mikeeed1977

A tremendous win tonight General. Well done to all involved and a fantastic response to what has been a tough few weeks. I'm really surprised that your response to Pilchards post was not given the front page treatment that it should have. Surely, mods, it's only fair that in any good debate there should be a right to reply and that right to reply be highlighted as prominently as the original post? The excuse that the General's response isn't long enough to warrant front page exposure is pretty embarrassing given that there is at least one article currently on the home page with less words than the Generals reply (Habib Beye signing). So, although not a direct question to the General my question to Villatalk is why hasn't his reply been given the same prominance as the original post? Surely in the interests of balance this is only fair?

My sincerest condolences to you and your family General. The thoughts and support of all of your Villa family are with you at this sad time.

Superb article. Its all too easy to get lost in the day to day minutae and get bogged down in "Barry this..." or "new signings that.." But its sometimes great just to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. This club is in a great place at the moment. Its the envy of most and the pride of a very lucky few. So I'll echo Blandy's comments. Thank you Randy, General, MoN et al... you really do have something to be proud of here.

Hi General, Last point on this I promise! Re: the idea of a Swedish flag. Yes, the fans are the key and I'm sure we'll send him off in style. I just thought the flag would be that step above anything we could organise between us. It doesn't have to cost the club any money potentially. Perhaps your commercial team could approach Ikea and get them to sponsor this tribute. They cuold get branding on the back of each card and have some special 10% (or more!) discount for all Villa fans when presenting the card at Ikea. Its a perfect synergy for them. I believe Ikea have just celebrated their 21st Birthday so it's an ideal team for them to market themselves and what a great way to do so! Anyway, I'll stop now! Thanks,

If a certain well known beer brand made football matches, Sunday would've been it! General, I too would just like to echo everyone's feelings regarding the game and atmosphere on Sunday. It was a special day that will live long in the memory and YOU should take some credit for this. Without you guys galvanising... no SAVING this club there is no way Sunday would have played out the way it did. You mentioned how great it was to see Ollie soluting the ground as he left the pitch. This has definitely assured him the legendary status he deserves at Villa. As such I would love to see the club give him the send off he deserves. I know the fans are doing lots of stuff themselves for the Wigan game but is there a chance that the club could perhaps put colour coded cards on the seats in the holte end so that when Ollie comes out the Holte End turns into one giant Swedish flag. This would be awesome and it would be great if we kept it a secret from him. I would love to see his reaction to this! Thanks again General!!

NewYorkVilla, I'm so sorry to hear of your loss. Your e-mail was beautifully written and is, in itself, a fitting memorial to your Dad. Its yet another example of how much this club means to us all. I can't help but think about my Dad when reading this as I (like many others on this site I'm sure) can share similar stories about how, despite all of life's ups and downs, Villa has always been the shared constant in our relationship and always will be. Which is another reason why I'm so proud of what you, General, have done with this club. Football is not like any other "business", its more than that and it always will be. This is why I'm so grateful for your handling of the club so far. It would be great if you could scatter the ashes on/ around the pitch. In addition is there a way you can put fan obituries in the match programme (not sure if this is done already, I know it is with former players but fans?). Also, is their a memorial card that the club could send out too signed by the team/ manager/ Randy. This sounds a bit tacky as a write it but it if handled and designed properly I think this could be a really nice gesture from the club to its ever loyal fan base. Thanks and best wishes NewYorkVilla

Hi General, Seasons greetings to you and all the team at Villa and thanks again for bringing the feelgood factor back to us all. Its truly amazing to be part of whats going on at our club! I just wanted to ask if there are any special Villa related "experiences" I could get for my Dad. Its his Birthday on the 5th Jan. He has been a Villa fan all his life and a season ticket holder since he was a boy (over 50 years). He's supported Villa through thick and thin. Its always been, and continues to be, his one true passion in life (much to Mum's bemusement at times!). One of my earliest memories in fact was of him coming home from Rotterdam in '82. Sadly, as I was only 5 at the time I didn't quite grasp the enormity of the experience he went through. I'm pleased to say though that he, like many other people on this site shared the whole story of that day (and many others) with me last season at the Sheffield United game. For it was on that day that the enormity of what Randy and you guys have done to my club finally sank in to me. Suddenly my Dad's passion had been re-ignited again for the club he has always loved. A passion that, whilst always burning inside, had flickered lamely for so long over the previous few years of stagnation and regression. My Dad retired this year and whilst he'll continue go to every (home) game at the club with my Uncle (and me!) as he has done for the past 50 odd years, I'd just really like to give him something that little bit extra for his Birthday this year. I've bought him the match day experiences before (and a paving stone by the Trinity!) which have been excellent but I was wandering if there's anything more "personal" that I could buy him from the club? If you could point me in the direction as to who to speak to I'd be eternally grateful! Thanks again General. All the best!

For me, its everything about the club from the top down. There was a stench of apathy and down right misery about the entire club just over a year ago. The club was slowly rotting away. Suddenly, within a year, there is a fresh vibrancy in everything we do as a club. Everything we're doing seems to have a positive intent to it. Finally there are professional people running the club properly and sensibly. Although we're still not there on the pitch, we all know that the aims of everyone in the club is the same. They all want success. I've always been proud of my club but its just on another level at the moment.

Thanks for the reply. Its clear that the club are taking this serious which is fantastic and there has been some tangible improvements already in this field. I guess my observation was more along a customer service line really. I dont think there's ever going to be a perfect solution to speeding up of the half time food/ drink process. Its a fairly unique problem to solve- thousands of people all wanting the same thing very quickly. So I can totally understand and accept the fact that whatever the club does I will still have to queue a bit for some refreshment. The frustration yesterday was that, having waited all that time I was then not allowed to buy a soft drink and the abrupt nature in which I was told this only compounded my frustration. This couldve been solved by a simple sign saying "dont queue here unless you want to buy alcohol", or having someone stopping people joining the back of the queue becuase they know that the hatch will be closing in 5 mins etc... It was the lack of information and abrupt communiction that I was more disappointed with.

