The Fun Factory

13 hours ago, thabucks said:

Do we expect they will be going ahead with the trinity road halfway lounge and that it will get a sponsor? From the accounts I expect a lot more branding in and around the stadium.  

And here is what we could have won......

Sigh

I will grumble about the almost certain price hikes but will renew. 

It would be nice to feel valued rather than an opportunity to pass on costs whilst not improving off-pitch facilities unless you are willing to pay even more money to them.

I know that sounds very old-fashioned and naive as the club long term wants more fans, who come less regularly, and are willing to pay far more for the experience than I would.

14 hours ago, Brumstopdogs said:

 

Hah I remember that one. I was watching  it on tv and went out for a walk at half time in a huff, only to find out we creamed them in the second half. Second trip to Wembley in two months with the same result sadly. 

We are better than this lot and we will win this one. 3-1 to the Villa.

Any reason why this at 1pm not 2pm?

6 minutes ago, bickster said:

He jumped before he was pushed, he was a Tory in the Labour Party, the only reason he kept getting elected was he was the Labour candidate. He was absolutely getting deselected by the local party anyway.

He was once named by the Telegraph as the 100th most influential right winger in the UK. The Tories tried to get him to defect to them but he refused

He was a Tory with a red rosette

The point that I was making is that he had a 20,000 majority at a seat he had held since 1979, and once he left the party the majority of the votes followed Labour, not the person.

Do a chelsea and sell Coutinho and Hause for a combined 30 million and get away with it.

I was a bit surprised he was given a start. Emery clearly has him part of his long term plans. It is an exciting opportunity for him to progress as a player.

39 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said:

I assume it’s a case by case basis, but as a general rule of thumb, is it better or worse for a party if a mp stands down?

I know if they’re standing down it’s likely not good, but I’m just wondering how much, if any, sting it takes out of a potential defeat for the party in that constituency.

Because people might have felt “You know what I’m looking forward to? Giving Raab a (metaphorical) kicking on election night. That’s gonna be sweeeeeet.” And then he says he’s quitting and people might feel less inclined to give fresh faced Tory the same (metaphorical) kicking.

I don't think it makes the most difference as people overwhelmingly vote for the party, or more accurately the leader of it, rather than the individual.  This is often shown when for whatever reasons an existing MP resigns from their party to run as an independent and then almost always loses. Like Frank Field last time when he was actually a brexit supporter in a leave consitutency but still lost once he got thrown out of the patry.

He scored the winner when Roma won the Conference a few years ago. A repeat performance would be nice.

15 minutes ago, Adam2003 said:

Good line in the Guardian match report:

”The problem with setting the bar so high, as Villa have done this season, is the average performances feel anaemic.”

Or the caviar/sausage line, as Wenger used to say.

Every time I feel slightly disappointed I just remember when we lost at home to Barnsley in the championship with 28,000  in attendance.

2 hours ago, MapleVilla said:

Ye I was wondering that as well. If they have been scrapped then surely we bid for the hosting in the Euro's based on upgrades to the stadium?

Well we are in a better position than Northern Ireland and the Casement Park proposal which looks like cloud cuckoo land.

A good experience for him. He will learn.

Ouch. Unless they do a Shef Wed V Wycombe job in the second leg.

If we win the second leg then nobody will care this was a non-event. Next week should be a cracker.

In Unai we trust. The grand master of european ties.

Well we haven't done a Brighton in the first leg and Emery must have thought  a draw was on the cards given the line up.  We should be strong favourites for the home tie. It would have been nice to blow them away in the first leg but football isn't as simple as that. We got to dig deep now for the next two games.

3 minutes ago, Villa_Vids said:

So what is the current plans for VP? Adding a few thousands seats to the seating bowl, doubling the club shop in size, converting the academy building into the warehouse, establishing a better traffic system and waiting for news on the redevelopment of Witton Station. This seems to be the short term plan.

The club have played a blinder getting VP as a Euro 2028 venue without the major construction that was planned (if the North Stand isn't redeveloped), which is very frustrating to me as I liked the ideas and the symbol of progress it represented. I don't think the pause is solely on Heck, I think it would have been delayed by Purslow or whomever replaced him too.

Is it possible they will redevelop the North Stand before EURO 2028?

 

Pre Heck announcement the redevelopment was supposed to take 2 years. And for the euros and stadium work is supposed to be finished at least one year before the tournament starts. Therefore in theory we have until May 2025 for a no/no-go situation.

7 minutes ago, Mozzavfc said:

This is the part I don't get. He'll lose again this year, and then what? Do they continue to stick a 2 time loser. There's no way Trumps ego will allow someone to take over from him, so do they just continue on this merry go round until he's literally too old to continue 

I think the rest of the western world hopes the republican party recovers their sanity to go back to being a centre right party again.

1 hour ago, Talldarkandransome said:

Unbelievable Jif

I always feel that you need a good clean after coming back from Amsterdam.

There is going to be a lot of sound and fury and it will be the most depressing US election campaign in history, but ultimately Trump will lose yet again to a doddery Biden. He has failed to win the popular vote in two elections and the midterms were dreadful for him. Plus the economy is doing ok. If Biden was 70 instead of 80 he would be creaming him. As usual, it will go down to about half a dozen swing states with about 500,000 voters deciding the future of Western democracy, so no pressure then. The alternative  doesn't bear thinking about.

6 hours ago, TheStagMan said:

Is he in witness protection?

 Right after I got here I ordered some spaghetti with marinara sauce and I got egg noodles with ketchup.
 

Wouldn't it be nice if the shirt, crest, and new sponsor were all announced by the end of the season, with shirts on sale by early summer?

As far as I remember that has never happened at Villa, it's always late.

Been a been a bit of a frustrating season for him. He really hasn't had the minutes with Watkins so important to the team and then being injured for the last two months. He has played less than full 2 games in minutes in the premier league this season and has still got two goals, but has only one goal since September in all competitions. The boro game was particularly disappointing as it was a rare start and he did very little. Stil he is only 20 and could play a cameo role for us in the run in.

28 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

Budgets have been leaked for 15-20 years now, the budget Purdah hasn't been a thing since, to borrow a phrase from the last 4 PMs, "the last Labour government"

Just makes the whole thing a further utter irrelevance and the supposed sanctity of parliament is a myth. The reduction on nonprotected departments is insane. Local government will now have had a 20% reduction in spending this parliament alone and just yesterday the biggest council in the land has had to hack £300 million out of its budget. But its a labour council so it's all their fault.  The usual screw you approach.

38 minutes ago, ml1dch said:

 

That's helpful. Shall we not bother with the actual speech now as it is all relayed to the press 48 to 24 hours beforehand?

They claim they are working to net zero and freeze fuel duty again while every other western European country are miles ahead of us in EV charging points.

Public services are on their knees and they are planning yet another effective cut yet again. It's a total joke of a morally bankrupt government.  In the name of god go.