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General ,

In view of the fact that yet again Birmingham City football club are attempting to rip off Villa fans and there own would it not be in everyones interest to refuse any away allocation for both the away and home fixtures ?

I apply this logic also in the interest of safety and the fact that the two matches wouldnt have to be on sundays and at crappy kick off times !

Up the villa !

General ,

Bought my lad the blue training top today and must say the quality is very good .

He wore it to football training tonight with the rest of his 7 year old team mates and , check this out , one of the team turns up in full villa strip after binning his man utd kit .

The futures bright , the futures villa !

General ,

What is the club policy on away fans in home areas?

Sat in the north stand upper and when liverplop scored there second a group of about 10 started to celebrate and it led to some potential violence .

Ive decided to relocate my season ticket back to the upper trinity , the sooner the north stand is leveled to the ground the better .

On a positive popped into the holte pub this afternoon , please pass on a massive thankyou to randy and the staff that man it , its class and a credit to everyone involved .

I am sure the club could work something out for an indivdual or group that makes that kind of effort .

We also dont know what the price of the drinks will be so if its a lot more than say the villa tavern maybe i and others will stick to that .

General ,

May i be bold enough to suggest that the holte pub is made only available to season ticket holders on match day .

First come , first served .

There are other watering holes around villa park that are member only .

Having 130 invited people inside the pub suggests they will stay there from opening time to close .

Open here up and when shes full then the next person in has to wait for the next bod out .

General ,

Can i ask you to pass on my thanks for the help i recieved yesterday from the staff in the ticket office , in particular a lady by the name of tracey .

I needed to have a look at some seats in the upper north stand and she was very helpfull and escorted me to the upper tier via a very posh entrance and i got to go in a very posh lift .

As you have mentioned before these guys and gals are the front line and even when short staffed still deliver a first class service , many thanks.

General ,

Due to the fantastic demand for the lower north stand would the club consider making all the seats available for season ticket purchase ?

This part of the ground will be a very cheap option for away fans to try and sneak in .

Cheers .

General ,

I posted the idea of a roaving season ticket some weeks ago .

For example being able to move to different parts of the ground through the season whilst still paying for your season up front.

Any feedback , cheers .

edited, sorry, but please, keep this thread for direct comments /questions to the General. just pm Matty with your kind offer. Thanks blandy.

Matty ,

If you have no joy getting a scalf for your lad send me a pm with your details mate and i will send you mine .

Me and my lad have one so we could just share his .

The days of villa fans being poorly treated by villa staff are over !

General ,

The training ground is fantastic and will be a real credit to the club .

It was an honour to shake your hand but my 7 year old son , sam said his hand hurt after you shook his !

Cant wait for next season , up the villa .

General ,

How about soccer schools at our new training ground in the school holidays ?

General ,

Ive posted an idea for seaon tickets on the main forum ,

Instead of the same seat in the same stand how about say 4 games upper trinity , 4 games upper witton lane , 4 games north stand and the remainder holte end ?

you would still pay for a season ticket and retain all the benefits .

I want to be a season ticket holder but dont want to have to sit in the same seat .

The roaming season ticket , any thoughts ?

General Krulak here:

1. We are working on a scheme that will allow a person to "turn in" his/her ticket if they cannot attend a game and that ticket be resold with money going back to the ticket holder. The details, obviously, need to be worked out but we have heard you....

Different people will no doubt have different views as to how to implement it. Personally I like the idea a lot, as the re-arranged games can affect me quite badly. Again personally, I'd be happy to be "credited" with the "credit" going to the next season's season ticket purchase.

I'm not rich, but having paid the money out at the start of a season, I consider it "gone" and for me, knowing that a re-arranged game at least means I will get my 25 quid (or whatever amount) back in the form of a discount off next season's season ticket (or perhaps just as credit to be used anywhere within the club - shop, travel, whatever) would be equally acceptable as a straight refund. There are obvious advantages in this for the club, too.

It is really pleasing that the club is both listening and acting in this way. Thank you.

As a season ticket holder can i say i think this is a great idea !

I am constantly juggling with work commitment and villa home games so this would work a treat for the odd game i may have to miss .

General ,

When all the kiddies are off school for 6 weeks in the summer are there any plans to have soccer schools at our spanking new training ground ?

Cheers !

General Krulak here:

1. I had a great talk with Dennis...what a class act!! He has agreed to help us with the 25th Anniversay and I can tell you, it will be a very special weekend. I won't give you any specifics as yet....suffice it to say,it will be great. Dennis is our point of contact with the yers and will be acting as sort of a "Master of Ceremonies" for the event.

Contrast this to the self centered old fool on the simon mayo show .

I cant wait for the 25th celebrations , myself and 6 year old lad will enjoy every minute.

General the word class often can be over used but sir Dennis and youre good self are true class !

General Krulak here:

Hopefully everyone is beginning to see that there is a plan...that Randy and Martin do work together and work together very well. We have a LONG way to go...we understand that. We NEVER promised miracles...or overnight fixes. What we said is that we, like YOU, are Villa through and through and that we want to restore the history and tradition of the great Club. We need the fans to stick with us...to come to the games and support Martin and the team.

