Jod1

Watching this in a bar in santorini and everybody is absolutely loving it!

I'm a Sikh Indian guy who has lived in Birmingham for pretty much all of my 30 years apart from a few years away at Uni. Asian's are underrepresented in the football fanbase for a number of reasons. 1 - When the bulk of south asian immigration occured after the world wars the sole concern of these 1st generation immigrants was to to establish themselves economically. Going to watch a football match for these guys didn't come any where near there list of priorities. It was to get a job, save some money, maybe start a business and most of all keep your family safe. 2- A lot of these immigrants had no history of watching spectator sport in India/pakistan. Sure they loved cricket but they wouldn't go and watch it - especially not in the rural areas. Therefore when this first generation had kids they weren't born in to sport attending families. Therefore those that did like football were immediately attracted to those players or teams that were the most exciting or had the best players. They had absolutely zero links or affinity to the club that was on their doorstep. Thats why you have so many asian "glory hunters" and also pecularities like why so many asians of the older generation still support Leeds. 3- Because of the struggle (for a number of socio-economic) of establishing their families these parents wanted their kids to have good educations more than anything. They saw this as the key to the families prospering beyond that first generation. From my personal experience as a second generation indian my parents didn't value sporting (or artistic)prowess in the slightest. All they were concerned about were Maths, Science & English - i.e qualifications that could get you a good professional job with a good salary. 4- Racisim was rife initially and combined with hooliganism resulted in all but the absolutely obsessed going to watch football matches. However a number of things have changed since the 90's...... 1- Asian families are now very established. Many have done very well in business or professionally, especially in the Midlands. A lot of people have more than average disposable cash to spend and don't have to work as hard as they once did. 2- These second generation asians are now having their own kids and want to do more family based activities. My daughter is now 10 months old. She was 6 months old when i took her down the villa for her first game against Fulham. It wasn't the most intelligent decision I have made because she hated it until one of the stewards kindly let us move to a much quieter area. However I would still make the same decision because she will always be a Villa fan and I want her to be able to say she went to her first game when we were at our worst! (hopefully it won't get worse!). 3- Love it or hate it the premiership has made football far much safer so a lot of the peripheral concerns Asians previously had have now gone. The glitz from Sky also means that people want to go and see these players live. Who wouldn't want to see somebody like Ronaldo live? All the club need to do is to be seen in the Asian community as caring about these communities and about the people that live near the club. There are loads of Sikh/Muslim (and other) festivals during the year and the club should do all it can to show that they consider these people as part of the club and that our door is always open. However most importantly they just need to get a team on the pitch that plays entertaining football. We have played a fairly crap brand of football for as long as I can remember with honourable exceptions for Big Ron and Brian Little. If you put a decent "product" (apologies!) on the pitch then I guarantee you that we will get more Asian's in the crowd. Add any success to that and we will get even more fans. Now some will be fairweather and their passion will wane in lean years but some will stick and become Villa fans for life...... and more than likely so will their kids.

Any manager of Martinez, Lambert or Rodgers would be great. Get rid of Faulkner ASAP and replace him with a proper football exec such as David Dein would get us back on the right road.

Mcleish

My cousin is a liverpool fan and went to wembley for the league cup final this season. He said it was crazy how many scousers had got in by passing their tickets through the barriers. He had ten scousers standing next to him where there were only 6 seats and this was in the cardiff end! They openly admitted that's what they had done and always do.

Herd was never a foul let alone a red card but equally in the modern game Hutton would get sent off 8 times out of ten for that challenge. Mcleish hasn't been backed considering what we sold in the summer but equally the signings he has made have been utterly woeful. Tactics again were woeful. Heskey in Midfield?- wtf!! Another game with no shots on target (not including the pen) in 90 min - this is a very disturbing trend. Woeful attendance - only around 31k villa fans turned up for a derby at 3pm on a Saturday not on TV. Looking at our fixture list I fear this is just the beginning of a winter of discontent.

That's the most damning statement on Villa under Mcleish that I have read so far. If we look lost without Heskey we are in real, real trouble.

AM hasn't got balls! Who else in the premiership would give him a job? Look through the table and give me one. Blackburn maybe with their joke of a board? He is laughing all the way to the bank knowing that he will get a 3/4 year contract and that he will be gone by Christmas with a full payout. It will be spun that he never had a chance because of those "nasty villa fans" and this whole annual farce of a managerial appointment will start again. It will probably cost us more than £10 million in compo, wages for him and his staff. That will be probably more than we spend on any player in the transfer window. This will go down as one of the worst appointments in football history.

Hi General This appointment has been a bit of a pigs ear so far. For some reason I'm hoping that all of this is a smokescreen so that the board can appoint a genuinely respected manager that can unite the club and act as a statement of intent. Time to pull a seriously big rabbit out of an ever diminishing hat.

Whatever happens with Mcleish that is the end of the General on the forums. This is "pigs in mud" x infinity!

Just someone pretending to be the ITK who used to be here and is now at H&V. Just after some attention and I'm not going to give it to him. "Mysteryman" that posts on H&V and used to on Villatalk has said that he is not the same guy on twitter.

Moyes was in Barbados yesterday with Garry Mac at some golf event.

Search low. I'll give you a clue. His name is Albright......

We should and really need to win this. I have a bad feeling though and it's mainly down to the amount of satsifaction and abuse (very funny at the time) we gave Newcastle 2 years ago when we relegated them. The boot is now very squarely on the other foot and they won't have forgotten and will really want to stick the knife in. Hopefully not but sometimes karma is a b*tch.

What Houllier did today should be a disciplinary offence. That is the minimum I would expect if I showed such contempt and arrogance in my job and towards my employer. You won't see me at Villa park again this season.

the guy is clearly bonkers. Sooner we get rid permanently the better.

Very underwhelmed by this appointment but will back him now he is manager. He better work out, for Randy's sake.

Thats what happens when you play a right back at left back. Coker has been crap and so has Heskey. If we carry on like this they will do us again.

Congrats Glaston. Credit where it is due, two great performances against Arsenal and Chelsea swung it for you guys! I'll pay the £50 to the Spurs charity on Tuesday.

My train leaves in 4 hours, I have not slept......... WOW!KAPOW!

Thanks for your kind words Joey. Glaston however is a frigging deginerate that soils the semi decent name of your club. Just type glaston into google and a world of absolute hilarity awaits you.

Semper Fidelis General! Just for you ... From the halls of Aston Villa To the shores of Rotterdam We fight our clubs battles in the air, on land and sea; First to create a league of football, And to keep our honour clean, We are proud to claim the title of Fans of Aston Villa FC Here's health to you and to our fans Which we are proud to serve In many a strife we've fought for life And never lost our nerve; If the Army and the Navy Ever look on Heaven's scenes; They will find the streets are guarded By fans of Aston Villa FC!. Win, lose or draw It will not be the same without you General.

If our team team wins tomorrow it will be the dawn of a new age for us. We have a young vibrant team, that needs to taste some success. I think back to DOL and i truly shit my pants. God bless Martin, god bless randy, god bless the villa. Time for this team to step up and add another stitch to our rich historical tapistry! 2-1 Gabby the hero.

I'm in the Ibis.