Mazrim

1 hour ago, Stevo985 said:

The club have been as categoric as they can be. They’ve literally said we aren’t moving. 
 

Yes they COULD be lying. And yes things COULD change. 
 

But your question was “who says we’re not moving?” 
Well the club says it. You can’t really get a bigger authority on the matter than that

There's no statement to that effect, just some second hand comments that there's no plans to move. Well right now that could well be true, or was a month or two ago. Its not a question of lying, but a fluid situation until concrete is laid.
All we know is that there was a plan that has already been revised and could be completely overhauled again as far as we know. You may not want to move, and I don't either, but its possible it ends up being the best option for us and while that is a possibility, some of us would like to discuss the options / possibilities.

The club might also consider building a new stadium adjacent to Villa Park as not moving. Semantics. The main cause for pausing the existing plan was disruption to the stadium during a season. Well, the only way around that is to build a new stadium while VP is in use. Or add a small amount of seats, which isn't really addressing the issues. Neither do I think the new board appointments point to anything modest in scope.

17 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

The club says we’re not moving. 
 

And forgive me for thinking a club from Birmingham should be based in Birmingham. 
 

Mental suggestion I know 

I haven't seen or heard anything definitive to say we're definitely not moving. Even if Heck said so, things can change (North Stand plans for proof) and these board additions suggest something big is in the offing. The NEC area is hardly on the outskirts of Nottingham is it? And as I said, everything around there is called Birmingham in any case. Who cares what local authority currently owns it, its what's best for the club that matters.

But as I stated, we could acquire the land around Witton Rd, the River Tame, Aston Distressway and do it that way. There's no need to rule anything out at the moment. We could move, we could move to the NEC area, or The Fort, or we could stay where we are. Its just a fun debate at this stage lacking any clarity of the actual planning.

1 hour ago, Stevo985 said:

The NEC would be absolutely perfect for a new stadium

The issues are it's not in Birmingham and we're not moving anyway  

Why do we have to be on Birmingham council land?
The NEC is called NEC Birmingham, and is surrounded by such features as the Birmingham Business Park, Birmingham Airport and Birmingham Intl Station. Nobody cares about Solihull.
Who says we're not moving? Nobody knows that either way.

39 minutes ago, pas5898 said:

Quite sad at the though of moving from VP, and the acceptance of it.

Villa Park is what's unique about us in a mire of Euro Bowl stadiums. I think in a decade of so, the fact its an old school authentic stadium will be a USP / visiting factor.

Knock down the North Stand, make it as big as the Holte, or bigger. Use the car park, put as much prawn sandwich stations, Corp hospitality, accommodation as required. 

Acquire the park behind the Witton and make it as big as possible with restrictions based on the houses behind that.

There's plenty of space for the 60k+ stadium. I don't understand why that need's to be away from our home. 

 

There's no where near enough space for a 60k stadium unless we buy all or most of  the land / housing to the river / Witton Rd./ Aston Distressway
The Doug Ellis stand would have to double in size or more, the North Stand would be bigger than the Holte and we'd need to fill the corners in.
Then you need massive amounts of car parking. Its probably just about doable but its a massive ballache.

6 hours ago, tinker said:

If Zaniolo leaves then that would make perfect sense.

I'd keep him as well. He, like Rogers, can play positions Ramsey probably can't, like CF. Gives us plenty of options.

Watkins, Duran, Zaniolo, Buendia, Rogers, Ramsey, Youri, McGinn, Bailey and Diaby all competing for the front 4 positions, with a few of them covering for the double pivots too.

7 minutes ago, duke313 said:

We've no idea if he will be in the 1st team or not, he will likely be loaned out again.

I think he's rated highly but we'll see. If not starter then at least competing for it.

5 minutes ago, tinker said:

You may not be too far away there,  Jaguar Castle Brom is about to lose car production,  there's a train station being planned there. 

 

Flying in from China and parking in someone's front garden ain't gonna tick the boxes on a holy grail visit to villa Park.

Sad as that is, the JLR site is huge. Plenty big enough and loads of transport links...

4 minutes ago, tinker said:

Doesn't really matter what any of us thinks these are in the business to make villa a leader in competition,  they have said it enough and from what we have seen its going to happen and the ground,  whether it be in aston, Sutton or Marston Green is just a debate. I think there's a clear winner from every angle. 

Yeah, its interesting to debate. Fun.
The actual solution may surprise everybody. Welcome to the Bromford Bridge Hyperdome, home of the mighty West Midlands Village.

