cheltenham_villa

im listening to the live commentry on villa world. ive noticed a few times now that there terrible at switching their microphones off at half time. you get 15 minutes of woodward and his mate talking about whats gone wrong. its hilarious.

I would suggest the club stick with the fair pricing policy that they've adopted, looking at the derby attendance, the higher prices hardly worked for them and were also very badly received by the home support. Keep up the good work General

General

With the rugby World Cup final, between England and South Africa or Argentina, kicking off at 8.00pm next Saturday a lot of fans, me definitely included, will not be able to get back from seeing us beat Man Utd in time for kick off.

I presume the Holte Suite be will showing the match after the game but is this only open to season ticket holders, and the numbers will be limited.

I've noticed that theres a mobile 'revolving' screen sometimes in the car park behind the North Stand. Is it possible for this to be sited behind the Holte End making a 'fan park' with all supporters being able to buy a pint in the Holte Suite and enjoy the game.

As a season ticket holder I'll be watching it in the Holte Suite anyway if this isn't possible but it would be great if the club could help as many fans as possible see what could well be a historic occasion.

Also it may help stop large numbers of supporters leaving with ten-fifteen minutes to go, so they can get home for the kick off.

general, would like to echo above and also make another request. I will not get back from the football in time to watch the rugby. But i believe most car parks around the ground close an hour after the game finishes. Certainly the one i park in. Any chance of getting these extended for the rugby, would like to stay and watch it but no keen on leaving my car on a random street.

General

As a villa fan, who is your favourite player.

based on one sung by everton and now by liverpool as well

follow, follow, follow

follow villa where ever they go

we got petrov and barry

luke moore and gaby

maloney and nigel reo o o

To the tune of we are sailing (for the sort of scottish rod stewart connection)

Sean Maloney, Sean Maloney

Drives to Scotland every day

Sean Maloney, we all love you,

Buy a house here, and please stay

I'll get my coat.....

normally i cringe with embaressment at some of the songs suggested on here, that one i actually think is really funny and could see it being sung.

General, when are the season tickets being despatched?

I just can't wait for the season to start, what you guys have done to my beloved club is just fantastic..don't worry about the moaners, you always get them..If you gave them free choclate each week they would moan you are making them fat..

I know we are going to have a great year this year !!

The kit looks great

there on their way, i received mine this morning

I'm sorry, but positions are made redundant not people, so if the company were replacing these people then they were breaking the law.. so either your story is untrue, i.e. having to train replacement, or the Union didn't represent it's members correctly...

Redundancies are part and parcel of a successful business, people talk about looking after the majority, and this is exactly what redundances do :confused: I have been made redundant numerous times, and you get up and look for another job, it's life, anyone who think a job is for life these days is sadly mistaken!

i think you've answered my point correctly, positions should be made redundant and not people. When business choose to abuse that, and if you think they dont you've either been very lucky or are misguided then it is the employees that arent protected enough to prevent it. This to me is the reason that people choose to strike. In my case i led 9 people to receive settlements from the company, all of them would have won at tribunal like many other did. This is an example of a company that chose to break the law. Its very disappointing for the employees to have to put their lives on hold for so long while the law catches up.

im a former union rep (all voluntary work), worked for a very large international organisation. in my 7 years their every single union convenor was made redundant. 25% of the work force was threatened with redundancy each year (this equated to about 50 people a year in the business unit i was part of) all under the guise of restructuring. I represented 10 people who had been made redundant at industrial tribunals (one of who was the HR director). id never seen stress on this scale, grown men reduced to tears because of the attitude of the companies. Most of which being not being given leave dates but made to work and train replacements. If they left to find other jobs they would have lost their redundancies. Of these ten cases 9 people received settlement slightly before tribunals, this was on average 2 years after the redundancy. the other unfortunately passed away. Employment law did nothing to protect these people. Eventually bigger bosses moved in and replaced the people in this company that were causing all this mis treatment. I often wonder if striking would have highlighted these problems much sooner and saved a lot of peoples jobs.

General, i understand this is all being looked into but can i make a particular comment about the web-site. A news item today advertises "Grab a Villa Bargain". When i followed the link to the villa direct site, everything i click to view tells me that their are no items available. Why are we advertising a sale on the official web-site if there is nothing to buy? Was i just late and everything sold out or is this a mistake?

get reo coker, thought he was the only player to stand out when we beat them this year, quality young english midfielder who was on the verge of the england squad only a year ago. a couple of years ahead of gardner in his development and is the exact sort of player we want gardner to be challenging to get ahead of.

think koumas would be a fantastic signing and great addition to the squad, wonder if MON is looking at Barry as his long term holding midfielder. I do believe the first time i saw Barry i think was as a sub against arsenal and played in that role.

i dont believe it but the only thing that worries my is ferguson has form with putting in bids a year before he wants players. Let Gaby know theirs interest, giving another year of development and then firm up the bid the next year if it goes well. Gives Gaby a year of watching Man Ure collect trophies and then hands in a transfer request at the end of next season. I know their completely different players but look at the rooney situation and more recently hargreeves, admittadly hargreeves hasnt signed yet but both players virtually ended up begging united to sign them.

