thegiddygambler

I always ask noses, when this subject comes up the following questions. If SHA are the true Birmingham club, how come Villa constantly get higher gates than SHA? Lets say what they say is true, does that mean that Brummies don't like football, or do they just not bother going? How come only 23kish of the 1 million Brummies only turn up to watch the club that carries the City's name?

I'm a Brummie. Although I now live in the North East, my roots are in Erdington, Stockland Green, Nechells and Saltley. My family are almost exclusively Villa, and that goes back years. The utter shite SHA spout about Villa fans being 'carrot munchers' or made up of fans from satellite towns makes me laugh. Go back and look at the history of the two clubs. Look who has had the highest gates over the years. Even when they've been in a higher division than us, we always have bigger gates. Even back when it wasn't as easy to travel to watch football. Are you telling me those gates were made up of supporters from towns around the West Midlands, and that Brummies wouldn't follow Villa, because they don't carry the name of the City?

It's just a fallacy that SHA love to trot out, to give them something to deflect from them being a tin pot outfit, with nothing to really feel proud about.

I can remember looking up attendance figures for the 2 clubs a good while ago. Incredibly, they did ONCE, yes one season only, achieve a higher average attendance than Villa! I believe it was in the 70s.

Correction: in the early 70s they enjoyed a higher gate at least one season, we were a division below them at the time I believe. Source: European Football Statistics website

Aint this been done on here before?

Yeah I can remember starting a thread on this about a year ago.

There's a lot of myths about Villa being the middle class club. It's generally inaccurate. For example, an independent study found BCFC fans attending matches were on average on higher salaries than those going Villa Park. Though admittedly, that can also distort things as higher ticket prices at the sty would exclude poorer fans from attending.

One thing we can say which is generally accurate is that:

North Birmingham = Villa

South Birmingham = Blues

Though with Villa being the bigger club, the picture is not so obvious in South Birmingham! UTV, SOTC

agree too General, we need DYNAMIC leadership from the club's hierarchy!

I was all for giving GH a chance this summer but I feel it has now largely become yet another unmitigated disaster. For it to drag on another month is too long. Of Course we have to be mindful of Gerard but the club need to make an announcement as to whether he is staying on before the Liverpool game!

General,

Please take a look at the Manchester City Facebook page. They've got a landing page (if you've not pressed 'like') where you can suggest the page to your Facebook friends. It would be beneficial for the Villa official page to have one of those set up on ours... they have 587,000 fans and we have 170,000.

Thanks

Yes this is a very good observation General. Make sure whoever does the internet side at Villa is alerted to this. We're ten times the club Man City are!

No way should they have so many more fans on facebook!

Loving the white socks General. Not happy about the lack of a collar though. I haven't been able to do a collar up Cantona properly since the 1996 AST computer kit!! That kit got us 4th place, a league cup and a fa cup semi final so don't knock it. We'd give our eye teeth for that now.

A class kit is powerful, 92/93 was our best kit ever and we finished runners up!

hopefully will get the message across

Think you may be ok with that. Hardly a riddle youve written :winkold:

What exactly does it mean?

Hi General.

Do we have an exact figure of what the capacity of Villa park will be once the North stand renovation work is completed? If not what is it estimated figure likely to be?

Cheers and UTV.

Good Question! I so hope that its a total rebuild! I Randy wants any inspiration for a top stadium with 4 different looking stands tell him to have a look at Ibrox.

Leeds East Stand is a beauty too! UTV

General can I take the word "renovation" to imply that North Stand plans have been scaled down and we won't be totally rebuilding it to create a sort of "flagship" stand if you like? Many thanks

500 + views and half a dozen responses implies some relevance to the C&B cause! UTV

Complete accidents I'm sure but quite funny nonetheless.

1) BBC piss poor rival to Soccer Saturday put on screen

BENT 37 (og) West Ham 2 Villa 0

2) Sky Sports News bottom right of screen headline

WEST HAM beat ASTON VILLA

Bizarre!!!!!!!!!!!!

