me, it would be an excellent opportunity to allow me to get to 'priority' games more often. As a soldier, and I am sure there are many more servicemen (and women) that are Villa fans, we often cannot purchase season tickets, as, at times, we may be posted quickly or sent on emergency tours to Afghanistan. Thus this would become a waste of our season ticket. The membership scheme would give us the chance to pick games where we KNOW that we would be able to attend and not conflict with any of our duties. I hope the club looks seriously into the feasibility of this scheme. One final thing, and I know it is Friday, please, if you speak to Mr Lerner or Mr O'Neill before the FA Cup Semi-Final, pass on our best wishes and wish the team the very best of luck for the Chelsea game, from all Villa supporting soldiers across the globe. No matter where we are, we will be wearing our colours with pride and cheering on 'our' team. Sir, thank you and your team for all the hard work this season and the seasons before.

General. Sir, I know you are a busy man and answer as many of our questions as possible, However, I am unsure if you read my earlier post, or, if you have an answer for it? My previous post is below in quotes:

Well said that man.. We are all frustrated by todays 'freak' result and I think every team will get a hammering once a season, lets hope for 'our' players, this will act as a kick up the ass to never let it happen again, and also to seek revenge come the FA Cup Semi-final.

Pure and simple... MON is as stubborn as they come and he **** it up today, as he has done in a few of his selections this season. I read his stories on the Ofiicial Site every day, and only this week, he was telling us fans, that he desperately needed to rest the likes of Milner, Dunne, Heskey, Petrov, Downing and Collins, players that have been pretty much part of the same starting 11 all season. Some of those mentioned players have, as he said, been struggling with niggling injuries... So whats does O'Neill do? He plays them against Chelsea, a tired team with struggling players. Chelsea once again exposed our lack of strength in depth, scoring 5 goals in the second half as our players where 'blowing out of their arses'. He refuses to make changes and use some of the fringe players that we have at our expense.. Today, is the first time in a long while that I have been embarrassed to be a Villa fan, I can accept defeats, but the manner in which we lost today is inexcusable.. I look forward to MON's post match interview, where he comes out, sticks his hands in the air and apologises to the fans for what was, an absolute crap performance, instigated by a manager who seems to have lost his way in the basics of squad rotation..

General, Could I bring the following website to your attention? It is called http://www.ticketsfortroops.org.uk/ Tickets For Troops is a brand new charity dedicated to offering free tickets for big events to our soldiers, sailors and airmen. There are many Premier League and Championship Football Clubs supporting this website and offering free tickets to Servicemen and women. I know that Villa already offer a concession to service personnel and that is also commendable. I was wondering if Aston Villa had been approached by tickets for troops or if you, as a club would be adding your support to the site in the coming season? As a serviceman myself, the site gives us an excellent opportunity to see the support our football clubs are giving to such worthy causes.

Well said... Heskey is one of a few that are playing like dogshit, however, he is MON's 'golden boy' but is utterly useless and offers NOTHING to our team.. MON has work to do at half time, because on this display, we are going to get beat 4 maybe 5-0. Complete and utter rubbish!

We have a team of Players of the season if you ask me..

Very good player and reads the game well, just needs a decent partner..

This shouldn't even need a poll.... We would be foolish to get rid of him, despite the latest criticism and some of his faults..

Villa got out of the game what they deserved... Nothing... Rapid Vienna played very well and had a hat full of chances that could have led to a far more comprehensive aggregate win. Good luck to them and their outstanding fans in the rest of the competition... As for Villa.. Well, anyone that watched the game can see where the cracks are and MON now has 4 days before the window shuts, to sort them cracks out...

Looking forward to tonight with a bit more zest than I was a week ago! It will be a tough game tonight and I think RV will a backs to the wall approach. Tricky tie and I think RV will score early and put us under immense pressure by being 2-0 up. Villa to turn it around though and sneak through 3-2 on aggregate.

I live in Belfast now, but still manage to make it to 15+ games a season (home and away) Expensive, but for some of the trips (i.e Everton away last season), thoroughly worth it.

I don't expect us to get anything from tonight's game, however, I would be happy if we went to Afnield and actually competeted in all areas of the pitch. I would like to see us show some flair, imagination, passion and drive. Battling for every ball and giving 100% to the cause. Win, lose or draw, if Villa 'turn up' tonight and give it a go, I will be content.

Keep your season ticket We as Villa fans should be prepared to go through thick and thin with our club, good times and bad. The club needs out support, no matter what your reasons stated above are. Stick it out, you may be very pleasantly suprised.