How do all the folks at Villa Park and Bodymoor heath feel? We feel energized, optimistic, proud, excited, cautious to not get too "over the moon", careful, we feel like a team!!!

The words we and team really do sum up the future for us all .

General Krulak here:

I wrote that comment because there are other threads on other sites that mention the "R" word and I want everyone to know that is nothing but bull shit and I stopped swearing when I left the Forces!!!!!! We have a great Manager, a superb, supportive, Owner, a solid team that is ONLY going to get BETTER, and a Fan base that is second to none and knows when we have a good thing going.

In a couple of years time from now we will all look back on the current situation and smile that some ever doubted the fantastic manager we have and never fully supported him in his efforts to re-build this wonderfull club .

Up the villa !

General ,

Happy new year to you and youres .

We enter 2007 with a formidable group of people now stearing the good ship aston villa .

I like others am suffering over the results at the moment but by god it could be a shit load worse if the old regime were still around.

The infrastructure thats being put in place is fantastic and given time will bare fruit.

Its only natural that people will start to criticise certain things but we will all be smilling in the future .

The futures bright , the futures villa ! 8)

We need quality and quick.

Stabalise the season and look to the summer.

Hi General, just a small comment i'd like to make,

I have a ST in the North stand and my seat is right next to the sponsors seats, now I know that people in these seats are likely to support the away teams sometimes but on many occasions there has been trouble, now I'm not sure what can be done about this but I think something should be said.

Sometimes they can be quite abusive, for instance against West ham last year a West Ham 'fan' was so vocal and abusive it caused a Villa fan to get into an argument. and it was the Villa fan that got kicked out.

Like I say, I'm not sure what if anything can be done, but I just wanted to voice my concern as next season I'll be attending with my 4yr old ( we met you and Randy before the Spurs game not long back) and I don't think its the best thing for kids to see/hear.

Cheers.

That villa fan was me .

Luckily for me i was allowed to move to another part of the stand.

At the time i was told that away fans sitting in that area are guests of the club so nothing could be done , what a joke !

General

I dont know whether this idea is feasible but maybe it is something that you could ask the relevant people to give the once over.

As you can see from these boards alone, Villa has many, many avid fans overseas or who live some distance from Birmingham and for obvious reasons cannot attend many (if any) games each year. .

Would it be possible to offer these fans (or indeed anyone that wants to participate) a subscription service whereby they can receive on say a bi-monthly basis, a dvd/cd showing all of the clubs home games (and away?) for the proceeding two months? The scheme could be run along similar lines to mail order music or book clubs. Members would agree to commit to say a season and pay a periodic subscription. Mr.Ellis our Former Chairman reputedly said that the club had a worldwide database of 500,000 fans. If in reality it is 200,000 and 10% of this number subscribed to such a service, in my opinion, it could generate £1-2 million in revenue per season at substantial profit margins.

Prior to Randy's takeover when this idea was floated as a way of raising funds it received a very positive reaction from many fans that I corresponded with. I may be wrong but I dont know of any other club that offers such a service.

I realise that there maybe rights and licensing issues with Sky and other broadcasters but feel that this could be a moneyspinner for the club. Although I am a season ticket holder I for one would definitely join such a scheme and greatly enjoy building my "collection".

From a commercial perspective it would also enable Villa to build a large continuity database of subscribers from which other profitable opportunities could arise and help promote Aston Villa as an innovative and global brand.

This and other fans sites are turning into an endless source of great ideas .

General Krulak sends:

Lots of questions re. media. We are just now beginning to look into media opportunities...whether that be TV/radio/print. As you can imagine, media is important to us but at this "beginning", it has not been our number one focus. Additionally, everyone needs to understand that Randy is not a "media" guy. He does not have an ego and does not feel he needs to be the "face" of Villa...he would much rather have Martin be Villa to the fans and media. You may not agree with that approach but that is Randy. He is very down-to-earth and humble....not one to get into the spotlight.

Re. the kit design. My sense is that Randy will look at many designs. Just remember what I have said before, he is a real tradionalist and will probably look into the history of the Club and come up with a kit that resembles the "tradition of Villa." He will not put a kit on the players that has not been on the Villa pitch before...it will be a traditional shirt.

Semper Fidelis, General Krulak

Well how often do you see Peter hill wood or abramovich or the moores family bigging themselves up in the media.

We have had a belly full of chairman with big egos so randys way is just fine by me.

Up the villa !

Lets have a suggestion box for the general.

Some great ideas about improving the villa experience have been posted on vt over the years .

EDIT BY MOD: And lets keep them sensible, eh?

Hello general and welcome.

You guys have planted the seed , the acorn from which the oak tree will grow.

Thankyou for the re-birth of my soul.

What if its all the mother of all mind **** and deadly is still in charge next season ?

In a box , why would he want to sell the one thing that keeps him alive ?

Mon as manager to appease the howling masses , good start to the season , ellies comes out smelling of roses again.

Be afraid , be very afraid.

Nup. Ellis' Roller will be departing VP for the last time any day now. He's got 38 years of fishing to catch up on.

How can you be so sure my friend ?