General as one of those that turned up for the singalongavilla on Monday and watching the video a thought cropped up. In the old days after each line of the bells and ringing some used to chant 'Clarrie Blue, Clarrie Blue'(and some did on Monday too)

This name was given in the 60's to the cartoon Villan used by the club. There were badges etc where this character was adopted for. Could the club give a thought to reviving this image of the villain?

I know it is used by one of our rival websites but this image is related strongly to the club and the song

Cheers

as seen here see top left page 2

Agree with this post, I've also thought that in previous years/decades we've promoted Clarrie Blue possibly more than any other club. The badges were until very, very recently still on sale by the club. Bring C&B back!

Your reply to ourselves was sensible General thank you. I guess I'll never know why he did it, in my truly honest opinion it wasn't the actions of somebody in full control of their faculties. I gie the man credit for an improved style of play but some of his decisions, Villa at Anfield for example, are off the radar!

This is his last big payday "I'll do whatever I want!"

Don't ask Villa fans General if they think his team tonight was CRACKERS ask the ITV pundits on television who couldn't stop talking about it. He has disgraced us, and we've gone out the cup with a whimper. I've never been so angry with a Villa team selection/raise the white flag exercise!

GUTTED

His support is rock bottom once more. Not due to the defeat but due to the inevitability of it when we drop all our star performers. It's like United turning up with Rooney, Berbatov, Nani & Vidic on the bench and wondering why they lost.

I voted yes by mistake, should have read it more carefully! So that's another NO then. GET RID! We aint a 8th-12th club like he has stated!

GH is now living on borrowed time. I was all for backing him but something has snapped. Too many incorrect decisions are being made.

I have no doubt we'd have beaten Blues at home with a 4-4-2, the line up was farcical. The way he behaved on Monday was disgusting, a lot of people haven't got two half pennys to rub together at the moment yet multi-millionaire GH chooses to ignore them and the financial sacrifice they've made to worship at the kop end. DISGUSTING!

General you may be aware that talksport is a national radio station in this country. It is not just Villa fans solely who are raising concerns. The presenter on talksport has just had a phone in debate and said "Former European Champions, Aston Villa, shouldn't be treated like that. He has insulted Aston Villa."

The presenter was refering to GH waxing lyrical about Liverpool when he is visiting as Aston Villa manager. I have NEVER, EVER before called for a Villa manager's head so soon after he has taken over but for once I'm gonna have to. Please feedback to Randy that GH is losing the fans rapidly and a lot of it of his own making, irrespective of results on the pitch!!!

Hi General,

What is the latest with the stadium development?

Will we go ahead with our stadium capacity increase despite losing the World Cup bid?

Merry Christmas

Up the Villa

Yes I'd love to know this too General, I can't wait for the North Stand redevelopment!!! Thanks & Merry Xmas!

I missed the first 15 minutes of the game, by the time I got into the ground we were already 1-0 down. I knew from the moment I got roped into walking to the ground and into the ground with the Villa "firm" numbering in the hundreds. As I made my way down from the White Tower pub where we were parked literally dozens of police vans sped up the road ahead of us, I thought something must have been kicking off further up the road but it turns out this was to prevent the mob which I hadn't yet seen following me up the road from clashing with the Blues fans who were waiting by the away fans entrance. After getting caught in with the mob and making numerous pleas to the Police to let me out of the escort/group (or idiots as I called them) as things were not looking great, it was clear thiese lads were up for it and getting lairy towards Police and any nearby Noses which led to a number of baton charges by the cops a a few arrests. I was scared by this point, I made it clear to the Police I had no intent of being with the hooligans and I just wanted to watch the game but it fell on deaf ears. I don't know where this lot came from but it was obvious who and what they were from the start with scarfs (and union jacks flags to cover faces) and hoods being donned. The Police told us the kick off had been delayed but surely this was just to keep the mob happy as I found out they wanted to wait for all the fans to be inside the ground before escorting the firm in.

