nepal_villan

hope someone scores. need to go to bed. 3:00 AM here in Kathmandu

maybe some Juve players will agree to come on loan to us

if it goes to penalties - it will be a shoot-out worth 1 million Euros!

Marky Mark is a strong enough cover for Milner. Looks like we are set on the wings and gk.

Atlante (qualified for FIFA Club Championship)

FC Porto (CL)

Juventus/Real Madrid (CL)

Fiorentina (CL)

What a preseason!

these are the best villa kits ever! (sans the badge)

YES! Because i have moderate expectations.

i might be one of the few actually rooting for ManCity (as long as its not at our cost), because if they break into the top 4 the team they replace will be totally F* for years to come. Hopefully it will be Liverpool. Imagine if they dont make the CL? They have financial problems as it is, they will lose another 30 Million and there will be a mass exodus of players. The following year they will be lucky to qualify for Europe. 2 years of no CL and they will go into administration!

I don't see us anywhere near the top 4. Can't stand Spurs, so might as well be City.

We can, but it will require some deep pockets. I don't think we can do it by sound business planning alone.

fighting for top 8 with Everton, Spurs and Man City.

He is the best man for the job. Who could we get that would be better??? Let's be honest with our selves, we are a top 8 side (along with Everton, Tottenham, Newcastle - possibly Man City now), not a top 4 side. So as long as we are regularly in Europe I won't be complaining.

General Krulak here:

Simply put, Randy owns two sports franchises

What is the other franchise?

BOF : Randy also owns the Cleveland Browns.

general,

may I suggest that the Villa website team investigate improving its web presence by using Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other popular online social networking mediums. I subscribe to many unofficial Aston Villa groups and feeds which are very useful and fun. Would be great if Villa did it officially and promoted it on the website. It would greatly assist fans to connect with the club.

Hi General,

I just watched a feature on CNN about Arsenal and their efforts to develop fans in Asia. Is developing an international fan base a priority for Aston Villa and are we doing anything currently to fulfill such an objective?

Born Hindu, turned agnostic, and two days ago became an athiest.

What happened two days ago, Nepal? Welcome to the club, by the way.

Its a long story, but the reason I never totally dismissed the concept of God was because of a few personal experiences I have had (witnessing some incredible phenomenons) - if you hangout with lots of Hindus and Buddhists this is nothing unusual in our societies which is litterred with black magic, swamis, visions, etc.

Randomly the other day, I came across an article by a person who had identical experiences to mine. It tied a lot of loose ends for me.

I've noticed there's a lot of Atheists on here, but I wonder how many of these have Church weddings, Funerals, Christen their kids etc, but still claim to be an Atheist.

I reckon a fair few of them contradict themselves with this issue.

I participate in religious ceremonies not out of faith, but culture and tradition.

Regardless of my opinion on God or religious institutions, I am fascinated with religious concepts, stories, art, etc. - it is a massive part of human history and life.

Born Hindu, turned agnostic, and two days ago became an athiest.

Just saw that Luca Toni went to Bayern Munich for GBP 7.5m. I just don't get it -players not even half as good as him are being linked to us for higher prices. Where is the logic? Do English clubs just get held for ransom?

Like the title of the article, it is an opportunity wasted. We have a logo that all of us fans will learn to live with, perhaps even love. But how about those outside the Villa family? A potential sponsor, the mom looking to buy something football related for her son, a tourist visiting the UK, the kid in Asia flipping through a football magazine...does this logo attract them? Does it make them gravitate to our brand?

Excellent stuff. Article captures exactly my thoughts on the new badge.

Chelsea, Arsenal, Juventus all recently changed their crests, so I dont buy the "Who cares about the badge, it's winning that matters" or the "If we win, no one will care how the badge looks" arguments.

JPA is one of the few players that was an international star at the prime of his career when we signed him. He has always represented the club with great class. I've always felt an immense sense of pride seeing him play in the Claret & Blue. Is he an all time Villa great - no. Hero - 100%.

I notice today that Chelsea have set up an official site in Chinese. Now I know we have a very small section of ours in Spanish sometimes but having dedicated sites in other languages (Chinese and Spanish being the main two) would surely be a great way to promote the club.

I'm not so stupid as to think someone at the club hasn't though of this already, but thought I'd mention it.

I was going to post something about that here too...

However, I believe there are restrictions on Chinese websites (I know for example that the New England Patriots have someone *in* China operating their website due to their government restrictions)

Would certainly be worth looking into... Premier League football is on the rise in China (much moreso than NFL) and a market of 1.3 billion people shouldn't be overlooked.

Don't forget India, over 1billion people that as yet know bugger all about football but have in the last few years have been getting all the Premier League games on ESPN.

Most Indians who are Internet savvy can read English (probably a lot better than many Brits :-)

But before looking for international markets, Villa needs to figure out a way of getting ethnic minorities in Birmingham into the stadium. Especially seeing that Birmingham has a very high number of them. If the Ethnic community was tapped the 7-8,000 average empty seats at Villa Park would easily be filled.

Dear General. A big hello from Kathmandu, Nepal. Actually Leicester, England at the moment...anyway

FYI - Black Sabbath is a band from Aston that is enshrined at the R&R Hall of Fame in Cleveland, whose members are big Villa supporters. It would be perfect to have a Black Sabbath song playing as the players walkout on to the field with a montage of the clubs' greatest triumphs playing on the video screens. It would instill fear in the hearts of our opponents.

Ozzy!

We should also get rid of the silly "I'm ready to go" song at the beginning of the match and replace it with a proper Black Sabbath tune that will instill fear in the hearts of our opponents the moment they step onto the pitch at Villa Park.