thegiddygambler

General can you please endeavour to get these holte suite doors sorted asap? I was bemused to discover they were shut on the opening day of the season and very quickly learned why and discovered the club were to put new ones in. That was many months ago though, if you sit on the other side of the holte like me it is a nightmare getting over to the trinity side. Thanks Giddy

To the tune of Steve Gerrard Gerrard............... "Super Ashley Young He flys when his name is sung If you mark him you're bound to get stung Super Ashley Young Ashley's quick you know Makes every defence look so slow He's making the Villa grow Super Ashley Young"

General I saw your post re "doors". I presume you are talking about the holte suite? I really hope you can sort this problem asap. For anybody that doesn't know the holte suite WAS open on sunday but you could only enter and exit it from a door right by the turnstile on the trinity rd side of the holte. It had a newly created sign "holte suite entrance and exit". I really hope that isn't going to remain the case. A lot fewer people went in, I am suited by the witton side and had to walk the whole length of the stand to get in. My mates came down later at HT and didn't fancy the walk so I drank alone :cry: Moreover it is just creating a congestion issue if everybody who wants to go there has to walk down to the one side of the stand. A fella on a closed door said it was a "licensing issue". Whatever it is please resolve it! Thank you General

Fair play for continuing to respond to questions on here General. At this time of year and with the perceived total lack of action re signings (for the second summer running) you're going to be answering the same old questions over and over again. I haven't lost faith with MON, he is delivering for us on the pitch big time and I admire and support his refusal to go after players that he can easily attract. That said, we are in a right old mess now IMO. I wouldn't want to be MON at this moment in time. He has got an almost impossible task on his hands now getting all this quality in on time. The number of players we need is TEN at the very very minimum. Our squad size is farcical. MON is either confident or crazy!

Just phoned up to get my intertoto ticket General. To be honest I think its a bit of a liberty to charge me a £1.50 booking fee when all the club need to do is press a button and activate my season ticket card. Don't you think the 15 quid alone should cover the ticket operators wages for "pressing a button"? If the club had to send out tickets through the post then fair enough but charging £1.50 "booking fee" to the fans, who are already putting £15 quid, is a joke.

Are the club having a dvd of our win over Small Heath made? You'll sell thousands!!!!!

Hi General, when is the witton train station and bridge getting its facelift? I thought it was happening in feb? Also, seeing as the holte end now has scaffolding on it are the mosaics imminent? Cheers UTV

changed my mind instantly, I'll plump for number 2. Bit more colourful

Number 3 for me, though I'm not too sure about its longevity if the lads keep playing like they are we'll need a few more trophies on it!

Villa fans definitely damaged the sty (st andrews) General. I'm afraid it happens at every ground in UK when such a derby game is taking place. How do I know it was villa fans? Well when I went use the toilets, which only Villa fans had access to they were flooded. When I was leaving the ground and had to walk down the stairs, bannisters and lightshad been ripped out and littered the stairs. Its a few pissed asbo kids doing it and they are a small minority so don't worry about it. They'll do the same to our ground in April im afraid. Sorry just read you were discussing toilet damage at Ewood Park, not the sty. Yes it is shameful, as is doing it at the sty. Very dysfunctional people.

I'm no architect but I'd say that short of a complete rebuild it would be nigh on impossible to make it a single tier stand. Are you talking about refurbishing the outside general?

This will be my third trip to the sty with Villa and I'll never forget the celebrations after Kev Phillips had netted. Especially Mellberg turning around and looking on in astonishment at the scenes in away end. Roll on sun!

General, it is high time that the club shop in city centre started selling match tickets again! I had to get a ticket for a mate today so had to make the jaunt to Villa Park, I was going into Birmingham city centre anyway so would have been much more convenient. You'd also boost attendances IMO with spur of the moment purchases. Also, I went into the club shop at VP, I bought a nike jumper. the geezer working there, presumably the manager as he had a shirt & tie on hadn't heard anything about this 15% discount so he asked a bird who said it was just for the website only. The club could inform us and save us having to ask such questions, especially when the manager didn't even know. I wasn't sure whether I could get 25% seeing as 10% off with season ticket. Finally, NO changing rooms in the club shop. Not very professional really and I'm certain our hopefully soon to be competitors, The Big Four must have them. So I had to strip off in full view of the staff! :oops: Rant over. These are minor issues, I'm more than happy with the way AVFC is being run!