I too, would rather remember him with fond memories of playing for Villa, than have him back and get annoyed and frustrated at him as he is well past his prime now. Would be good to see him play for a championship club though.

Gents/Ladies, Apologies in advance for this rather long post. General, I recently posted the below: General, Firstly the quote above is seconded by many in this thread and as a serving soldier myself, it fills me with great gratitude that Mr Lerner has taken time out to visit 'our' troops. This brings me on to my second point, and I apologize if it sounds like begging... As I have already mentioned, I am a serving soldier myself, having done 2 six month tours of Afghanistan and 1 in Iraq. A lot of big companies offer discounts and concessions to Armed Forces personnel, many of these are listed in the Armed Forces Discount Brochure, I know speaking to some of our american soldiers that they are very well looked after in the sporting market in the USA regarding discounts. I get to as many Villa matches as feasibly possible and when it doesn't conflict with my duties. Do you know if the club will be offering any discounts on ticket prices/merchandise etc etc? Finally, I am currently heavily involved with arranging a charity football auction in aid of Help for Heroes. I wrote to ALL clubs within the football league kindly requesting club memorabilia (signed items/shirts/balls/pennants etc) which would be auctioned with all proceeds being split between Help for Heroes and the Army Benevolent Fund. I was very disappointed that my own club, whom I have supported for the past 37 years, through thick and thin, were not willing to offer anything and didn't even reply to my letter, whilst 75% of other clubs did. I hope you are fully recovered and look forward to hearing your thoughts on my points above. The answer you gave to me is as quoted below: Out of courtesy, I actually wrote to Lee personally, however, much to my disappointment, I received the following response from Duncan Riddle (Head of community) Thankyou for your enquiry requesting assistance with fundraising, Aston Villa is fully commited to its community work and will directly support a number of charities based in the Central Birmingham region. This will cover a wide range of causes, including healthcare/associated illnesses, the elderly, hospital and social care. We will donate items directly to these charities. We appreciate that many other individuals, charities, organisations, schools and various community projects are also working to help raise funds for causes close to their hearts and we hope that by changing our policies this will guarantee our support to these organisations. We will continue to support our nominated Charity Partner - The Acorns children's Hospice Trust. Aston Villa FC has a fundraising programme in place and all of our fundraising activities benefit the terminally-ill children under the care of the Acorns Trust. We wish you every success with your campaign and your fundraising activities. Yours truly, Duncan Riddle' Although I massively applaude Aston Villa FC on their charitable donations to local community projects, escpecially those so close to our hearts within Birmingham. I am very dissapointed that, especially after your comments pointing me in the direction of Lee Preece, requesting an item that could be used to auction for Help for Heroes, I have once again been declined by 'our' club. Having supported Aston Villa FC, since my first match in 1979, through thick and thin, hard times and good times, investing money into the club, re-arranging Brithdays, weddings, Christenings et all around the clubs fixtures, so that I can go and offer them my support, sometimes having to work extra to make ends meet to afford to go. I find it even more so frustrating that I am just sent a 'generic' letter of declination. In a month that has seen the unit that I serve with, lose 3 of it's soldiers, killed in action in Afghanistan, and a number injured. (All 3 from the Midlands, incidentally) I have recieved items from a number of other Premiership clubs to assist with my charity auction without hesitation, no doubt they all have nominated charities already, but they were willing to assist, when my own club couldn't/wouldn't. Sorry for the rant and sorry to regular posters who have had to read through this post of frustration. Without our soldiers being out in Afghanistan and putting their lives on the line to counter act terrorism, the world would be a worse off place.

Brilliant piece of work OBE. I look forward to this seasons campaign with trepidation now and am hoping that both John Carew and Ashley Young can break the top 3 of that list.

I would opt for -----------------------Friedel----------------------------- Beye--------Cuellar------Davies---------Shorey----- Milner--------ReoCoker-----Delph------Young-------- ------------Heskey--------Carew-----------------------

Sky still yet to give us a mention.... cnuts... Well done the Villa, proud of you all.. £2mill in the bank, over to you MON, go spend it wisely

Feels like we have just won the Champions League!! Bradley Guzan I could snog you right now... Sidwell, your penalty was a disgrave, but nowhere near as bad as supposedly one of the best players in the world. Del Piero, thank you!!

****! Penalties! Off for a quick panic poo...

Come on Villa, 15 minutes, you can nick this..

I am so excited i just had a bit of wee in my pants....

Well done Villa... From here on in, whatever happens, I enjoyed the performance tonight and am proud of each and everyone involved gritty determination, commitment and fight... Thank you..

Come on Villa, ride the storm... All we need is one more chance..