Have not heard or seen anything to back this up, but a work colleague has been to VP to renew his season ticket today and says that all the talk around the ground is that Man Ure have had a bid rejected for Gaby. Neither of us have found anything to back this up, anyone else heard anything?

Jagielka is also considered to be that good a goal keeper that Sheff Utd would often name 5 outfield players as substitutes. I'd like to see him at villa, would want him in as a right back ideally.

James Beattie anyone?

Not good enough for everton = not good enough for villa.

ummm, not a great basis for not signing someone, look at crouch at villa, now he's in the champions league final. Personally think beattie would be a good signing and excellent backup for Carew, who i really dont think has a full season in him. Hasnt he already picked up two injurys since signing.

On similar thoughts i think Kevin Davies would fit in well. has played well as part of a front this year, wins just about everything in the air and should have the hard work ethic that MON seems to crave.

This might be a bit off topic but here goes.

This Michael Owen thing on the BBC today about him "staying loyal if none of the top 4 want him". Shepherd has said that none of them want him so he should stay at the barcodes. Why say this at all? Why is it news worthy? I just wonder if a lower club than one of the top 4 has made an inquery (Villa) and Owen is considering it. Otherwise why start shouting and spouting about Owen leaving. Something must be happening. Someone explain.

Ok.

Owen's agent spoke to the press about the release clause - an attempt to put Owen in the shop window and drum up some interest from buyers. Shepherd knows how upset the Newcastle fans would be if Owen waltzed off this summer after spending an age on the injured list, so he spoke out to let the fans know that the club wasn't the source of the story and wouldn't be a willing seller.

Steve, in your interpretation of events, if a club outside the top four had made an enquiry about Owen, what possible motivation could Shepherd have for making these comments? What would it achieve?

I'm not ruling out the possibility of Villa making a bid for Owen this summer (although I don't think it's very likely), but there's nothing in this story to support the idea that that might be the case.

this was my understanding also, Shepherd is implying that Owens camp have released this and i guess he's trying to pressure the same camp into pledging alliegance to newcastle. Should this fail then i think he's trying to cover his back and paint Owen as looking for a move rather than other clubs trying to get him.

On a slightly honest note why would he leave for us. The clubs are similar, he's likely to be playing for one of the most respected managers in the game, Newcastles aims for next season are likely to be very similar to ours and im not sure that we would match his wages.......If only he could read the generals thread

dont think we'll get SWP, had a good finish to the season at Chelsea and already turned us down once. He'll stay and fight for his place.

i do think if woodgate leaves and doesnt go to a top 4 side then he will quite possibly stay at boro. They've never really been short of money and hes a boro lad. Said he cried when asked to captain them this year. Dont get me wrong, id love him but just think hes more likely to stay at boro

General

Its very possible something is in place already with the transport group being setup but would it be possible for villa to look at displaying information about transport delays during the game. For instance last night myself (and im sure a number of other villa fans) spent the best part of an hour sat on the M5 as road works had been put in place. I realise that as a responsible driver i should have checked these things etc but a general announcement at half time or full time about any road closures, roadworks on main roads or train delays would be greatly welcomed by myself and im sure others.

Keep up the good work

ps if your worried about villa related stress you should see my cousin, he's early 20s and the greyest man i know.

You mean you didn't go on the outside of the queue right up to lane closure bollards - saved 45 mins!

whilst i certainly considered this and cursed every driver passing me, this was quickly stopped by the lorry driver in front of my who decided to block both of these lanes and travel at the same speed as the inside lane.

General

Its very possible something is in place already with the transport group being setup but would it be possible for villa to look at displaying information about transport delays during the game. For instance last night myself (and im sure a number of other villa fans) spent the best part of an hour sat on the M5 as road works had been put in place. I realise that as a responsible driver i should have checked these things etc but a general announcement at half time or full time about any road closures, roadworks on main roads or train delays would be greatly welcomed by myself and im sure others.

Keep up the good work

ps if your worried about villa related stress you should see my cousin, he's early 20s and the greyest man i know.

General Krulak here:

2. We are getting very close to the release of the new badge...it will be accompanied by a full description of all the new sinage around Villa Park and Bodymoor heath as well as down to the detail of what the stationary will look like. The info will be provided to all "fans" of the Villa. My sense is it will come during the month of April.

not a big point general but somethng i noticed, was looking at the pics of the training ground, all very impressive but one of the pictures showed the new shower rooms with the old crest emblazened on the tiles.

forget the partnership, just get olof in on his own, he's trys to win every tackle and header himself anyway. playin just one centre back will also support the 5 strikers were now playing in every game

for 18 million i would want one of the top strikers in europe. this is not bent. i do wonder if we had slapped a 12 mill bid in at the start of the window if we'd have been successful. charlton cant sell now, they have no time to find a replacement.

on another note id be shocked if we got ashton, i expect curbishly to try and buy bent and maybe he'll be successful. would think he would look to partner the two. West ham have got money and are looking at a potential relegation battle. who in their right mind would sell the striker they have so badly missed. to get ashton in january you would have to pay massivly over the odds.