GerryHitchens

Hello General, Thank you for finding time to get the railings and posts outside the ticket office repainted claret - the staff in the ticket office couldn’t understand why they were painted purple in the first place. As far as I can see there are just the PINK signs over Players Entrance, Villa Store and Ticket Office (which were highlighted by another poster on here) to be replaced, along with the sign poles in the North Stand car park which are currently still that “lovely” shade of purple. Thanks for all your hard work in helping to make Villa great again HAPPY CHRISTMAS! GerryHitchens

General you said re the colour of the posts outside Villa Store "Colour of paint. We've got too much going on to try to repaint at this time. Not even sure I can tell the difference but my wife has always said I was colour blind." I can assure you it’s not claret! I'm sorry you are not able to deal with this as I thought the new regime would have more attention to detail than the previous incumbents. Surely it’s not that difficult to give painters the code number for the claret brand of the club and get it redone. Well at least we know what to expect in future with shirt colours and merchandise!

Hi General, I mentioned to you, on this forum back in October, the awful colour the posts and railings had been painted outside Villa Store and the Ticket Office (a nasty shade of purple) and wondered how this had happened considering your commitment to standardising the Villa brand and colours. You said that you would take a look. As nothing has happened are we to assume that you are happy with this brand colour violation? Gerry Hitchens

Anne Summers is doing well in the poll but who is she and where can she be found if she wins? Wikipedia says this about Anne Summers "....The company was named after the female secretary (Annice Summers) of the male founder (Caborn Waterfield) and has always targeted female consumers." So where can we find Anne or Annice Summers for a comment if she wins the poll? Friends Reunited perhaps.

Hi General, I know that you have been working hard to ensure a consistency of brand since you arrived at the Villa. I am also aware that part of that process has been your work on the standardisation of the colours claret and blue. I wonder therefore if you are aware that the posts/bollards outside the Villa Store have now been painted a revolting shade of purple. Best wishes Gerry Hitchens

Dear Sir, I'm not sure if anyone else has mentioned this if they have then please disregard this posting. I have just received the pack containing the brand book and DVD for which I thank you. It is absolutely brilliant except for one minor point. In an earlier part of this thread you said that the corporate shade of claret would be standardised - take a look at the DVD – whilst its case is claret the actual disc is, unless I'm colour blind, a shade of pink!! Given the mess up with the new crest logo t-shirts I think this is all a bit embarrassing! Gerry Hitchens

Dear Sir, Please ignore this post if you have already addressed the matter earlier in the thread. I attended the Villa match at Bolton last weekend and noticed a number of supporters wearing grey T shirts sporting the new Villa club badge. I asked one of the fans where he had purchased said item and he explained that he had bought it in the club shop. I found this difficult to believe and assumed that he had got it from a street vendor because the areas of the crest that should be claret were in fact PINK!! Imagine my surprise this morning when I dropped into the club shop, having renewed my season ticket, to find the said T shirts on sale. I enquired at a senior management level as to why the crests were pink rather than claret and he said, and I quote, “That’s the way they came outâ€. I explained that surely this was not acceptable and wondered why he hadn’t returned the garments to the supplier. I was astounded to by his response which was that he couldn’t see anything wrong with them! I thought this matter should be brought to your attention as in an earlier post on this thread you mentioned that the claret and blue brand would be standardised. Perhaps the management of the club shop need to be made aware of this and the shirts withdrawn and replaced with some in club colours. Thanks for reading this Gerry Hitchens

Isn't it great to have something to moan again. I wonder what you lot would have said if they hadn't consulted the "stakeholders"

Dear Sir, please forgive me if this matter has already been addressed earlier in the thread. I have been an Aston Villa supporter since 1960, when I was taken along to Villa Park as a six year old by my father and have been a regular ever since. I have been a season ticket holder and shareholder or many years. Last season was the last straw. I had lost faith with Mr Ellis’ brand of “leadership†and had decided not to renew my season ticket. The takeover persuaded me otherwise. I willingly sold my shares to Mr. Lerner and have not been disappointed with the work already carried out by your new regime. A big THANK YOU then to you guys for everything that you have achieved so far and I am fully aware that there is still a great deal to do. With this in mind could I draw your attention to one issue that continues to “bug†me. On walking around the confines of Villa Park and indeed looking at the shirts worn by the team over the years there seems to be a lack of a standard corporate colour. The term “claret†used to reflect the colour of the wine and that’s the colour that the shirts were however we are now treated to a variety of interpretations on signs, merchandise etc. ranging from maroon to pink! The light blue isn’t much better either! Perhaps all suppliers could be provided with the same colour i.d. then all items produced in the name of Aston Villa would again be claret and blue. I know you are a very busy man but I hope that you will be able to incorporate my suggestion into your plans. Best wishes,