General, I notice the new club shop in Brum city centre isn't selling match tickets yet, when is this going to be happening? The shops says this is upstairs, at the moment there's a counter up there not in use, there doesn't appear to be much queueing room up there. Most days there wouldn't need to be but I can remember queuing up myself in the "Cave" (the nickname for the previous city centre shop) on days when tickets opened and you'd get at least 25/30 people in the queue on a good day, with two ticket staff tills going. I think they'll be queuing down the stairs and up New street in this new shop! That said, I'm sure things will be sorted out. It is 1000% improvement on the previous city centre shop and I thank the board for this. Enjoy the game saturday!

General, well done for opening the Holte suite at half time for lower holte fans. As I can now have a sit down in there and watch the game on the TV i no longer mind leaving my seat a few mins before half time to get a beer in and beat the queues. The club should have done it years ago! Although the result was disappointing I'm stilll very confident of us doing well this season.

Just to add weight to this request. I ain't bought a Villa video/DVD since I got "The Italian Job" vid way back in 1994 after Inter game but Id 100% get a McGrath DVD as would thousands of others IMO. Please put in a request for this to be done general!

I'm a season ticket holder in the Holte but went in the lower trinity for inter. I thought the service was very poor. I left my seat 5 minutes before half time to get a pint. About ten people already in the queue. When I finally got to the front I asked for a pint of lager, she said they ain't got any and said we have bottles. I said "what" press the button, she called another person over who told her to press the button. It was laughable! So I eventually got my pint, despite being told that they didn't have any. The queue was now massive (not much of drink express lane, as they called it), felt sorry for the folks in it. They need to be pouring about 15 pints just before half time, it would speed things up immensely, its what they've always done in the holte.

Unusual, looking at their latest new kit it seems they've taken to daubing FC across the front of their own shirts. General, I reckon an old fashioned style juke box would go down well in Holte Hotel. Especially if it had Villa classics like Ghostriders in the sky, there's plenty of villa songs to put on it. "Come on you Villa" album by Cherryred Records Ltd 1996 aint bad.

We had similar problems with Asics from what I can remember, not so much the shirts but the other stuff like the long coats, the same one that sub players was often pictured in. Two of my mates had em and the zips just broke off days after buying them, when they took em back to VP the club shop chucked them onto a burgeoning pile of returned sportswear and gave them new ones. The muller logo also used to full off after one wash. My Asics managers jacket was perfectly OK though, I hasten to add.

My own opinion re the hummel stuff was that they were a shoddy, 2nd rate sportswear outfit. For this reason I never bought any avfc hummel kit/training kit. I compensated with 1982 retro track top instead. 8) This coming season I still wont buy the replica kit because I can't stand that cheap 32red logo on the front, however, I'll still buy a new avfc training top/polo shirt because Nike is a quality company. If we'd stuck with hummel I'd leave the training gear on the shelf and stick with the old retro gear like the 1957 shirt etc. Thats just my buying philosophy, I've no idea whether there's others like me or not tbh.

General, I hear that the Holte End is going to get a bit of a makeover. Could you provide us with any snippets of news regarding what will be carried out? And will it be done for the start of the season. Thanks again for allowing the fans to have a window that we can speak to the club through!

Does anybody else think Freddy Eastwood could fit the bill as the 4th striker. Another powerful bloke like Carew, will be delighted to be in the prem so won't rock the boat if not an automatic choice. I think Gabby, Big John and Luke will get us the goals if we can increase the amount of chances we are creating. For me the priorities in order of need are: 1)RB (£5m) 2) CM X 2 (one creative, one holding) £15m 3)Striker (£4-10M) Powerful forward, Eastwood, (Ashton prob out of reach) 4) GK (£3-5m) 5) Back up at left back, central defence (£6m the pair) A total spend of around £40 million!!! I don't want much!

General, watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--9q276zuQA You will bloody love it! 8) 8)

Yeah I agree with you mate. Out of the wardrobe and Reo-Coker its got to be Reo-Coker. Think he's a bit more cultured on the ball.

Thanks General. We, The Mighty Villa are rising like a phoenix from the flames.