After the final whistle, just to clarify, it was a Villa flare as I saw the person who lit it but and the away end was trashed with broken seats (thrown at the SHA fans on the pitch and in the stands next to us) and the toilets were traditionally smashed to pieces. I was disgusted with the behaviour of both sets of fans and after it had finally died down and we made our way slowly and with a massive Police escort out of the ground, under siege from bricks, bottles, coins and snowballs with god knows what in them. After an hour wait/march we were finally allowed to disperse, one of the worst nights of my life, I will never return to the Sty, because thats what it truly is...

This footage shows the flare coming in from outside the ground. It is from the away end car park so yeah it was Villa who threw it.

Got to 3 mins 15 seconds.

General Krulak here:

1. avillafan.com: I can assure you that I am looking at the same tables you are looking at. So is everyone at Villa Park and Bodymoor Heath. I could go into a million reasons for our current situation but I would say that injuries are at the top of the list. GH has done a masterful job of trying to negotiate our Club's way thru these times and we need to applaud him AND the lads for what they are doing. Randy has ALWAYS backed his Manager and will do so again.

2. wi-fi on the grounds for ST holders. Not sure how it would work but....I will ask if it is possible.

3. Free printing remains....and if you get there and buy a shirt in the Club shop and they won't do it, tell them that I directed you to the Club shop and told you that they would do it. There should be no problem is you do it in the next few weeks.

4. thegiddygambler: Let me get on this again...my second time.

thank you General

General why have you not responded to myself and a number of other posters pointing out that the club are the 4th "most decorated" club in this country?

The site is factually wrong

http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/HistoryHonours/

Chelsea are miles behind us and have never been champions of Europe.

Spurs have won more fa cups, just 1 more than us, but we've won more leagues, league cups nd they've never been champions of Europe.

Everton have won more leagues than us, just 2 more, but we've won more fa cups. We've won 5 league cups to their zero and they've never been champions of Europe.

Trophy count

VILLA: 20

EVERTON: 15

SPURS: 17

CHELSEA: 14

General, We are in fact the 5th best team in top flight football.

Pld W D L F A Pts

1 Liverpool 3792 1756 946 1090 6224 4625 5060

2 Arsenal 3792 1696 983 1113 6220 4803 4962

3 Everton 4176 1704 1031 1441 6543 5838 4890

4 Man U 3436 1611 851 974 5897 4466 4726

5 Villa 3842 1591 904 1347 6379 5702 4492

Oh c'mon any stat that only covers league results, not trophies or even the league trophy, plus places Man Utd in 4th place is clearly flawed!

We're the FOURTH most successful club in this country by a country mile! Get it changed General ASAP, how the hell did the club get it wrong in the first place?

General why does the official club website say that we are the FIFTH most decorated club in English football history? Man United,Liverpool & Arsenal yes! But what over club deserves to rank above us??

None from what I can see. Only Everton have won more championships but trail miles behind in terms of FA, League Cup and European Cup success. Thank you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_football_clubs_in_England_by_major_honours_won

If Randy again isn't too fussed about sponsorship money why doesn't he just go with MITA COPIERS??? Just for retro purposes!

I spoke to a guy at the bus stop earlier. He was head to toe in villa kit and I do genuinely thgink he was telling the truth when he said he works in the warehouse at villa village. He helps out voluntary now apparently and originally started helping out there as some part of benefit/back to work programme.

He told me "on the quiet" that Cadbury's were going to be our new sponsor. Anyway, seeing as I'd love this to be true, I was inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. He did see a bit simple tho to be fair. Anyway, seeing as it is now in American hands thru Kraft I didn't actually think Cadbury's being our sponsor was that far fetched. I suppose it would be a good marketing exercise for a Birmingham based company to sponsor a local Birmingham football club.

HOWEVER, I think I'll have to dismiss it as total nonsense from this chap. Why??? Not long after he informed me MON is looking at bringing Juan Pablo Angel and Milan Baros back!!!! :shock: :shock: :shock:

Happy Birthday General, hope you are well.