53 minutes ago, Pez1974 said:

Agree that RB is a priority, probably alongside another CDM.

Don't agree that Cash becomes back up - at this point he is as sellable as he will ever be, so it's time to move him on. He's coming up to 27, and hopefully will get games at the world cup. 
Transfermarkt.com have Cash valued at around £25m. For FFP,  given his contract extension, he is probably worth about £5m in our books now - £20m profit would be very nice. 

IF (big IF) we get a new RB, we still have Kosta to come in (£7m!) plus Konsa can clearly do a good job there. 

Agreed. I think its time to move Cash on. Cheers Matty and all that.

Konsa is a better right back and we need him as a centre half. Kosta looks like he could be an absolute baller, so get another senior guy in to smooth the transition and cover.

And yes, the other priority is definitely cover for Kamara.

16 minutes ago, sidcow said:

I don't know why people keep going on about new sites with no transport. 

It's 2024. No one is getting permission for a major new stadium without public transport links. 

Almost nowhere has better links than where we are. 

We need some one way systems.  Maybe some road remodeling. 

The new trains are just hitting the Cross City line with a 30% increase in capacity per train. 

Transport links would obviously be part of the build process. There are several potential sites with better transport links than VP. The roads in particular are terrible, as is the parking.
New trains, fair enough. The stations as is are not fit for purpose though. And this is as it stands now, never mind catering for 50-60k.

Every option on the table would require significant construction work, road / rail routing, upgrading, new services etc. The only other option is do nothing, which isn't an option.

8 minutes ago, thabucks said:

Reducing the amount of vehicular traffic is paramount to any move. Just posted it to show that’s the only site currently listed openly by the council which would be big enough. 

You can buy property that isnt listed for sale. You just have to make the right offers.

6 minutes ago, thabucks said:

Often see posts relating to land sales from the broke ass council. You can search all the properties for sale / let currently from the council and they’ve currently 42 listed with only one being a suitable size is , Peddimore Lane, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, B76 9AA. Worth noting not that far from the belfry & Bodymoor Heath and motorways but not near a train station.
 

Not sure what other property they own which would be suitable size and location. 

That could work.

My thoughts on all this:

A patch up job on VP seems like a limited project that doesn't seem like value for money. It also leaves us with reduced seating capacity / disruption for the duration of work.
However I can see some limited reworking of the existing VP to accommodate extra seating and corporate hospitality while a new site is built. Whether that's nearby or further out remains to be seen.

The council are broke AF, and it seems a good time for a private venture to get a good deal on prime land.
Maybe the area inside Witton Rd, Witton Lane, the River Tame and the Aston Distressway is just about suitable, with a new VP being erected while the current one remains in use.

Pau, wow, wow wow wow wowwwwww...

Unbelievable.

7 minutes ago, Talldarkandransome said:

Well after looking out of the train window on the way to the game on Saturday, and the state of most of the gardens I doubt they would even notice if we bulldozed their houses down 

Its worth a try. "Marlon, didn't we used to have a garden?"
"Why, yes, I think so dear. I fancy our house was 100 yards closer to Witton Lane too. How queer..."

Werner is fast, relatively useful on the ball, but he couldn't hit a donkey's arse with a banjo. I'd rather play Morgan Rogers or Duran and let them reach their potential. 

26 minutes ago, duke313 said:

Probably bollocks.

No its definitely Bologna.

1 hour ago, Captain_Townsend said:

I was deleting old images from my phone and found this. I hope the mods don't mind me posting it here?

I still think the round badge was far superior to the Lerner shield. When you see them side by side it really is striking.

If they wanted to salvage a win from this whole thing I think a new shield using the colour from the round badge would have been a compromise people could have got behind.

Correct

Luiz is class but he's at his best as a 6/8 with Kamara at 6 and when Kamara isn't there we're asking a lot of him. Thankfully he answers the call, but we don't have a plug and play replacement for Kamara and this is the main problem in our midfield. Luiz needs that other pivot to do his job to get the most out of him. 

Instinctive finisher, thunderbolt shot power, swagger, character, strength, very young. Raw.

What's not to like? If he had a more unreliable, less fit senior player in front of him he might be in double figures by now.

My daughter's Villa Teddy is called Duran after his goal against Palace.

Betano is a shocking logo. Its like something you'd see on a 90s independent shop. I hope there's a rework in the offing or at least lose the motif.

2 minutes ago, picicata said:

I swear some posters on here could happily have an argument with themselves 

Agreed.