Just Spotted this thought it might be of interest... "Fan Opinion: Aston Villa takeover Written by Malcolm Monday, 23 January 2006 Before I retired I spent over twenty years working in the City on Mergers and Acquisitions. This involved advising both sides be they large plc's, private equity groups, companies being acquired or just consortia of interested parties. It was quite normal for parties of any transaction to meet, except in hostile bid situations, to discuss common terms of reference and if agreed by both sides for the acquirer to then carry out due diligence. This would take a matter of weeks. Then we have the saga of this supposed Villa takeover. From my experience it is all wrong and just does not make any sort of sense. Perhaps someone can answer a few questions. 1. Why is due diligence taking so long? Aston Villa is a listed plc and as such has its accounts professionally audited at least once a year. The club is actually a very small plc with not a particularly involved business; they play football, market souveniers and run a small conference /catering company; hardly mind stretching to a decent firm of professionals to do a thorough due diligence exercise on in, I would hope, a few days. 2. There is talk of using a new company vehicle to facilitate the takeover. Why is it necessary to have such a company, if the Comer Consortium is so wealthy why cannot they use one of their own companies. I suspect they are using the vehicle to do some sort of "reversal" once the takeover goes through enabling them to pledge all the assets of the club in support of the borrowing needed to purchase a la the Glaziers at Man United. Very clever if this company stays divorced from the main business as the Comers they reap all the benefits for a little equity stake and if things do not work out they can walk away without any liabilities falling onto them or their existing companies. 3. Having spent an eternity "mulling" over the takeover why is the consortium are only now talking to their bankers? I suspect their bankers have been "in the know" for several months but the size of the required borrowings and the security available at the club do not match the banks' requirements. Whilst Doug Ellis has run a tight ship for very many years and whilst a lot of his purchases of fixed assets have been commendable one does wonder, against normal lending criteria applied by any lending banker, whether these assets are worth anything like the £64million needed to buy the business. 4. If one accepts the fixed assets are insufficient to allow the bank to advance all the monies the consortium wants perhaps the cash-flow of the business can be looked at to cover the shortfall. For many years the club has just been profitable or loss making (mainly due to player depreciation) and whilst its cash-flow has been relatively strong as such depreciation is a non cash-flow item, the addition of interest payments such large borrowings would attract, would certainly impinge on the free cash-flow of the business. Such debt will be an enormous drain on the club's present ability to trade successfully. 5. Accepting that there are certainly going to be large borrowings, probably covered by pledges of the total assets of the company and the interest that would be levied thereon would by definition reduce the the existing cash generation where would the extra monies to "improve" the squad come from? Surely no Bank is going to advance large sums without collateral and such collateral will have been used to fund the takeover. Are the Comer Brothers going to put their hands in their pockets, I doubt this very much. If they were going to use their money would it be far more sensible to be the "lenders" in the takeover funding and enjoy the comfort of the collateral if things did not work out? 6. It really beggars belief that two builders albeit successful ones will run the marketing side of the club better than Doug Ellis has done over the years thereby increasing profitability and cash-flow. Regardless of what people may think of him he has run and built a very successful money making machine down at Villa Park and I doubt very much there is much more cash from marketing to be wrung out - unless Beckham, with his mate Sven of course, does come and we can sell his shirts, albeit sponsor-less! I do not believe that this consortium is the answer for the Villa. As a shareholder with a few thousand invested in the club's equity I would welcome a chance to get some money back but as I originally put it in 40+ years ago ruled by my heart and not my head I would like whoever gains control to drive the club forward not down! What is in it for these two people who have expressed their non interest in football - there is no crock of gold in trading and if there is in some of the assets we do not know about (oil in the Serpentine Car Park? no drips from the old Onion Fair!) then this profit should come to the club not two profiteer's." So where do we go now?

12 to 18 months was the forecast!

I’ve been to see a well known West Midlands’ claivoyant today to see if they can give us clue on the takeover. In summary Doug will not sell to the Comers or anyone else. He is lining up a buyer in the event of his death. This mystery buyer has something to do with boxing – probably promoting the sport! Don't know how long we will have to wait! Well you pay your money and you make your choice!!!