Hi general, Great win yesterday. Not sure if my heart can take many more of those though! Apologies for this slight moan as I am totally delighted with everything you guys have done so far but in the interests of improving on what great progress you've made so far I wanted to give you some feedback on a poor experience I had at the game yesterday. I'm a season ticket holder in the trinity middle. At half time I went to get a drink. I queued up at the "express drinks" lane.... for 10 minutes!! Wasnt quite as express as I'd hoped. Nevertheless I persisted. When I got to the front of the queue it was obviously close to the start of the second half. I was then abruptly (and quite rudely) told by a female steward that this area was closed as it was only for purchasing alcohol an that licensing states they must close the area. I explained I only wanted a soft drink but she said they only serve alcohol in this express lane. This was untrue as people in front of me were buying soft drinks for the 10 minutes I was there. I then had to go and queue again on another line which was taking a long time too. I decided not to bother but on my way back to my seat saw that your bar was still open and ended up getting my drink from there. This didnt seem right as surely if you had to close one area because of your alcohol license then the other one should close at the same time shouldnt it? I guess my question is, how can you make this process easier to get a drink at half time? I liked the idea of the express drinks lane but it didnt work for me yetserday. There was also no signage there to say that "this lane closes 5 mins before kick-off" or "alcohol only lane" or something to that effect so at least I could've had more warning. Theres nothing more frustrating than queueing patiently only to be told to clear off when you finally reach the front. Is there room for drinks machines in the concourse or people wandering around the concourse with drinks (a la most american sports) for sale? As I say. its only a minor niggle and I'm sure it was made all the worse by the fact we were 1-0 down at the time (!) but in the interests of improving everything we do I thought you'd appreciate the feedback. Thanks general and keep up the good work!

Hi General, I notice on the (awesome) artwork you've done for the new kit launch that you have used "we start today" as a strap-line/ positioning statement. I was wandering if you could shed any light on the meaning behind this message. Is is specifically related to the kit launch or is it more of a universal statement of intent from the club as a whole? Is there a particular "day" in mind when "we" start from and if so does this mean that our kit launch will be a pretty special one?! Thanks.

Hi general, This may have been brought up before but on the back of last weeekends awesome atmosphere and the subsequent comments from the players it became totally apparent how much the positive atmosphere influenced the performance of the team. Its surely therefore imperative that we try and replicate this atmosphere as often as we possibly can next season and truly become that "12th man" that can make all the difference. I know this is largely results driven, but not exclusively. Fans play a massive part in the success (or otherwise) of their club and personally speaking I do think that this is an area that Villa fans (all of us) need to improve on. Much of this will happen naturally as there is such a good feeling running throughout the club but i was just wandering if the club have any further plans to help with this? The scarf day was awesome. How about flag day's, Paul McGrath days etc... I had a thought about creating an exclusive "Villa Voices" club whereby the club embarks on a search to find 200 ultimate Villa fans who want to joing this club. Perhaps you could run the search on the OS and encourage people to tell us (Villa) why they deserve a place in this exlusive club. You then pick your top 200 people give them all a pair of season tickets for an area in the ground free (presumably the Holte). They then become Villa's exclusive fans in charge of making the match day atmosphere one to savour. You could task them with coming up with new chants for the club and make them aware that membership can be revoked if they dont improve the atmosphere! I'm pretty sure that atmosphere will be 100% better next year but this might just be a way of the club helping to give it even more of a nudge in the right direction!

Hi general, I have been a regular visitor to this site over the years but this is my first official comment! I thought now was the best time to post my heart-felt thanks to you and the new regime at Villa at the end of what I'm sure history will view as THE watershed season in the history of this great club. I have been a passionate villa fan since my dad first took me to VP at a tender age. I am a regular season ticket holder sitting with my dad and uncle who have been going since they too were kids. I cant describe how difficult it has been to see this great club I love slide into the abyss over the last years. Its been heartbreaking. I can also barely describe how, within a year, Randy, Martin, you and all the other guys at the club have completely transformed my club around into a thriving passionate and exciting club who's future looks so much brighter than it has done in the last 25 years. Nowhere was this better articulated than at yesterdays game. It was a truly memorable day for me and will go down as one of THE best Villa park experiences. Everything felt right about yesterday. From the excitement about the game days before (a feeling I can't remember feeling in such a long time) to having a few drinks with my Dad and mates before the game, discussing enthusiastically who we may or may not sign in the summer right through to arriving at the ground, being given our scarf and getting to our seats to see a Villa Park packed to the rafters with 42,000 equally happy fans. Seeing the team from '82 finally getting the ovation that has been so long overdue was incredible. I was with sitting with my Dad who was lucky enough to be at Rotterdam that night and the parade brought back all the emotions of that Wednesday night in Holland to him. It was great to hear him talking so passionately again about this club, HIS club, and to hear how much it means to him struck home to me how far Villa had fallen in recent years. The game itself was no less impressive. The shackles seemed to have been lifted and any lingering nerves had long since disappeared from Martin's team. This resulted in some great football and three fantastic goals. All in all yesterday was a day which will live long in the memory for me, but more importantly my Dad who classed it as one of the best Villa experiences he's seen (and he's seen some great days). So, General, Randy, Martin et al, on behalf of me and my Dad, just two of many long suffering fans, thank you for everything you have done so far in such a short space of time. You have finally put some pride and passion back into our unique and special club. This is a club that we have invested so much time, money and emotion in over the years and finally, finally, it seems that Villa is on the way back. Here's to a bright future!